Roxy Music - Country Life - Controversial Album Cover

Roxy Music - Country Life - Controversial Album Cover

Posted by Matt Lehman on Aug 24th 2023

Roxy Music - Country Life 

It was released on November 15, 1974 and is their 4th studio album 

The Title was taken from the British rural magazine named….Country Life.

The photo was shot by Eric Boman, the Country Life cover features two scantily-clad models, Constanze Karoli (sister of Can's Michael Karoli and Eveline Grunwald (who was also Michael Karoli's girlfriend). Bryan Ferry met them in Portugal and persuaded them to do the photo shoot as well as to help him with the words to the song “Bitter-Sweet".

The cover image was controversial in some countries, including the United States and Spain, where it was censored for release. As a result, early releases in the US were packaged in opaque shrink wrap; a later American LP release of Country Life (available during the years 1975–80) featured a different cover shot. Instead of Karoli and Grunwald posed in front of some trees, the reissue used a photo from the album's back cover that featured only the trees. In Australia, the album was banned in some record stores, while others sold each copy inside a black plastic sleeve.