The Altamont concert was doomed before the Rolling Stones' helicopter had a chance to touch down, and it began with the venue. Originally, the Altamont concert was to be held at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, a lush green park full of trees, flowering plants, and wonder. It's a seriously beautiful place, and it would've been an excellent venue for the final free concert at the end of the Stones' 1969 US tour, but the city refused to issue the permits the band needed to perform. That's when good old Melvin Belli, according to The Telegraph, a San Francisco lawyer at the time, scored the tour an alternative location: Altamont Speedway.

The free concert was only announced four days before it was due to take place, and the venue switch occurred 20 hours before the "gates" were set to open. No matter, fans would certainly pour into a free concert put on by a world-famous band who rarely visits the county, and they did. The problem was what spectators saw when they arrived at the venue.

Altamont Speedway, also called "Altamont Raceway Park," was a racetrack devoid of trees or lush foliage, any foliage really. It's open, dreary, and has the feel of an industrial wasteland. Not a great place to put on a show, but the music would surely change that, right? Well, as it turns out, the sound system was garbage too, according to Rolling Stone.

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