Farrell Is Addicted to Not Covering Up His Covers

It’s one of the strange ironies of American culture--and its attitude toward sex and nudity--that Perry Farrell could hang his latest piece of art in most local galleries without causing the slightest rumpus. (It’s a three-dimensional piece of fetish-style folk art that features a likeness of Farrell and two women, naked in bed, with the sheets down low enough to see portions of everybody’s genitals.)

But when Farrell, who is the leader of the critically lauded rock group Jane’s Addiction, put the same piece of art on his new album cover, it could be banned from many record stores around the country. Farrell knows from experience. When Jane’s Addiction’s previous album, “Nothing’s Shocking,” hit the stores in 1988, nine of the 11 leading record chains refused to carry it because of its cover, which featured a Farrell painting of two naked nymphettes.

The possibility of a repeat performance has Farrell’s record company, Warner Bros. Records, so worried that it asked Farrell to provide the label with an alternate cover for retail chains that refuse to carry the original. In an era where record companies have been under attack by increasingly militant conservative legislators, parents groups and anti-pornography crusaders, it’s no wonder Warners is nervous about the reception for the album, “Ritual de lo Habitual,” which is due out in late August.

“When Warners first saw the cover, they kind of smirked and qsaid ‘Oh no. Here we go again!’ ” Farrell recalled. “But then I guess it started to sink in, because I began getting calls saying, ‘We need to have a talk about this.’ ”

Farrell said he met with Warners’ top brass, including label chairman Mo Ostin and president Lenny Waronker, who spelled out the economic realities. If he insisted on keeping the album’s frontal-nudity cover, the band could end up selling “as little as 1,000 copies.”

“They said with the current atmosphere, retailers are far more conservative than ever,” Farrell explained. “They told me people are getting arrested for selling albums that are being deemed pornographic (by some local law enforcement officials).”

Farrell said Warners’ initial idea was to airbrush out his genitals. “They already had a transparency of it, ready to go,” he said. “But I refused to compromise. To me that’s a sick cultural attitude--that it’s OK to show a woman’s breast and (genitals), but not OK to show a man’s (genitals). It’s a real double standard.”

Still, Farrell didn’t want to end up like 2 Live Crew, the Miami-based rap act whose records have disappeared from many retail chains after clerks were arrested for selling them to minors. So he struck a deal. “I said that I’d do a second cover if (Warners) would guarantee they’d run the original cover uncensored.”

Not everyone agrees with the compromise. “It’s a bad omen,” says Danny Goldberg, a leading rock manager and American Civil Liberties Union exec. “I can’t believe Warners really believes they would lose record sales because a few nuts would pressure stores into refusing to carry an album. If tiny Priority Records can sell millions of controversial N.W.A albums, then surely Warners has the clout to get stores to stock a Jane’s Addiction album.”

Warners’ top exec insisted that the decision to provide an alternate cover was made “completely in conjunction” with its artist. “If we had made this decision without Perry, then you could say it was self-censorship,” explained Lenny Waronker. “But we really believe in this band, so we were willing to let Perry do what he wanted to do. We just wanted him to know the possible repercussions of the situation.

“Considering the conservative nature of things now, we assume there will be some retailers that will have a problem with the album art. Everyone ultimately agreed that since it’s not the music that’s presenting a problem, why should the music suffer. So we’re giving retailers a choice of what to carry so everyone can concentrate on Jane’s Addiction’s music, which we think is very special.”

While Farrell’s original art is far more striking, the alternate cover is deliciously apt, considering the heated debate over censorship raging in today’s arts world. It features the First Amendment (“Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech and of the press”), printed on a bare white background. The back cover has a brief Farrell editorial, saying: “Hitler’s syphilis-ridden dreams almost came true. . . . We must protect our First Amendment before sick dreams become law. Nobody made fun of Hitler!”

Farrell explained: “I just wanted to make the point that if you start restricting the media and and the arts that it leaves you defenseless from people who want to use propaganda to destroy our culture. Censorship can only lead to our worst nightmares. I don’t want to be apolitical spokesman or a Ted Danson about this. But it’s not funny anymore. And I think it’s time to speak up before it’s too late.”