Remembering What Jagger Once Was

It’s been nearly five decades since The Rolling Stones helped upend the social order in England and America—so much so that Sir Mick Jagger’s easy acquiescence into the ruling class rankles a lot of feathers, not least among them Keith Richards’. But because the long hair, sullen attitude, frank sexuality, open drug use, and wanton flirtation with devilry that the Stones embodied have seeped so deeply into mass culture, it’s easy to forget precisely what a shocking figure Jagger once was—and that he was, at least for a time, a canny, powerful artist as well as a publicity lightning rod.