In the late 70’s, another phase of ‘naked vinyl’ came in the “disco era.” The Ohio Players released a wonderful erotic series of ‘almost’ nude cover art. Sexual innuendo on the form of an album cover was not lost with the disco ‘divas’ “Silver Convention,” whose cover for their album called “Save Me” created waves. Their frontal nudity of “Discotheque Volume Two,” not only features their big hit of the era “Get Up and Boogie,” but a startling cover of a handcuffed female. Blended in with a list of steamy, seductive songs, the cover grabbed audiences’ attention as well as their eyes. But as the disco era closed and the 70’s drew to a close, society seemed to tire of the market and album cover nudity was no longer a mainstream wonder. Album cover artists and record companies all left sex to the imagination and returned to the safe images and cover art that was G-rated. With the advent of the compact disc, album cover art was led into the annuls of music history and pretty much became a non-issue. But, there have been some historic naked album covers since then. Let’s explore a few.
The fountain kronos quartet mp3
Leave it to John Lennon to create a stir, he was a master at creating controversy and knew how to draw media attention to whatever he was doing. In 1968, Lennon and Yoko Ono released their album called “Two Virgins,” with the front cover displaying a full-frontal nude image of them. The back cover showed the same image, but from behind. They were forced to replace it (they sold it in a brown paper wrapper) and copies of the album were impounded as obscenity in some jurisdictions.
Lazy boy mp3
The rock band Blind Faith had a cover that pictured a topless pubescent girl in 1969, and the U.S. record company had it reissued with an alternative cover showing a photograph of the band. The Scorpions actually had two “naughty” covers that caused a stir, 1976’s “Virgin Killer,” also featured a topless young girl and was replaced with a photo of the band. In 1979, the band released “Lovedrive,” with a man and a woman in the back seat of a car. The woman’s chest is exposed and the man was pulling bubble gum off of her breast and the album was repackaged.
But the band Jane’s Addiction got it right when, anticipating trouble, released the 1990 album called “Ritual de lo Habitual” with two covers. One cover, which featured singer Perry Farrell’s artwork (male and female nudity), was released along with a ‘clean’ version of the cover with the text of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, that promotes free speech.
Reel big fish suckers mp3
- All we can ask is where was the censorship in the heyday of ‘naked vinyl’ album cover art? Now pop artists, rappers and rock and rollers can sing and say anything they want on a record. You can turn on the radio and hear the “Frankie Goes To Hollywood” sexual number “Relax,”, but god forbid you show any nudity on an album cover.