It’s the old American refrain: sex should be an expression of love for producing children… but once you produce them, never let them know that you had sex to create them. It’s dirty and immoral.
This is an issue right now, because my friend Sara’s album, due to hit stores June 20, features a wonderful painting of a couple in the style of the Kama Sutra. It is both funny and sexy at once, because the painting — I’m not gonna give it away, sorry — is more “realistic” than what you’d find in that ancient book.
But this turns out to be too much for retailers.
Now, we’ve all seen what can be termed as “raunchy” or “explicit” record covers over the years, and this one is neither. Still, concerns were raised over the reaction of retailers when they’re asked to stock the CD. I’m solidly in Sara’s camp, the folks who say that the cover is not only funny and artistic and loving and real, but is a great reflection of a woman’s life, soul, and emotions as depicted in the songs within.
My attitude is that a little buzz about the cover — is it or isn’t it too explicit — can only help raise awareness of the album and some of the issues that Sara addresses in her songs. Like the tagline on the cover says, it can “start the dialogue.”
But reality being what it is, we’ve had to come up with a few contingency plans over the last few days, and I’m afraid that one of them might have to go into effect — hopefully, it will be the one that is least objectionable and doesn’t change the look and feel of the artwork — let’s just say that I had to go in and do a little Photoshop work the other day. I’m really disappointed about it, but I did my best and I hope that no one even blinks because it really doesn’t change much at all.
Meanwhile, here beside my computer I have a few copies of the radio station promotional disc, which has the original, unedited artwork. It might end up being a collector’s item in the end, who knows?
