The censored version shown here is picked from a single ordinary artwork “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” (2010) by Kanye West “The point was not just to create a menacing image but to cross the line and they did so in a way that exposed Spencer so that they could profit off of it.” The album cover is composed of a collage of artwork. “They were trying to create controversy because controversy sells,” one of his lawyers, Maggie Mabie, told The New York Times. He recently filed a lawsuit against the rock band and is now claiming at least US$150,000 (RM622,000) in damages. At the time, he said he was already torn between the fame that the picture gave him and the feeling of having been exploited as a child. The image has since gained cult status and was recreated by the child who featured in the original cover shot, Spencer Elden, to celebrate the 10th, 17th, 20th and 25th anniversaries of the record. Some people were reluctant to show a baby’s genitals, to which Kurt Cobain replied that they could be covered with a sticker reading “If you’re offended by this you must be a closet pedophile.” This was the case with the cover of Nirvana’s “Nevermind.” The album artwork features a picture of a naked baby, swimming towards a banknote hung on a fishing line.Īt the time of the “Nevermind” release in 1991, the picture was seen as a criticism of capitalism. Some album covers make an impression as soon as they hit stores.
The retouched album cover omits the image of the genitalia, though Spotify persists with the uncensored version “Nevermind” (1991) by Nirvana
We’re using this only to get attention,'” he told Blasting Zone the following year. But then, when we had to do the interviews about it, we said ‘Look, listen to the lyrics and then you’ll know what we’re talking about. The record company guys were like, ‘Even if we have to go to jail, there’s no question that we’ll release that.’ On the song ‘Virgin Killer,’ time is the virgin killer. Shame on me - I should have done everything in my power to stop it,” former band guitarist Uli Jon Roth told Classic Rock Revisited in 2006.įor his part, Rudolf Schenker, blamed the band’s former record company, RCA Records, for this aesthetic choice. Back then I was too immature to see that. “Looking at that picture today makes me cringe. Over the years, members of Scorpions have spoken out several times about the controversial “Virgin Killer” artwork.
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The music press was also not particularly indulgent about the project, with Cracked magazine naming it the worst album cover of all time.
The cover of “Virgin Killer” was censored and replaced by a picture of the six members of the band in some countries. According to the German hard rock band, it was supposedly a representation of the loss of innocence.
One such offering is the artwork for the Scorpions’s fourth album, “Virgin Killer.” This features a 10-year-old girl completely naked, posing in a suggestive way. Rock music often courts controversy, as have some of the genre’s album covers. “The picture was to prove that we are not a couple of demented freaks, that we are not deformed in any way and that our minds are healthy,” the artist explains in “The Beatles Anthology.” “If we can make society accept these kinds of things without offence, without sniggering, then we shall be achieving our purpose.” This is more acceptable version of the album cover, compared to the original work deemed pornographic “Virgin Killer” (1976) by Scorpions For John Lennon, this flop was not so much about the explicit nature of the “Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins” cover photo, but more to do with the physical appearance of its two models.