Controversy
Some of the band's artworks have proved controversial, such as the cover of "Sanctuary," in which Eddie can be seen standing over the corpse of Margaret Thatcher. It was claimed that Iron Maiden were banned from releasing the single without censoring the cover, blacking out Thatcher's face, although Riggs has since claimed that this was fabricated by the band's management to gain publicity in the British tabloids.
The most amount of controversy, however, was reserved for the band's third album, The Number of the Beast, whose artwork depicted Eddie controlling Satan like a marionette. Originally created by Riggs for the "Purgatory" single cover, but deemed too good by Smallwood and withheld for the next studio release, the image, along with the record's title track, led to the "moral majority" labelling Iron Maiden as Satanists and organising public burnings of their back-catalogue in the United States, which in turn gave them a large amount of publicity.
Read more about this topic: Eddie The Head
Famous quotes containing the word controversy:
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