London's Victoria and Albert Museum has announced that it has bought perhaps the most recognizable logo in all of music at an auction in the U.S. -- the original artwork for The Rolling Stones famous "lips" logo, inspired by the Mick Jagger’s pouty mouth. The museum bought the work for $92,500.

The lips-and-tongue logo was designed by London art student John Pasche in 1970, and first appeared on the inside sleeve of the Sticky Fingers album released the following year. Pasche would go on to design posters for several Rolling Stones tours of the 1970’s, and the promotional sticker for Goats Head Soup plus a couple of single sleeves for the Stones.

According to an article in The Guardian, the idea for the logo came when Pasche, a graduate of the Royal College of Art in London, first met Jagger in the Rolling Stones' offices. “Face to face with him, the first thing you were aware of was the size of his lips and his mouth,” Pasche was quoted as saying.

Pasche added that he would use the money from the auction to send his 11-year-old son to private school. Initially paid just £50 for the logo, later when the Stones copyrighted the design Pasche received a share of the royalties’ rights; eventually he sold his share for a lump sum.

Since his early ‘masterpiece’ Pasche has done considerable design work for the record industry including albums, single sleeves and posters for artists such as Paul McCartney, The Stranglers, The Vapors, David Bowie, Judas Priest, The Who, the Bay City Rollers, the Art of Noise and Jethro Tull.

When I was a kid my dad surprised me one day when he told me that his two favorite guitarists, hands down, were T-Bone Walker and Roy Buchanan-- two mostly obscure blues guitarists whose lofty talents are usually held in awe by only record collectors and guitar geeks. You would have thought my dad was a blues musician or at least someone with a passion for obscure vinyl … well, no, he just digs music -- he always said he was too busy working, customizing hotrods in those halcyon days of the 1960’s to be anything but a just a fan, but he does play a mean "Malaguena" from the Suite Andalucia by Ernesto Lecuona on classical piano.

Anyway, T-Bone Walker’s most famous number was "Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just As Bad)." His other classic recordings include "T-Bone Shuffle" and the brilliantly understated parable, "Let Your Hair Down, Baby, Let's Have a Natural Ball."  Walker lived to be a reasonably old man, especially by blues standards, passing away in 1975 at the age of 65. Unfortunately, Roy Buchanan’s life didn’t get that distance.  

20 years go today, Roy Buchanan was found hanging in his cell in the Fairfax County Jail in Fairfax, Virginia, by his own shirt, shortly after being arrested and soon after being placed in a holding tank. Buchanan had been picked up by the police earlier in the evening for public intoxication. Though he had a long history of drunken, restless and destructive behavior, many of his fans, friends and family have always doubted the suicide verdict of his death. He was 48.

Countless aficionados in the guitar world have long considered Roy Buchanan one of the finest and most overlooked guitarists of the blues-rock genre. According to legend, Buchanan's soulful and fiery skills led him to being invited to join the Rolling Stones in the late 1960’s. In 1971 Roy Buchanan found his greatest public exposure in an hour long Public Television documentary appropriately titled The Best Unknown Guitarist in the World. For a moment he was famous and in demand, signing a multi-record deal with Polydor. His 1972 self-titled debut contains one of Buchanan's best-known tracks, "The Messiah Will Come Again." Here’s some live footage of that song from a German television show in the early 80’s.