BANNED!!! Album covers that were censored, banned, changed..

Name or post pictures of some covers that were banned, changed, altered, etc. The idea came to me when discussing the Alice Cooper - Love it to Death cover that was banned because Alice's thumb could have been mistaken for a penis in the picture.

Another that comes to mind.
ANGEL - Bad Publicity

The cover was recalled and completely changed because label president Neil Bogart said that the girl leaning over the railing wasn't wearing any underwear and he worried it would tarnish the band's lily white image. The cover was changed and the album renamed:



STRYPER - To Hell With the Devil

Christian stores were outraged over this cover. I STILL cannot for the life of me figure out why. I do remember some people being offended by the pentagram neklace being tore off the hell bound musician.

The cover was changed to this generic cover:

One of the most infamous "banned" covers:

Stryper - Against The Law was also changed.

The original Nuclear Blast cover art for Mortifications debut, aka "The Gnarly cover". I have no idea why the Christian bookstores didn't want it, but the Intense version cover is lame-o:

This one was banned because of the ***GASP*** butt showing!


This was the creative "fix":

the robot-rape-scene cover was changed to:

The pubic hair cause an uproar and the cover was changed...

Now that's just silly!

This is the one I'm most familiar with. What most folks don't know is that the original painting by artist Robert Williams was named Appetite for Destruction and GnR used it to name the album. I don't know how many copies of this went out, but it was recalled and changed to the more familiar skull/cross version pretty quickly. I remember a buddy of mine had the original version (he was a fan before they hit big) and we thought that was soooo cool.

Check out some more of Robert Williams artwork. He does some pretty freaky, wild stuff (some of which is a little NSFW)

http://www.robtwilliamsstudio.com/

EDIT: Sorry Ult, I was a little slow on this one.

Never understood the Poison cover. It's bizarre, but what's so offensive about the tongue?

You can find these ^^^ and a few others here too:

http://www.sleazeroxx.com/censored/censored.shtml

I never knew there was an alternate Great White cover.

ultmetal wrote:

Never understood the Poison cover. It's bizarre, but what's so offensive about the tongue?

I never got that one either. Maybe it's the combination of the visual along with the title of the album (Open Up and Say...Ahhhh) that got some peoples feathers ruffled. I dunno?

ultmetal wrote:

One of the most infamous "banned" covers:

This is one that's always baffled me. Not only does it not make any sense to the albums title, but also what were the Beatles thinking when they sat down for the photo shoot? If the album was called "Prime Cuts" or something butcher-related, I could maybe see the connection. The whole thing just seems bizzare.

The Beatles were tired of the record company "butchering" their album covers, and thus this cover was born.


Another, which I won't put up a picture of is
SCORPIONS - Virgin Killer
Has to be one the most tasteless covers EVER! What person in his right mind would say, "a naked child with cracked glass over her genitals, hey now that's good art"?

ultmetal wrote:

The Beatles were tired of the record company "butchering" their album covers, and thus this cover was born.

I've never heard that one before. What covers were butchered? And your saying the Beatles approved of this cover? I know John could be a little dark in the humor department, but the doll parts really takes it to another level.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

ultmetal wrote:

The Beatles were tired of the record company "butchering" their album covers, and thus this cover was born.

I've never heard that one before. What covers were butchered? And your saying the Beatles approved of this cover? I know John could be a little dark in the humor department, but the doll parts really takes it to another level.

Yes, it was the Beatles idea to do this cover. I guess I was incorrect about them being outraged about their past album covers being butchered. They are were outraged about their music being butchered.

Quote :

The Beatles, Yesterday and Today
When Capitol released Yesterday and Today, cobbled together from other albums including Revolver and Help! the Fab Four, reportedly outraged that their art was being "butchered", posed for this photo. Capitol released it in June 1966, but faced with rejection by distributors, they had to recall thousands of "Butcher" LPs. Panicked, they rustled up a gloomy and unflattering photo - ever since known as the Trunk Cover - and pasted them over the recalled jackets. In that process, they created one of the holy grails of record collecting.

ultmetal wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

ultmetal wrote:

The Beatles were tired of the record company "butchering" their album covers, and thus this cover was born.

I've never heard that one before. What covers were butchered? And your saying the Beatles approved of this cover? I know John could be a little dark in the humor department, but the doll parts really takes it to another level.

Yes, it was the Beatles idea to do this cover. I guess I was incorrect about them being outraged about their past album covers being butchered. They are were outraged about their music being butchered.

Quote :

The Beatles, Yesterday and Today
When Capitol released Yesterday and Today, cobbled together from other albums including Revolver and Help! the Fab Four, reportedly outraged that their art was being "butchered", posed for this photo. Capitol released it in June 1966, but faced with rejection by distributors, they had to recall thousands of "Butcher" LPs. Panicked, they rustled up a gloomy and unflattering photo - ever since known as the Trunk Cover - and pasted them over the recalled jackets. In that process, they created one of the holy grails of record collecting.

Well, that does make the pic seem to make a little more sense. Still though, baby-doll parts?

Quote :

Another, which I won't put up a picture of is
SCORPIONS - Virgin Killer
Has to be one the most tasteless covers EVER! What person in his right mind would say, "a naked child with cracked glass over her genitals, hey now that's good art"?

Same with Lovedrive. That was one stretchy nip!!

gorgasm - stabwound intercourse

Lovedrive was banned too. That cover was, uhhh, weird.


This cover was recalled after the band's tragic plane crash. The record company rightfully thought it a bit tasteless, seeing as how half the band had perished. The new cover to replace it was:


Of course, some twenty years later, when the CD was remastered and the "drama" of that plan crash was no longer fresh, the original cover was reused.

Check out how eve-illlllll this cover is!!!!

Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland