The most controversial banned album covers of all time
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. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland
Some stores refused to stock the debut album from Jimi, thanks to its collection of naked women holding Hendrix record covers Jimi himself thought that the photo was crass and the album came out with a photo of the artist himself on the sleeve, when the LP was released in the US. Modern versions of the album feature a nice picture of the Experience, taken by Linda McCartney - which is what it should have sported in the first place.
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2. Guns N'Roses - Appetite For Destruction
GN'R were accused of pure misogyny when their debut album appeared with a painting featuring a robot rapist 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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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. 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 officially banned.
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6. David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
Sensitive people didn't like the blatant testicles sported by the Bowie/dog hybrid 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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7. Nirvana – Nevermind
Record label Geffen were concerned by the appearance of three-month old Spencer Elden's winkie 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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8. The Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet
The Stones' label Decca flipped when they saw the sleeve artwork intended for the band's 1968 album - a grimy photo of a horrendous toilet wall situated in some car dealership in Los Angeles somewhere. Citing reasons of good taste, the album was delayed for weeks before finally arriving in a plain sleeve that parodied a party invitation. The original cover later appearaed when Beegars Banquet was issued on CD for the first time in the 1980s. It was as filthy as ever.
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9. The Beatles - Yesterday And Today
The Fab Four concocted this visual nightmare for an American album as an "art statement". Label bosses freaked out and quickly banned the sleeve by sticking a bland photo of the boys over the top of the original... but fans soon realised you could steam off the replacement. However, so many "butcher covers" have since been "peeled" in the intervening 50 years that the censored sleeve is considered more valuable these days.
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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 provocative statement on capitalist 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.
