4 Album Covers From the 1970s That Broke All the Rules

It’s not very common to see a truly controversial album cover nowadays. But back in the 1970s, plenty of rock stars decided to push boundaries and release albums with taboo cover art. These four album covers from the 1970s wouldn’t make anyone blush nowadays, but some of them were outright banned after their release.

1. ‘Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols’ by Sex Pistols (1977)

For those unfamiliar with British slang, “bollocks” is a word that refers to a particular part of the male genitalia. It’s also used as a slang word after an incident or minor misfortune. So, when Sex Pistols used the word in the title (and cover) of their 1977 album Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols, a lot of old English grannies were clutching their pearls over it.

The cover was eventually dragged into an obscenity case in the UK courts, as a record store owner displayed the album in his window and was promptly arrested by authorities. The charges were dropped, but the legacy of the cover being controversial never really went away.

2. ‘Sticky Fingers’ by The Rolling Stones (1971)

The Rolling Stones decided to push a few buttons with their 1971 album Sticky Fingers. The cover was designed (partially) by famed artist Andy Warhol. The original LP cover of this album featured a black-and-white image of a man wearing tight jeans. An actual zipper was glued onto the front of the cover. When unzipped, it would reveal a pair of tighty-whities. 

The close-up of a clothed man’s crotch made a few conservative listeners angry, but that isn’t why it was eventually pulled from shelves. According to retailers, the zippers were damaging the vinyl records in shipping, so they removed the physical zipper from future pressings.

3. ‘Diamond Dogs’ by David Bowie (1974)

We can’t really show you the full painting that was partially used for this album cover, but Google is free! To paint a quick picture of our own, the cover features a painting of David Bowie laying supine in front of an advertisement, only his bottom half is that of a dog’s… genitalia and all. It’s a strange and applaudingly creative piece of work. The offending portion of the painting was airbrushed out until the original image was reinstated in 1990.

4. ‘Cut’ by The Slits (1979)

We can’t show the full album cover here. But, we can give you an idea of why it was one of the most controversial album covers back in the 1970s. The album featured a photo of the band’s three leads, topless and covered in mud with only loincloths to their name.

Cut by The Slits is a challenging and genre-changing album; it fused punk and reggae together in a way that hadn’t been done before. Though, a lot of potential listeners couldn’t get past the “obscenity” of the cover. Thankfully, the band didn’t cave and change it. The album went on to inspire an entire generation of riot grrrl bands in the 1990s.

Album artwork credit: Andy Warhol

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