With the release of the album "Sticky Fingers", the first published under his own label on 23 April 1971, The Rolling Stones introduced the world to their famous tongue logo, that through the years became the unmistakable symbol that refers to the popular British ensemble without the need for texts, acronyms or clarifications.

The famous drawing was created by the then art student John Pasche and his immediate association with the irreverence and sexuality that the group sold - perhaps because of its resemblance to the singer's mouth., although that had not been the initial intention- caused it to be adopted as an identity trait that operates almost with the same force as his music.

Fifty years later, Not only is there no other band that can be presented graphically only with a symbol that does not contain the name of the group or its initials, but also that logo of the language is located at the same level of popular recognition as others that represent famous multinational companies.

The story originated a year earlier when Jagger had a first contact with Pasche in order to commission a design for a tour that the band would carry out in Europe., as Diego Perri recalled for Télam, one of the greatest historians and collectors in our country of material on the Rolling Stones and author of the book "Republic Stone".

According to the poster where a ship and a plane appeared as a symbol of the tour, the singer, perhaps influenced by Hindu fashion installed with the advent of hippism, shortly afterwards showed him a poster of the goddess Kali as an example of what he was looking for for a new endeavor: “Jagger wanted a logo like Shell's, that you would know when you saw it what it was about ", Perri pointed out.

Thus arose the famous symbol for which the band paid Pasche 50 pounds, which was included in some VIP invitations to a show that the group gave in March of 1971 at the Marquee club in London, as part of a special for the BBC and that, a month later, was to be used to identify the group's new record label.

“Pasche once said that 50 pounds had seemed like good silver to him because he never thought that design was going to be what it was, that was to become the most significant and important logo in the world, not only talking about bands but at a general level ", recalled the Argentine collector.

Beyond this story, until today there is a general confusion that attributes to Andy Warhol the creation of the image of the language, because the renowned New York pop artist was in charge of the design of the cover of "Sticky Fingers".

Even, the cover photo with the close-up of the closure of a male jean trousers about to open was so provocative and brought so many operational problems on the first release of the album that the image of the tongue went unnoticed at the time of the album's release.

It so happens that that first edition included a true closure that invited to be downloaded with the latent threat that the anatomy of Joe D'Alessandro would be exposed, Warhol's anonymous assistant who served as a model; but it should have been withdrawn from sale because the device scratched in many cases the vinyls that were inside the case.

"In the original edition, on the back cover was a picture of a boxer shorts, but here in Argentina it was launched in association with the Levi's jeans brand, so the logo of that brand appeared when the lid was turned ", Perri commented.

After clarifying that it is actually an isotype and not a logo – as it is usually said- due to the absence of letters, and note that "more irreverent than that image is the cover of the record, for which the opening of that fly is proposed", the musician and graphic designer Javier Veraldi offered, at the request of Télam, some details about the creation of Pasche.

"It belongs to the aesthetics of the moment in which it was made, a time when it was believed that the best design had to be as synthetic as possible, almost pictogrammatic ", The designer commented that from his studio Planta Baja C he created covers since the '90s for countless albums.

And I add: "Now maybe yes because it is very installed, but at the time the image with whom it represented was not so pertinent. That is to say, if you didn't know the band and I told you it was a logo for a toothpaste, it could be. That's good".

In this sense, Veraldi considered that due to his pop imprint he associates drawing more with sounds present in songs like “Miss you” - a nod from the Stones to disco fashion.- than the traditional rocker style of the group. “I associate it more with Lichtenstein's works or with Warhol's Campbell soups, a critique of consumer society ", pointed.

"This image has synthesis. On the other hand, it is provocative by metonymy. Having the tongue out means that there is a movement that is to stick out the tongue. Who sticks his tongue out? What did they say to make you stick your tongue out? And there is also a metaphor because there is no guitar or microphone, as if it were something related to sports, there could be a ball ", analyzed.

At present, the original created by Pasche is in the Museum of Art and Design, London (known as the Victoria & Albert) after having been acquired from its author in 2008, who this time could perceive a figure a little more juicy than in 1971.

"The most curious thing is that Brian Jones, one of the founders of the band, never knew the language logo because it died in 1969. And he was also the member of the group who was most hooked on Hindu fashion ", he commented, in conclusion, Perri.

But as Veraldi remarked, "Logos are made by people" and what happened in these 50 years with the tongue Stone is proof of how a drawing with no more clues than a mouth sticking out its tongue is synonymous with Jagger, Keith Richards and company, and make the riffs of “Satisfaction” ring in the auditory memory, “Start Me Up” o “Honky Town Women”. (TELAM)