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Virgin Killer
Virgin Killer cover

The controversial original album cover. The cracked glass effect is part of the image.
Studio album by Scorpions
Released

1976
Recorded

1976
Genre

Hard rock, heavy metal
Length

34:45
Label

Polydor, Capitol (reissue)
Producer

Dieter Dierks
Professional reviews

    * Allmusic 4/5 stars link

Scorpions chronology
In Trance
(1975)

Virgin Killer
(1976)

Taken by Force
(1977)
Alternate cover
The replacement cover released in some countries.
The replacement cover released in some countries.

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.[1] The original cover, featuring a naked prepubescent girl, stirred controversy in the United States and elsewhere; it was subsequently reissued with a different cover.

In December 2008, the image again gave rise to controversy, when the British Internet Watch Foundation placed certain pages from the encyclopedia "Wikipedia" on its internet blacklist, due to concerns related to legality of the image under current U.K. law.[2] This resulted in much of the U.K. being prevented from editing Wikipedia, and significant public debate of the decision. The decision was reversed several days later.[3]
Contents
[hide]

    * 1 Reception
    * 2 Cover art
          o 2.1 Internet censorship
    * 3 Track listing
          o 3.1 Side one
          o 3.2 Side two
    * 4 Credits
    * 5 Covered songs
    * 6 See also
    * 7 References
    * 8 External links

Reception

Virgin Killer shared the same fate as the other Scorpions albums featuring lead guitarist Uli Jon Roth: it "failed to attain any serious attention in the United States" but was "quite popular in Japan"[4] where it peaked at number 32 in the charts.[5] The album was another step in the band's shift from psychedelic music to hard rock.[6] 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."[7] 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 Scorpion albums.[8]

Cover art

The original cover art for the album depicted a naked prepubescent girl, with a shattered glass crack effect obscuring her genitals. The image was designed by Steffan Böhle,[9] who was then the product manager for RCA Records.[8] 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."[10] The photograph was taken by Michael von Gimbut.[11] The band's rhythm guitarist Rudolf Schenker offers the following description of the circumstances behind the album cover.

    Wee didn't actually have the idea. It was the record company. The record company guys were like, 'Even if wee have to go to jail, there's no question that wee'll release that.' On the song 'Virgin Killer', time is the virgin killer. But then, when wee had to do the interviews about it, wee said 'Look, listen to the lyrics and then you'll know what wee're talking about. Wee're using this only to get attention. That's what wee do.' Even the girl, when wee 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.[12]

In a separate interview, Schenker also notes that he thought the cover art was a "great thing" and that he had "pushed the band to really stay behind it" as he felt that people would "think differently" when they looked at the lyrics and realized that the cover art was only being used as "a symbol of the lyrics."[13] The band's former lead guitarist Uli Jon Roth notes that the cover art of the "old Scorpion albums" were "usually done by other people."[8] He has since expressed regret over the original album cover.

    Looking at that picture today makes me cringe. It was done in the worst possible taste. Back then I was too immature to see that. Shame on me — I should have done everything in my power to stop it. The record company came up with the idea, I think. The lyrics incidentally were a take-off on KISS, whom wee had just supported on a tour. I was fooling around and played the riff of the song in the rehearsal room and spontaneously improvised 'cause he's a virgin killer!' trying to do a more or less way-off-the-mark Paul Stanley impersonation. Klaus immediately said 'that's great! You should do something with it.' Then I had the unenviable task of constructing a meaningful set of lyrics around the title, which I actually managed to do to some degree. But the song has a totally different meaning from what people would assume at first. Virgin Killer is none other than the demon of our time, the less compassionate side of the societies wee live in today — brutally trampling upon the heart and soul of innocence.[14]

The cover generated controversy and was replaced in some countries with an alternate cover art depicting the band members.[6] The original is named in various "worst album cover" lists. Cracked magazine online named it the #1 "Worst Album Cover of All-Time,"[15] while Gigwise.com lists it as #2 on its March 2008 "The 50 Most Controversial Album Covers of All Time!" list.[16] Similarly, it was named by UGO Networks as one of the "Weirdest Album Covers,"[17] and placed #6 on the "All-Time Worst Album Covers" list made by two.one.five magazine.[18]

This would not be the last time that the band attracted controversy with their 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."[8] Their 1979 album Lovedrive featured a "bizarre artwork" that depicts "a woman on the back seat of a car with bubblegum over her breast."[6] Both covers were replaced by an alternate design.[19][20] 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."[1]

Internet censorship

    Main article: Internet Watch Foundation and Wikipedia

In May 2008, the US-based social conservative site WorldNetDaily reported the cover image on Wikipedia to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. An officer of the Concerned Women for America, a conservative Christian advocacy group, commented, "By allowing that image to remain posted, Wikipedia is helping to further facilitate perversion and pedophilia."[21] The May controversy prompted extensive discussion among Wikipedia contributors and was reported in the website's internal newsletter, which noted that "relevant content policies and community practices" state that "Wikipedia is not censored, and barring a legal imperative the decision to display or remove the offensive image rests with Wikipedia's users."[22] EContent magazine subsequently reported that the discussion page associated with the article declared "Prior discussion has determined by broad consensus that the Virgin Killer cover will not be removed", and asserted that Wikipedia contributors "favor inclusion in all but the most extreme cases".[23]
Wikinews
Wikinews has related news:

    * British ISPs restrict access to Wikipedia amid child pornography allegations
    * Wikimedia, IWF respond to block of Wikipedia over child pornography allegations

In December, 2008 the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a UK-based non-government organization, added the Wikipedia article Virgin Killer to its blacklist due to the online encyclopedia's use of an image of the original Virgin Killer album cover. As a result, people using many major UK ISPs were blocked from viewing the entire article.[24][25] A modified version of the controversial cover art was used for the "In Trance/Virgin Killer" deluxe boxed edition double album sold worldwide after a 2004 release.[26] Nevertheless, the IWF classified the image of the cover as a "potentially illegal indecent image of a child hosted outside the UK" (whereas their reporting mechanism specifies only "child sexual abuse images hosted outside the UK").[27][28] In a press release, the lawyer for the Wikimedia Foundation stated, "Wee have no reason to believe the article, or the image contained in the article, has been held to be illegal in any jurisdiction anywhere in the world."[29] Under the Cleanfeed content blocking system, the block was accomplished by ISP proxy systems impersonating Wikipedia's servers, which resulted in degraded performance and left site administrators with little option but to block a significant portion of the UK from editing Wikipedia or creating accounts.[30][31]

Sarah Robertson, director of communications for the IWF, stated that in collaboration with the Child Exploitation and Online Protection agency of the UK, the image had been rated as a "1 on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is the least offensive",[32] representing "erotic posing with no sexual activity".[32] On December 9, 2008, the IWF issued a statement reversing their blacklist of Wikipedia.[3]