According to the Rolling Stones - Hardcover

The first half of the Stones' story has plenty of high drama (tours through the segregated South, Brian Jones's death, Altamont), which no-one seems eager to reflect on deeply. (Watts is the only one even to mention Altamont.) The more recent years have seen a long string of ever-more successful tours and ever-less popular albums, interrupted only by Jagger and Richards' near divorce in the 80s, plus rehab stints for Watts and Wood. While The Beatles Anthologyoffered the surviving members' interpretations of their experiences at a distance of 30 or more years, the Stones are still living the tale they're trying to tell--and they aren't always the most self-aware narrators. Or generous: Wyman's three-decade tenure is given short shrift, but the book finds enough space for some unnecessary digs (Wyman has "tiny hands" we're told and an "almost effeminate" style of playing).

To flesh out the band members' own recollections, the book also contains 13 essays from music-industry friends (Ahmet Ertegun, Marshall Chess), collaborators (Don Was), famous fans (Sheryl Crow, novelist Carl Hiaasen) and even the band's financial advisor for the past 33 years, Prince Rupert Lowenstein. Their views are sometimes fascinating (the unvarnished perspective of Crawdaddy Club owner Giorgio Gomelsky, the well-told stories of art bon vivant Christopher Gibbs), but just as often self-indulgent or sycophantic. Fans looking for an artfully designed volume of photos spanning the Stones' career won't be disappointed. Anyone seeking a comprehensive history of the band may want to wait for the band's definitive biography, which has been attempted many times but has yet to be written. --Keith Moerer