Nirvana ‘Nevermind’ Album Cover Violates Facebook’s Terms Of Service
While you might be feeling nostalgic about the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind,’ don’t go posting the cover as your Facebook profile picture – unless you’re in the mood to catch hell from Facebook, that is!
Product images of the album cart, which as you’re probably well aware, features a naked baby boy, were uploaded to the Nirvana Facebook page in advance of the highly anticipated upcoming anniversary reissues due later this year.
Facebook reacted, as The Hollywood Reporter notes, by yanking the images and sending the following notice to the Nirvana camp:
"Facebook does not allow photos that attack an individual or group, or that contain nudity, drug use, violence or other violations of the Terms of Use."
Meanwhile, Spencer Elden, the now 20-year old subject featured on the album cover, says that he has no issues with the album cover photograph. “Quite a few people in the world have seen my penis. So that's kinda cool.”
The current issue of Spin adds some additional detail to the story behind the album cover. Kirk Weddle, an advertising photographer who specialized in underwater work, was hired to shoot the cover.
He recalls that Kurt Cobain wanted to use a picture of a child being born underwater as the album cover, but the band’s label, Geffen Records, thought that imagery might be too extreme. Weddle instead went to a local school where they teach babies to swim, and offered interested subjects $50 to have their babies photographed, with an additional $200 going to the winning subject.
Interestingly enough, Weddle says that the album cover almost featured a girl, but that the label insisted on the “d-ck shot.” He calls the album cover a “cool image” but says “I don’t want that defining my life.”