Geffen Records Censoring Rufus Wainwright?

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http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000654ZDC.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

I'm not really a fan of the man's music at all, but I couldn't help noticing at the Virgin Megastore yesterday that Geffen had slapped a BIG STICKER over the image above (highlighting tracks on the album or Rufus' past achievments or something) whereas the cover of Want One...

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000C7PSW.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

...remaind unobstructed. Are Geffen afraid of a little Medieval Cross-dressing? Is this censorship? Paranoia? Homophobia? Stupidity?

Discuss.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 21 January 2005 03:26 (twenty-one years ago)

This is a classic case of conflicted emotions:

"There ain't no reason to censor said image, which while a bit florid perhaps is hardly a bad thing at all. Idiocy is at play."

vs.

"HAW HAW HAW PRECIOUS OPERA BOY GETS HIS. Take your damn ditties and warble and go hide in a box."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 January 2005 03:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Wait, is this a Use Your Illusion thing?

― donut christ (donut), Friday, 21 January 2005 03:50 (twenty-one years ago)

sort of, except they were released a year apart.

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Friday, 21 January 2005 04:05 (twenty-one years ago)

So it's not a Ryan Adams thing either.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 21 January 2005 04:06 (twenty-one years ago)

that would be sad if geffen felt compelled to censor rufus, but it seems unlikely to me. i mean, he's rufus for crissakes -- there's hardly a gayer artist out there. and if you flip the cd over, you can't help noticing there's a song on it called "gay messiah." so who exactly would they be fooling?

i love both of those covers. but both albums are very hit-and-miss. they could've made for one fantastic single cd.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 21 January 2005 04:47 (twenty-one years ago)

sort of, except they were released a year apart.

the original idea was to release them either simultaneously or within a few months of each other, but between dreamworks being sold right around the time of want one and someone at the label presumably realizing there may not exactly be huge demand for two simultaneous rufus albums, the full-year gap happened. they were recorded at the same time.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 21 January 2005 05:04 (twenty-one years ago)

the cover to "want one" is so awesome

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 21 January 2005 05:18 (twenty-one years ago)

what in the heck is the EXPLICIT CONTENT on Want 2 that warrants that PMRC sticker in the lower-left? Does he get very excited about anchovies or that coffee that koala bears digest before they roast it?

I absolutely stopped listening to Rufus, forever, the second I heard the line on Want One saying "My phone is on vibrate for you." That was it, iPod went off, and I haven't heard a note of his music since. It's too bad because that Jon Brion record (oh, I mean Rufus's debut) was quite nice.

― caspar (caspar), Friday, 21 January 2005 05:27 (twenty-one years ago)

my co-worker showed me this album and voiced the same theory. i vote stupidity. stupid sticker placement is legion, and since he just looks like some maxfield parrish waif, who would even know to be offended?

the parental advisory stickers are weird. as a record store employee i wonder if i should not sell CDs with those warnings to little kids. i haven't asked my manager because i don't want to be told no.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Friday, 21 January 2005 05:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, let's face it. Had there not been a sticker, there would be less publicity.

― donut christ (donut), Friday, 21 January 2005 06:03 (twenty-one years ago)

so you think maybe the rufus wainwright street team has been intentionally spreading the rumor in exchange for stickers and other gear?

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Friday, 21 January 2005 06:04 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.artistdirect.com/Images/Sources/AMGCOVERS/music/cover200/drg100/g136/g13607cjij9.jpg

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Friday, 21 January 2005 06:09 (twenty-one years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000006XLF.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Friday, 21 January 2005 06:10 (twenty-one years ago)

That's a really cool album cover with some nice hand-drawn artwork. But is anyone else kind of annoyed by the fact that it appears to be the same identical drawing on both CDs with the colors merely shifted? It kind of takes away from the handmade feel. It just smacks of not wanting to pay the illustrator a second time.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Friday, 21 January 2005 06:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Is it due to foul language in the lyrics? 'Cause that's usually the reason albums get stickered.

― Brett Hickman (Bhickman), Friday, 21 January 2005 14:38 (twenty-one years ago)

(I misread "ditties" as "titties" and was very confused.)

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 21 January 2005 14:42 (twenty-one years ago)

But is anyone else kind of annoyed by the fact that it appears to be the same identical drawing on both CDs with the colors merely shifted? It kind of takes away from the handmade feel. It just smacks of not wanting to pay the illustrator a second time.

considering how much money rufus appears to spend making his records -- low-budget recordings he does not make -- i doubt the price of one illustration is an issue to him. i assume, like guns n roses, he simply wanted to have unified covers for his two-part album. and they're both great.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 21 January 2005 15:21 (twenty-one years ago)

(I misread "ditties" as "titties" and was very confused.)

His dad's "Rufus Was a Titty Man" to thread.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 January 2005 15:28 (twenty-one years ago)

"rufus was a tit man," i believe.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 21 January 2005 15:35 (twenty-one years ago)

shit, wait, it's "rufus IS a tit man."

― nit picking cuz (fcc), Friday, 21 January 2005 15:44 (twenty-one years ago)

rufus was on montreal TV the other day talking about the sticker, he said it didn't bother him that much, that in the USA they would just put this sticker as soon as lyrics say the word fuck. but as far as i noticed there is not curses on the album, just some mentions of sex.

(from gay messiah)

No it will not be me
Rufus the baptist I be
No I won't be the one
Baptized in cum

What will happen instead
Someone will demand my head
And then I will kneel down
And give it to them looking down

― chomisan, Friday, 21 January 2005 15:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Are Geffen afraid of a little Medieval Cross-dressing?

wait, wait, wait. i thought that was his sister on the cover.

Geez. Does this apply to everyone or just him? 'Cuz if I applied the same rules to every recording artist, I'd probably not be listening to music anymore.

― john'n'chicago, Friday, 21 January 2005 15:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I have gone from really, really enjoying his debut to wishing ill upon him. The interview in Uncut a few months back was positively loathsome.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 21 January 2005 17:20 (twenty-one years ago)

The image is weird and innocuous enough(i.e. the offense isn't blatant) that I bet it's just unfortunate placement. 1/3 major label records have big "featuring the hits!" or "from the artist who brought you X and Y!" stickers anyhow.

― derrick (derrick), Friday, 21 January 2005 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

i mean, he's rufus for crissakes -- there's hardly a gayer artist out there.

In all fairness, I was surprised when someone told me he was gay. I only knew of his music, and from that I couldn't tell.

Then, I was also surprised when I was informed that Morrisey was gay, and still cannot believe Stephen Merritt is.

― David Allen (David Allen), Friday, 21 January 2005 18:57 (twenty-one years ago)

BTW, I haven't heard Want One, but judging by the cover, it's all Dio covers, right?

― David Allen (David Allen), Friday, 21 January 2005 18:58 (twenty-one years ago)

wow I'm jealous. those sleeves are beautiful.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 21 January 2005 19:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe the stickers is kinda like a Rolling Stones' Undercover bait'n'switch tactic: it's there so punters will think when they peel it off at home they'll find something really lurid underneath (you know "unheard melodies" and all that). Maybe people were buying the cd thinking from the photo it was an Anna McGarrigle solo album and then demanding refunds once they heard what went on inside.

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Friday, 21 January 2005 19:01 (twenty-one years ago)

In all fairness, I was surprised when someone told me he was gay. I only knew of his music, and from that I couldn't tell.

he's always been open about it lyrically, but he's not the world's most coherent lyricist, so sometimes it can be hard to tell! but he's gotten more and more open about it in more recent albums, and if you ever see him live ... well that boy is just one flaming ho of a homo. and i mean that in the nicest way. i think he's hilarious.

want one, unfortunately, does not have a single dio cover. no saxon or bathory covers either.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 21 January 2005 19:04 (twenty-one years ago)

http://image.clickbox.co.kr/JaketLarge/7/00028367.jpg

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 21 January 2005 19:05 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.rockzone.com/reviews/images/rasputina.jpg

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 21 January 2005 19:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I have gone from really, really enjoying his debut to wishing ill upon him. The interview in Uncut a few months back was positively loathsome.

What kind of things did he say?

― Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Friday, 21 January 2005 19:11 (twenty-one years ago)

His sister Martha's new EP, BMFA (which stands for Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole), features a nekkid curvaceous human body on its cover (and no, it's not Martha and I don't think it's Rufus either). No one has seen the need to censor her yet. Anyway, I think the Wainwright children, as good card-carrying Canadians, feel compelled to smack us on our puritanical American schnozzolas. And I’m all for it, so long as I don’t have to listen to Rufus whining about how hard it is to be Rufus, which seems to be his new career trajectory.

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Friday, 21 January 2005 19:57 (twenty-one years ago)

god that cover is so hot

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 22 January 2005 00:51 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B0006V6TLM/ref=dp_product-image-only_0/002-7703835-7166437?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=507846

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Saturday, 22 January 2005 01:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Let's try again:

http://a1055.g.akamai.net/f/1055/1400/5h/images.barnesandnoble.com/images/8880000/8888871.jpg

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Saturday, 22 January 2005 01:41 (twenty-one years ago)

argh! that font! and the overlapping multicolored lettering! her brother has better taste in graphic design.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 22 January 2005 02:25 (twenty-one years ago)

I would assume Geffen/Dreamworks $ > self-released $. And for what it's worth, I'll still go with Martha's.

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Saturday, 22 January 2005 06:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Is that Rufus' cock in the Want Two album cover?

― Mr. Snrub, Saturday, 22 January 2005 06:30 (twenty-one years ago)

It's a scroll.

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Saturday, 22 January 2005 06:41 (twenty-one years ago)

it occurred to me whilst shoveling the 12 inches of white fluffy stuff out to my garage in order to retrieve cat litter left in the trunk of our car that the sticker is easily explained by geffen's attempt clearing up any consumer confusion. yes, it's a different colored border, but joe-rufus-fan in tower may be inclined to look past it as a new edition of want one. slap a sticker on it and make it clear as day that this is a new album.

also, using martha as the cover star may confuse people more, since text doesn't exactly jump out over the image. slap a sticker on that bitch, problem solved.

― john'n'chicago, Saturday, 22 January 2005 16:28 (twenty-one years ago)

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