“You Can’t Always Get What You Want” is a gripping rock ‘n’ roll saga that should appeal to anyone intrigued by the true “I Was There” memories. Sam Cutler’s book is not the usual job of cutting and pasting press clippings of a rock journalist, an old-fashioned groupie, or a sycophantic fan. It’s the Real Thing, lucid and well written from a Napoleon-style tour manager’s point of view.

Down-to-earth author Sam Cutler is a historical footnote from the late 1960s. He hired the Hells Angels to provide security at the doomed Altamont concert, where Meredith Hunter’s murder in front of the stage was witnessed in a film by Albert and David Maysles (who were filming “Gimme Shelter”) while the Stones continued to perform.

It is surprising that Cutler has a total memory, due to all the drugs he used during his exhausting days as a band tour manager, the most legendary being the Rolling Stones with whom he spent twelve months on his notorious’ Let It Bleed. ‘tower; and also the Grateful Dead, who became rich and internationally recognized thanks to their efforts.

Cutler’s tome does not focus solely on his role as tour director, but begins before his rock ‘n’ roll career, when he was born illegitimately in a manor house in Hertfordshire during World War II. Therefore, he was placed in an orphanage. and he was adopted when he was three years old, but did not discover his true ancestry until he was fifteen. His natural mother was Irish from a gypsy family who had been abandoned by his father, a Jewish mathematician who later died on active duty in the Royal Air Force.

In the blood of my veins, I was Irish, Gypsy and Jewish! Cutler exclaims, thankful he wasn’t English, but he was a mix of ‘three persecuted races’, and not purebred English like the Cutlers, his Protestant adoptive parents who renamed him Sam (his birth name was Brendan Lyons).

“All I could think about was how grateful I was to be not English and to call me Cyril,” Cutler jokes, illustrating how funny the writer is.

His Communist parents always had music in the house and Sam grew up with “union songs and hymns to Stalin and the Red Army.”

“ One might reasonably think that after countless acid trips and drug-fueled experiences of the sixties, the words of dark political songs would fade from my mind, but to this day they remain haunting reminders of that country. far away that is my past. ” Cutler remembers.

Cutler’s disabled father died when he was eight and when his mother remarried, he was moved to his new suburban home where his own words were, he became a ‘typical teenager’, listened to music and dreamed of going. to California. .

Instead, he became a teacher, ran a folk club, and played guitar.

“I was not so interested in being a performer as organizing shows. Production is a bit like being a general: if you’re going to attack Russia, you need a decent plan! ‘

After he stopped teaching and emigrated to London, he quickly became involved in the city’s psychedelic music scene. After working at the Pink Floyd and Blind Faith free concerts in Hyde Park, the Rolling Stones asked him to be their tour manager after he worked with them on their Brian Jones “memorial” concert in the park. According to Cutler, it was “the largest free concert in England”.

Fortunately for the reader, Sam Cutler vividly recalls the details of his life events, as well as verbatim conversations with his RIP friends such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jerry Garcia. According to Jeff Dexter, who was a well-known DJ in the 1960s, the book has an inaccuracy. In the book, Cutler wrote that there was no sign of him at the Stones’ free concert in Hyde Park.

I was there early and came back, after our resettlement at the Royal Albert, and even joined him in

stage, ” Jeff Dexter recalls.

After Cutler was anointed the Stones ‘new tour manager, he went to Los Angeles with the band and moved into Stephen Stills’ house before the Los Angeles concert, so that the Stones who hadn’t played together for three years. they could rehearse.

“It is a great responsibility to take care of people like the Rolling Stones. There are people who want to get into bed with them and give them the proverbial hug, but there are also people who may want to hurt them. So there are security issues, in addition to making a good base of operations in a foreign country. ‘

When Sam took the stage at the Los Angeles concert and introduced them as “the best rock and roll band in the world,” he was using reverse psychology, trying to get them to really believe it.

After that, Sam used that intro for the rest of the tour, and it’s the first words you hear on “Gimme Shelter.”

Sam Cutler is a humorous writer and manages to constantly present himself as an unselfish, selfless and righteous character, unfazed by the antics of legendary musicians, whose touring lives he cared for around the clock.

While the Stones took their roles as spoiled rock stars for granted, Cutler’s hard work consisted of him having to deal with the tour that involved riot police, groupies, drug dealers and the usual remnants and the waste of parasites. If that wasn’t heavy enough for him, Sam even bought a gun to protect himself as he was forced to deal with the FBI, CIA, and mob figures, all sleeping three hours a night.

After the disastrous Altamont concert, the Stones escaped in a helicopter leaving Cutler as a scapegoat, illustrating how self-centered and selfish musicians are.

There has never been an official investigation into what actually happened at Altamont, but Cutler records for posterity the political buildup of the free concert and the aftermath of the concert, which is at the core of “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

What’s also fascinating about Cutler’s exemplary ‘rock noir’ autobiography is that after the Stones dropped him at the end of Act II of the book, at the beginning of Act III, he effortlessly slid in to work with the Grateful Dead, domiciled in Northern California. Working with this hippy band and their extended family couldn’t have been more different than working with the stylish Stones.

Incredibly, when the Dead asked Cutler to act as their tour manager, they were so in debt that their dire financial situation threatened to wipe out the band. Cutler ended up with a bleeding stomach ulcer caused by stress and hard work monitoring her runs around the clock. And when Jerry Garcia did not appreciate Sam’s heroic work on behalf of the Dead, even though he had helped them become rich and famous internationally, he wished them ‘good luck’ and gave up their lives.

This again perfectly illustrates how self-centered musicians are, even those with hippie credentials. Despite this, the selfless Sam Cutler, who is a fascinating storyteller on a revolutionary slice of rock culture, does not seek revenge through his compelling prose, but instead tells “You can’t always get what you want” as it really was. . He was there!