Censored Silk Electric cassette

2 comments
Eighties, Pop & Rock

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The cover portrait for the 1982 Diana Ross album Silk Electric was based on a Polaroid picture that Warhol shot of the singer, with bare shoulders.

For the release of the album on cassette in Egypt, the naked shoulder seemed to be a problem. Which was easily fixed with some art director magic: Diana Ross is now wearing a blue dress with a tiny black collar. (There is no mention of the country of origin on the cassette, but according to Discogs the label Super was Egyptian).

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Egyptian cover of the Silk Electric-cassette on the Super label.

Also In Saudi Arabia the album  Silk Electric was released on cassette. The approach to censor the cover art was different, though: the cover was cropped – zoomed-in if you like – so the bare shoulder was not in the picture at all.

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Two Saudi cassettes with Diana Ross albums. Left: Silk Electric with cropped cover. Right:  Why Do Fools Fall in Love, with a sort of ‘frosty’ paint-over.

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RCA promo picture of Andy Warhol and Diana Ross in front of her portrait by Warhol.

2 thoughts on “Censored Silk Electric cassette”

  1. Once again, a fascinating post, Guy! And again I learned quite a lot of new info. First, I had no idea the the Silk Electric album was released by RCA in America – I have only seen Capitol/EMI versions. So the RCA promo photo was very special.
    Thanks, Richard.

    Liked by 1 person

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