10 Rock Album Covers That Led To Massive Lawsuits

When looking at everything that goes into rock and roll, the actual album art should be more tame than it actually is. Even though it helps to have something iconic on the album cover, there's always a chance that a regular band shot could do just as well if the music kicks ass. If you have something a little more risky though...that's when the lawyers come a-calling.

As far back as the beginning of rock and roll, bands were getting flak left and right for what they actually decided to put on the front of their album. Whether it was showing something that they weren't supposed to or taking a copyrighted photo of something without the person's permission, these aren't cases that are just going to be forgotten in a weeks' time.

But that's not the only interesting part. It's expected that some rock stars get into a bit of trouble every now and again. The more important thing is what they actually do with it, either using a safer cover for the time or just sticking to their guns and releasing it as is. You can say what you want to about the actual music within or the photos themselves, but you can't say that they weren't at least eye catching at first.

Usually the big bad lawsuits tend to come in when there's something a bit too risque on the cover of your album. Even though it's understandable when someone doesn't allow you permission to use their likeness on a cover, some of the calls for censorship can get a bit too much for its good. In the case of Blind Faith, the record label may have made the right call by not letting the original idea go to print.

Yeah, you see how the actual cover is just a bland picture of the band standing in their practice space? That's because their original idea was supposed to be a photo of a prepubescent girl standing naked with a phallic airplane in her hand. Compared to the rest of the stuff that went by in the '70s, the suits in the offices at least had the decency to cover that up.

By the time that some of them actually went to print though, some of the records were released as is, which led to millions of complaint letters from parents along with cease and desist orders to not stock the album on shelves. While rock is always a good place for controversy, it starts to get a little hazy when your bad habits actively take away from the album sales.