Virgin Killer

Virgin Killer is the fourth studio album by the German heavy metal band Scorpions. It was released in 1976 and was the first album of the band to attract attention outside Europe. The title is described as being a reference to time as the killer of innocence. The original cover featured a nude prepubescent girl which stirred controversy in the UK, US, and elsewhere. As a result, the album was reissued with a different cover in some countries.

In December 2008, the image again gave rise to controversy when the British Internet Watch Foundation placed certain pages from Wikipedia on its internet blacklist, since it considered the image to be "potentially illegal" under the Protection of Children Act 1978. This resulted in much of the UK being prevented from editing Wikipedia, and significant public debate of the decision. The decision was reversed by the IWF after four days of blocking. where it peaked at number 32 in the charts. The album was another step in the band's shift from psychedelic music to hard rock. Critic Vincent Jeffries of Allmusic contends in hindsight that the album was "the first of four studio releases that really defined the Scorpions and their urgent metallic sound that was to become highly influential." He also counts the title track and "Pictured Life" among the "all-time Scorpions standouts." Among the band members, Uli Jon Roth considers Virgin Killer and the previous release In Trance as his favourite Scorpions albums. with a shattered glass crack effect obscuring her genitalia. The image was designed by Steffan Böhle, who was then the product manager for RCA Records. Francis Buchholz was the bassist for the band and, in an interview conducted in early 2007, recollects that the model depicted on the cover was either the daughter or the niece of "the guy who did the cover design." The photograph was taken by Michael von Gimbut. The band's rhythm guitarist Rudolf Schenker offers the following description of the circumstances behind the album cover:

We didn't actually have the idea. It was the record company. The record company guys were like, 'Even if we have to go to jail, there's no question that we'll release that.' On the song 'Virgin Killer', time is the virgin killer. But then, when we had to do the interviews about it, we said 'Look, listen to the lyrics and then you'll know what we're talking about. We're using this only to get attention. That's what we do.' Even the girl, when we met her fifteen years later, had no problem with the cover. Growing up in Europe, sexuality, of course not with children, was very normal. The lyrics really say it all. Time is the virgin killer. A kid comes into the world very naive, they lose that naiveness and then go into this life losing all of this getting into trouble. That was the basic idea about all of it. In a 2008 interview, Schenker added "We would never again do something like this".

In 2008, photographer Michael von Gimbut emphasized that his wife, the model's mother and sister and three female assistants had been present during the shooting and stated "We loved and protected children and did not sleep with them" ("Wir liebten und beschützten die Kinder damals und schliefen nicht mit ihnen"). while Gigwise.com lists it as #2 on its March 2008 "The 50 Most Controversial Album Covers of All Time!" list. Similarly, it was named (by UGO Networks) one of the "Weirdest Album Covers," and placed #6 on the "All-Time Worst Album Covers" list made by two.one.five magazine.

This would not be the last time that the band attracted controversy with its album covers. Their next album, Taken by Force, originally featured cover art that depicted "children playing with guns at a military cemetery in France and some people found that offensive." Vocalist Klaus Meine explains that the band's penchant for controversial cover art stems from a desire "to go over the edge" and not "to offend some people or make the headlines [as] that would be stupid," contrasting guitarist Rudolf Schenker's earlier statement, "We're using this only to get attention."}}

Internet censorship

Internet Watch Foundation

In December 2008, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a UK-based non-government organization, added the Wikipedia article Virgin Killer to its internet blacklist due to concerns over legality of the image, which had been assessed as the lowest level of legal concern: "erotic posing with no sexual activity". As a result, people using many major UK ISPs were blocked from viewing the entire article by the Cleanfeed system, and a large part of the UK was blocked from editing Wikipedia owing to the means of blocking in use. Following discussion, representations by the Wikimedia Foundation (who host the Wikipedia website), and public complaints, the IWF reversed their decision three days later, and confirmed that in future they would not block copies of the image that were hosted overseas.

Track listing

Side one

Side two

Credits

Covered songs

Charts

See also

References

External links

Category:Scorpions (band) albums Category:1976 albums Category:Censorship

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