El Topo’s midnight run served as collective solace amid death and violence

Evidence

El Topo was still packing the Elgin in June when, distribution rights bought from Alan Douglas by John Lennon’s manager Allen Klein, it was yanked in advance of a planned Broadway opening. (As if to mark the end of an era, a few weeks later the Fillmore East closed for good.) Materializing a year after the discovery of the Manson Family, seven months after the killings at Kent State, three months after the death of Jimi Hendrix, and two months after Ice, El Topo served as a form of collective solace. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 1687

Categorization

• XREF: The Fillmore East closure joins the commercial takeover theme — the venue closing correlates with the shift Hoberman traces from subculture to market.