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The Most Controversial And Banned Album Covers
Sexism? Violence? Boobs? Bad taste? The world of rock has seen it all. Here are some of the most notable album covers that caused a stir. NOT SAFE FOR WORK!
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1. Guns N'Roses - Appetitie For Destruction
Is heavy metal misogynist? GN'R did nothing to stop such accusations when their debut album appeared with a painting featuring a with its robot rapist (complete with dirty raincoat) attacking a woman. The picture, also titled Appetite For Destruction, was painted by Robert Williams in the mid-1970s and ended up being replaced by the familiar Guns N'Roses logo.
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2. Blur - She's So High
For the band's debut single, painter Mel Ramos depicted a naked girl riding on a hippo… which immediately brought the band accusations of sexism. BAD BLUR.
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3. The Strokes - Is This It
The Americans were frightened of a pair of female buttocks and a slightly fetish-y glove, so the band's debut LP was released in a different sleeve in the US, complete with a non-offensive and really quite horrible abstract pattern.
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4. Green Day - Dookie
For some US retailers, the cover of the trio's breakthrough album was considered "too violent" despite being a mere cartoon!
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5. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland
WH Smiths refused to stock the debut album from Jimi, thanks to its collection of nudy women. Jimi didn't like the cover anyway and the artwork was replaced in the US.
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6. John Lennon And Yoko Ono - Two Virgins
John and Yoko celebrated their sexy love for each other by issuing this baffling album of avant garde noise, complete with a nudy statement of their relationship on the cover. EMI freaked out and the album was given to an indie label to distribute… under a plain brown wrapper.
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7. Suede - Suede
The band's 1993 debut album has a picture of two women kissing on the sleeve. The shot was taken by photographer Tee Corrine and was chosen by singer Brett Anderson because of its "ambiguity". That didn't stop some criticism in the press, although the sleeve wasn't banned.
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8. David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
Sensitive people didn't like the dog's balls on the cover as painted by Belgian artist Guy Peellaert - so they were airbrushed out of initial editions of this classic album's sleeve.
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9. Crystal Castles - Alice Practice EP
The duo's debut EP had a drawing of Madonna with a black eye and caused something of a ruckus when it started appearing on t-shirts too. Aside from accusations of misogyny, the artist who produced the sketch, Trevor Brown, took legal action when he claimed the band hadn't asked permission to use the work. They settled out of court.
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10. The Coup - Party Music
The politically charged LA hip hop outfit were set to release their album Party Music in September 2001… which turned out to be a terrible move as the cover featured band members Boots Riley and Pam The Funkstress stood in front of the exploding Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. What was originally a radical statement on commercial America turned into a horrible lapse of taste once the events of September 11 transpired and the album was issued two months later with a different sleeve.
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11. Nirvana – Nevermind
Record label Geffen were concerned by the appearance of three-month old Spencer Elden's dinkus on the cover of the classic album, but Kurt Cobain would only accept a censorious sticker over the offending part of the image if it read: "If you're offended by this, you must be a closet paedophile."
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12. Steel Panther - Balls Out
Steel Panther's 2011 album sleeve ran afoul of the Advertising Standards Authority in Britain, who said that ads for the record "...was sexually suggestive... where the woman was seen dangling two silver balls between her legs in a way that we considered was suggestive of male genitalia."
