![]() Virgin Killer’s replacement cover is basically a half-assed promo shot of the quintet, although almost anything would have been an improvement, including the boys putting themselves on the line and reenacting longtime worst-cover contender, Tino’s Por Primera Vez. The Scorps were way better off doing the big dumb sex thing on the covers of Lovedrive and Animal Magnetism. There’s surely a way to convey loss of innocence without triggering a delayed FBI investigation or exploiting the prepubescent relative of the photographer (yes, everyone’s at fault), and at least a few members are rightfully ashamed of this monstrosity. It’s a fully-nude 10-year-old girl in a highly sexualized pose, with broken glass superimposed over her genitals, an incredibly stupid attempt at provocation (“ time is the virgin killer,” got it) that not even the most enlightened interview could explain away. ![]() This is not, like, a grainy childhood Polaroid of a band member in a bubble bath, derping around with a toy tugboat. While that’s all pretty clever, there’s no comparison to the original, which effectively portends the brilliant, gonzo content within. Farrell responded in style, as the revised version features merely the band’s logo, the album title, and the first article of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution against a stark white backdrop (he added an entertaining, brief diatribe about Hitler, syphilis, and the potential advent of fascism in America on the back). Much like its predecessor, Nothing’s Shocking (which spotlighted nude conjoined female twins), the original Ritual was a no-duh no-go for a variety of prudish retailers. It, Farrell projects himself totally naked, intertwined with two women-a nod to “Three Days,” a regrettably overlooked single from the album, whose release was sandwiched between eventual radio staples “Stop!” and “Been Caught Stealing.” Then, in his spare time, he gave the greatest television show in the history of the medium an anthem befitting its historic import.īut perhaps Perry Farrell’s finest contribution to humanity is the cover to Jane’s 1990 sophomore sensation, Ritual de lo Habitual. He fought to liberate Sudanese slaves, and physically extracted debris from post-Katrina New Orleans. Jane’s Addiction Ritual De Lo Habitual (1990) Not to mention, the would-be censors just don’t understand-if you’re gonna criticize something, criticize the actual art! It’s in that spirit that we examine the original and censored versions of five heavy album covers, and ask that most important of sartorial questions: Who wore it best? Luckily, the record industry is dead, so worries going forward! Plenty of those covers have frequently been subject to surgery from nervous record companies and big box retailers. While the majority of this unfortunate era produced a far less amusing, deeply unnecessary war between art and politics, it was hardly the first (or last) time that popular music has borne the brunt of the real world’s suckage-be it redneck radio refusing to play the Beatles after John Lennon boasted that his band was “bigger than Jesus,” a chorus of premium cable cretins scapegoating Marilyn Manson for Columbine, or even our current tendency to dub any art remotely divorced from a nebulous progressive doctrine “problematic.Īlbum covers have long been interpreted as the face of a musician’s intent, which is just part of the reason we extol the best of the best in our Monsters of Ink series. ![]() Rage Against the Machine showing Philly a fistful of steel in 1993 And it prompted all four members of Rage Against the Machine to expose their “pockets full of shells” as part of an unforgettable silent protest at Philadelphia’s 1993 Lollapalooza stop. In heretofore polar opposites Dee Snider and John Denver, the PMRC gave us a superteam more powerful and impactful than anything in the MCU. Señores y señoras have overwhelmingly pegged the PMRC as a bad thing, when in actually pleased the Gods of Irony by turning Tipper Gore-the former drummer of an all-girl band who happens to have one of the most metal surnames ever-into the face of modern censorship. In addition to demonizing such occult anthems as “She Bop” by Cyndi Lauper and Def Leppard’s “High ‘n’ Dry,” the PMRC went on to eventually start demanding that any album containing naughty words adorn one of those lame parental advisory stickers (which only made us kids want that album more). In 1985, Tipper Gore, her husband Al, and a handful of their fellow human buzzkills that made up the Parents Music Resource Center declared a handful of current pop songs the Filthy Fifteen, because they were simply too lewd for radio airplay.
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