'Rolling Stones: Views from the Inside, Views from the Outside - 50 Years Pt. 1'

This review is part of a series of reviews of Rolling Stones books that have a 50th anniversary theme.
This is book is available as an eBook only.
"The Rolling Stones: Views from the Inside, Views from the Outside - 50 Years, Part 1" by Hanspeter Künzler is one of the more unusual Rolling Stones "50th anniversary" books that you're going to find because it is essentially an archive compilation of newspaper articles about the Rolling Stones. Since it's an eBook, it can accommodate a lot more pages than a regular binded book. This particular eBook has more than 2,000 pages.
"The Rolling Stones: Views from the Inside, Views from the Outside - 50 Years, Part 1" covers the years 1962 to 1986. "Rolling Stones: Views from the Inside, Views from the Outside - 50 Years, Part 2" is due out sometime in the autumn of 2012, according to the publisher. So that second volume will presumably cover the years 1987 to 2012.
Here is the publisher's description of how the book was compiled:

"After various British publishing houses have opened their archives for The eBook People, they collected old articles, interviews, audio files and images on the Rolling Stones. The articles then were selected, digitalised and transcribed. That way many of the articles are now digitally accessible for the audience for the first time. All of that was put together in a two-part ebook. Part One will feature the first 25 years of the band in 25 single chapters. The same goes for the second 25 years in Part Two. The whole project is edited and introduced by music journalist Hanspeter Künzler."

As for "Part 1," each chapter is divided by year. A chapter begins with a brief summary of what the Rolling Stones did that year, followed by the newspaper archives (which are in transcription form), the author's review of any Rolling Stones albums released that year, and then each chapter concludes with what the author believes to be other artists' "considerable albums" that were released that year.
The publications whose archived articles are in this eBook are from the United Kingdom: the Daily Express, the Daily Mail, NME (New Musical Express), the Evening Standard and the Daily Mirror.
The articles include news reports, feature articles with interviews, and reviews of Rolling Stones concerts and albums. Although the articles are typed transcriptions and don't show the original pages from the newspapers, many of the photos that accompanied the original articles are included. (As expected, they're mostly black-and-white photos.) There are also Getty Images photos placed throughout the book to spice up the layout.
The author's reviews of Rolling Stones albums through the years are comprehensive and well-written. There are separate reviews for the Rolling Stones albums that had a U.S. and a U.K. version.
What's great about this eBook is that it doesn't follow the usual formula of the rest of the Rolling Stones 50th anniversary books, because those other books usually consist of a chronological biography with several photos filling up the majority of the pages.
By contrast, most of the pages in this eBook do not have photos, but in return you get a fascinating look at Rolling Stones history, even if that history is presented by a select number of British publications. Many books about the Rolling Stones have quotes from old interviews that are just a tiny fraction of the interviews. In this eBook, you get to read the entire articles.
There are some articles that will really give a history lesson (especially to people who were too young to know or weren't even born at the time) about what was going on in the culture during a particular year. For example, there's an article from 1965 that reports that Tailor and Cutter magazine made an open plea to the Rolling Stones and other male pop stars to not wear as many open-buttoned shirts and to start wearing more ties to "save tie manufacturers from financial disaster." The magazine implored, “With position comes responsibility." It seems hilarious now, but back then it was a serious matter.
And, of course, in addition to being blamed for things like the "demise" of the tie industry, the Rolling Stones in the 1960s were also blamed for influencing people to commit crimes. The derogatory names that prominent members of society such as judges would publicly call the Rolling Stones would not go over well in today's politically correct climate if today's judges ever tried to blame rock stars for crimes committed by people whom the rock stars don't even know.
This eBook has plenty of newspaper interviews with members of the Rolling Stones, but there are also some interviews with wives/significant others of the Rolling Stones, including a rare interview that Shirley Watts did in 1964, shortly after she and Charlie Watts secretly got married.
Granted, there are limitations to what's presented in this eBook. First is the fact that the only publications included are British. Second, it's only a select number of publications (and many of them are British tabloids), no doubt because there are limitations on what the book is licensed to reprint. American publications such as Rolling Stone magazine or the New York Times would not license entire articles for a book like this. Third (and this is not a bad limitation), if you don't like reading long books, then you will have a very hard time reading this entire book.
But many Rolling Stones fans should enjoy this book because it has articles that most Rolling Stones fans have never seen before reading this book. It's likely that the Rolling Stones themselves haven't seen all of these articles, although they may remember what it was like to be in those articles, based on how they were treated by the media and the public in those days. The Stones certainly wouldn't remember everything they said in those interviews. And that in and of itself makes the book an interesting collector's item. And it is very easy to look through everything because the chapters are in chronological order, and the chapter menu is well-organized.
There are some spelling errors in the book, but those are minor flaws if you consider what you are getting for the low price of having all of these articles in one eBook.
"The Rolling Stones: Views from the Inside, Views from the Outside - 50 Years, Part 1" is available for purchase on Amazon and iTunes.
It will be interesting to see what "Part 2" will look like.