10 Most Controversial Album Covers Of All Time
1. Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins - John Lennon & Yoko Ono (1968)
Yoko Ono. In musical circles, never has one name been uttered with more contempt and derision. John Lennons conceptual artist girlfriend was a human being of the most despicable proportions. She was the harlot who broke up the Beatles, irrevocably rupturing their song-writing nucleus without as much as the batting of an eyelid. Except that's all hyperbole. Unfairly, Yoko became a scapegoat to appease the anger of Beatles obsessives.
She may have been a contributing factor to their demise but drug consumption, boredom and genuine musical differences were just as culpable. Ono and Lennons first recorded collaboration, Two Virgins, released in the same year as the Beatles squabble fest cum masterwork, The White Album, revealed that where Paul McCartney was content carving out a niche for bashful, harmless pop ditties (Martha My Dear, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da), Lennon had grown weary of convention and acceptability.
Boldly experimental and uncompromising, the albums avant-garde content was cemented in its challenging cover art. In an act of proud defiance, John and Yoko stand organs exposed and unashamed of their naked form, knowing full well that the world held its collective mouth open in shock. It caused such a stir that the album had to be sold in a brown paper bag to ensure that innocent eyes remained un-besmirched by its full-frontal glory. In terms of meaning, there might even be an Adam and Eve parallel in there somewhere. And hey, the record WAS released on Apple. Coincidence? I think not.