Outrage. The very word. From their very first incarnation as a primitive, gloriously wild R&B group in the suburbs of London (such a delightful irony), the Stones have walked hand in hand with outrage; to the extent, some have claimed, with no little justification, that their contribution to the development of rock has had less to do with their musical achievements than the dizzy splendour of their defiance.

To be sure, the Stones' influence in shaping the course of popular music since their emergence in the early Sixties has not been as considerable as that of their contemporaries (and, as Michael Watts once suggested, alter ego), the Beatles. By nature, the Beatles were eclectic, and, with discrimination, assimilated musical styles and soon-to-be fashionable ideas which did much to establish them as pioneers of musical experimentation.

Conversely, the Stones have—with rare exceptions—been reluctant to create new...