Jul 222015
 

countrylife

I cracked open the gatefold sleeve of my recent purchase of Eric Burdon & War‘s Black Man’s Burdon and was greeted by this NSFW image. I was quickly reminded of a dozen other album covers featuring tasteful (and no-so-tasteful) nude shots, the most obvious being Roxy Music‘s Country Life.* With those 2 entries now out of the way, my guess is that there will easily be another 98 tastefully nude album covers for Rock Town Hall participants to identify, maybe 198 more. Front cover, back cover, and gatefold spread count. Inside record sleeves/CD booklets do not.

What do you say? Feel free to include a link to your entry, and as always, please discipline yourself to one entry per post (although your number of posts is unlimited). Go!

*Regarding the definition of “nudity” for purposes of this thread, although the models on the cover of Country Life are partially clothed and attempt to tastefully covering themselves, enough nipple and pubic hair are left visible to qualify. For purposes of this discussion, a cover showing nothing more than cleavage, side- or under-boob, butt cheeks with thong, or the clothed outline of an erect penis will NOT be considered. On the other hand, fully unclad (head to toe) cover models who tastefully keep their privates private qualify. However, simply tastefully topless (with naughty bits covered) shots will be open to debate.

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  110 Responses to “NSFW Last Man Standing: Tastefully Nude Album Covers”

  1. tonyola

    Golden Earring’s Moontan. Due to a public outcry by bluenoses, this cover was replaced by one that was much less stimulating.

    https://00individual.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/goldenearringmoontan.jpg

  2. misterioso

    Btw, and I take it this does not qualify being neither full nudity, nor on the album itself, and certainly not tasteful, but for your consideration. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/7e/9e/51/7e9e51a05643206dd098b7c15b4ff229.jpg Where was Bobbi Flekman when they needed her?

  3. Correct, does not qualify, but worthy of sideline comment. Thank you.

  4. misterioso

    A ruling? Sniff ‘n’ the Tears, The Game’s Up (1980) http://acerecords.co.uk/images/SniffnTheTearsTheGam.jpg

  5. Yes, thus qualifies, thank you.

  6. Since it appears that we are allowing male nudity, I submit Fleetwood Mac – Then Play On.

    http://i62.tinypic.com/10q028j.jpg

  7. tonyola

    Mr. Mod beat me to Yes, but I have other proggies up my sleeve…Le Orme Felona E Sorona

    http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/278/cover_5371010102013_r.jpg

  8. tonyola

    Red Hot Chili Peppers Abbey Road EP – the notorious “socks” cover.

    http://www.rockremnants.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/rhcp-abbey-road.jpg

  9. saturnismine

    and thinking of this album cover, which I should point out, I saw *yesterday* because I was at a record store where it was playing, makes me remember that the late 60s / early 70s were quite a time for this sort of thing, as CDM’s Hendrix cover and the Who’s Next rejected album cover, with obese nude women bear out (pun intended).

    That Who cover is nowhere online that i can find, but it’s on p. 112 of your old copy of the great book “The Who, Maximum R&B: a Visual History Compiled by Richard Barnes, with the Who’s Full Cooperation.”

    It’s definitely tasteless.

  10. Does a poster that came with the album count? If so, Queen might win based on the sheer number of participants. https://hardrockdaddy.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/bicycle-race-poster.jpeg?w=604&h=200

  11. Don’t Bogart that thread, misterioso! The Pablo Cruise entry is a great one, but who’s to say the Orleans guys aren’t wearing white, drawstring flares beneath what’s visible on the album frame?

  12. OK, is anyone else getting troubled by these drawn/painted nudes? I wasn’t considering this as a possible entry. I’ll let these slide for now, but I’ll let The People decide whether we’re going to allow artistically rendered nude cover shots. Personally, I think it’s cheating.

  13. It’s nude and natural. That’s tasteful enough for the terms of this thread.

  14. No, I would say a poster falls under the same exclusion as the inner sleeve/CD booklet. Good effort, though.

  15. From 2013 Wolf Alice EP “Blush” — do I need a ruling on an EP?

    http://i.ytimg.com/vi/0T0CvOC8UkY/hqdefault.jpg

  16. saturnismine

    Tasteless image…and as if the image itself wasn’t enough, it was originally intended to be accompanied by text reading “I got Black and Blue from the Rolling Stones and I love it!”

    and then there’s this…a related image:

    http://s96.photobucket.com/user/erik_061/media/LAFOG.jpg.html

  17. tonyola

    I’m surprised no-one has mentioned John Lennon’s Two Virgins cover – naughty bits included.

    http://www.rarerecords.net/store/images/5176/two_virgins_uk_01.JPG

  18. OK all you Central Scrutinizers . . . does Liz’ Exile in Guyville count?

    http://dudical.net/xxx/wp-content/uploads/tumblr_ledc7hnZ4D1qd25nbo1_500.jpg

  19. cliff sovinsanity

    Rush’s nude dude appeared on various albums and artwork.
    http://i.ytimg.com/vi/GJJSe4YnhYU/maxresdefault.jpg

  20. BigSteve

    I was going to post the Blind Faith album cover, but it looks like it’s subject to censorship now:

    http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517z1nHQm4L._SY300_.jpg

    http://rymimg.com/lk/f/l/2f42e9b71edbf4e0e25b71254f5bd77d/2779955.jpg

  21. That Slits one is a favorite.

  22. saturnismine

    Indeed it does!

  23. saturnismine

    A personal fave is BowWowWow’s “Last of the Mohicans” cover, which riffs on Manet’s Dejeuner sur l’Herbe.

    https://flavorwire.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/bowwow.jpg

  24. saturnismine

    Here’s the manet:

    http://imgc.allpostersimages.com/images/P-473-488-90/13/1349/JKAS000Z/posters/edouard-manet-dejeuner-sur-l-herbe-1863.jpg

    which, in turn, riffs on a print by Marcantonio Raimondi after a composition by Raphael (look in the lower right corner):

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Urteil_des_Paris.jpg

  25. misterioso

    Yes, it’s pretty amazing.

  26. misterioso

    I know, I know: got carried away.

  27. misterioso

    Certainly takes the prize for most tasteful near nudity on the cover of an album by a female-fronted act undertaking a song-by-song deconstruction of Exile on Main Street.

  28. That’s some serious art knowledge!

    I was surprised that Bow Wow Wow cover wasn’t one of the first added.

  29. So it goes! That’s one of the first dozen nude covers that came to mind for me when I cracked open the Eric Burdon & War gatefold.

  30. That Rush guy had to make it!

    As for that Liz Phair album, which I used to own but sold years ago after being annoyed by how mediocre I found it compared with the hype, along with the possible-nipple slip on the front cover, isn’t there a more obvious nip-slip shot on the back or inside sleeve/booklet? If the only obvious nip slip is on the sleeve/booklet and we don’t feel the front cover is nude enough, then that album cover is not acceptable. If, in fact, enough of you find the front cover possible-nip slip suitable, then by all means we’ll allow it. Nudity can be in the eye of the beholder.

  31. I know there aren’t a lot of twees around here, but how has this one stayed on the board so long?

    http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0001/704/MI0001704129.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

  32. saturnismine

    Thanks, Mod. But honestly, if I wasn’t able to turn that trick, they’d never even let me have the MA, let alone turn me loose on rooms full of young’uns.

    Didn’t Bow Wow Wow put out another suggestive cover? Or am I thinking of a single?

    http://eil.com/images/main/Bow-Wow-Wow-I-Want-Candy-34641.jpg

  33. saturnismine

    My oh my…that is so very twee…almost self-consciously twee, as if someone said, “how twee can we make this?” And added the stuffed animal.

    Nice one. I had forgotten about it.

  34. saturnismine

    Prince…Lovesexy has not yet received mention, has it?

  35. That single is the other that came to mind, but it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that they made some late-career attempt at getting attention by doing another tastefully nude cover.

  36. Did I dream this, or is there a tastefully nude shot of Canned Heat on the gatefold sleeve of one of their albums, possibly Living the Blues? If this shot exists, it seems the Internet does not allow its posting. Please confirm.

  37. misterioso

    I am really hoping that’s merely a product of what I assume is your active fantasy life.

  38. saturnismine

    Forgot about that one.

    Man…what a terrible album cover. That font…that backdrop (which looks like a readymade template in an early version of photoshop). I’ll bet it cost them a mint to make it, too.

  39. Roger: “Who needs Hipgnosis?”

  40. BigSteve

    That was the album I had, and I have a dim memory of that. It also brought this Allman Brothers album to mind:

    http://jackbaruth.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/allman_bros.jpg

  41. ladymisskirroyale

    Now, now.

  42. ladymisskirroyale

    And no one has posted “Smell the Glove”?

  43. misterioso

    We never actually see the cover of Smell the Glove, do we?

  44. “Lollita” by A.R.Kane

  45. ladymisskirroyale

    No, but that could make it all the more interesting. If you google “Smell the Glove,” you can see other “artist renditions,” some of which are pretty comical and all pretty tasteless.

  46. ladymisskirroyale

    Pixies – “Surfer Rosa”

    http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/lyricwiki/images/7/73/Pixies_-_Surfer_Rosa.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130511184316

    I admit to being a bit embarrassed having this in my car and would always make sure I had it cover side down when I parked my car in the university lot.

  47. Here’s a particularly bad early Fleetwood Mac cover from another thread that I just realized qualifies here as well:

    http://recordmecca.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Scan-Nov-17-2014-1.58-PM-page66.jpg

    Last Man Standing!

  48. We didn’t rule out animal nudity, but don’t think you can go posting album covers with pants-less Looney Toons characters!

  49. ladymisskirroyale

    I take your Herb Albert and raise you a Soul Asylum: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51edGY6ZuPL._SY300_.jpg

  50. ladymisskirroyale

    Mr. Royale and I were just listening to this in the car:
    http://cdn.self-titledmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/21360_image0_20081029_auto.jpg

  51. What about my favorite of all time Buckingham Nicks?

    http://i.ytimg.com/vi/UKBft-I4UdU/hqdefault.jpg

  52. Eh, that’s sexy, but there’s nothing more than semi-cleavage.

  53. misterioso

    dude, you just beat me to it.

  54. ladymisskirroyale

    Because I’m hearing David J perform tomorrow, I give you Bauhaus:

    http://coverlib.com/Download/1238897/Bauhaus-In_The_Flat_Field-5-Booklet-.JPG

  55. ladymisskirroyale

    Great album.

  56. saturnismine

    Don’t forget this mid-90s Golden Palominos album:

    http://i.ytimg.com/vi/2OllqNwK6eY/hqdefault.jpg

  57. saturnismine

    Well…yeah, sure…but isn’t baby-nudity a little different than grownup nudity? I mean, we’re finding examples that handle the normally taboo image of nudity tastefully. There are no such problems with baby-nudity.

    Mod, I defer to your infinite wisdom on this matter.

  58. You and I and Daniel’s mom might be the only ones who think so, but I love it.

  59. ladymisskirroyale

    I figured that since we took the Yes and Led Zeppelin albums…

  60. saturnismine

    aha…yes…one of which was my contribution. I submitted the Yesterdays cover because the kid is pissing while nude, and wondered about how that encroached on the thread’s question of taste (my 8 year old is fond of “watering the plants” after a family outing to a restaurant, and it makes mrs. Ismine cringe whenever he does it, so I suppose I’m a little more sensitive than most on this point).

    Whatevs…as far as I’m concerned, the Nirvana example can stand.

  61. Okay, time to break out the, um, big guns.

    I give you Mark, Don, Mel and some other guy: https://johnrieber.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/grand_funk_railroad-we_re_an_american_band-frontal.jpg

  62. ladymisskirroyale

    Artsy black and white photo with Mr. Cave:
    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f3/Push_the_Sky_Away.jpg

  63. That’s a CLASSIC of this genre!

  64. That’s a tremendous point, saturnismine – and that’s not to say that the suggestion of Nevermind wasn’t a worthwhile try. I have been thinking of the definition of nudity, for purposes of the discussion, this way: if you could imagine the person/people on the cover running out to get the newspaper at 6:00 am in whatever state of covered semi-undress without being too embarrassed/indecent, then it probably doesn’t qualify. For instance, I’ve been known to run out in my boxers. Do I really care if anyone sees me like that? Am I really shocking anyone? My wife my run out for the same reason at the same time in the little bit that she sleeps in. Similarly, it doesn’t feel like we’re stepping over any line. Some neighbor may spot me and even see something swinging around in my boxers, but that’s on them. You know what I mean? The baby can parade all over the neighborhood without clothes. That’s considered cute.

  65. Ladymiss, have you given us anything but artsy black and white nudes yet? I appreciate how tasteful they are, but don’t you have anything more, you know, tasteful? 🙂

  66. BigSteve

    What I love is that the new guy has this “why did I join this band?” look on his face.

  67. BigSteve

    I’m surprised no one has mentioned Jane’s Addiction’s Nothing’s Shocking:

    http://www.culturetease.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/nothings-shocking-1024×1003.jpg

  68. “Rid of Me” – PJ

  69. ladymisskirroyale

    ha ha ha ha

  70. ladymisskirroyale

    Mr. Moderator, I propose something neither black and white nor tasteful…I give you the gatefold of the Ohio Players, “Honey”:

    https://jamesostafford.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/ohio-players-honey-inner.jpg

  71. Oh my, how could I have forgotten all their tasteful album covers?

  72. That’s his wife, right?

  73. cliff sovinsanity

    Juliana Hatfield and her bony chest
    http://www.julianahatfield.com/cover.jpg

  74. hrrundivbakshi

    The reissue of XTC’s “Skylarking,” with original cover art reinstated: http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/XTC-Skylarking.jpg

  75. misterioso

    Afghan Whigs–I’ll submit them in the other thread of bands I doubt I’ve ever heard and doubt I ever will.

  76. ladymisskirroyale

    Hands on winner.

  77. saturnismine

    If that’s nudity (a nude neck and shoulders and part of a collarbone), then so is this, which reveals much more skin:

    http://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/features/images/mc5_2005_1.jpg

    Even though we know it really isn’t:

    http://www.thebookbeat.com/shop/images/MC5_WPP.jpg

  78. saturnismine

    More thread crossover: don’t look now (or do)…it’s the Average White Band!

    https://thriftyvinyl.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/img_1991.jpg

  79. tonyola

    Doobie Brothers – Toulouse Street. LMS!

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/hansthijs/4600359551

  80. 2000 Man

    How about Sweet Apple and their tribute to Country Life?

    http://sweetapplesongs.com/Images/loveanddesperation.jpg

    They’ve got plenty of tasteful covers.

  81. Still unclear about the Nirvana cover but if it stands, then so does Soul Asylum: http://power96radio.com/files/2015/07/Soul-Asylum-Grave-Dancers-Union.jpg

  82. Those kids look dirty, like dirty enough to put in a call to Child Protective Services. Child nudity that is not innocent and cute definitely counts.

  83. misterioso

    I don’t think you can get more tasteful than Sound Orchestral’s Cast Your Fate to the Wind http://barrysdiscs.com/Images/Instrumentals/3409.jpg Title track was a big hit in 1965. (If it sounds like a Peanuts Christmas outtake it’s because it was written and originally recorded by Vince Guaraldi.)

  84. saturnismine

    Don’t forget this gem by Supertramp (or do):

    http://img.cdandlp.com/2012/07/imgL/115433679.jpg

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