This included Elden’s parents who didn’t think twice about allowing their son’s private parts to be photographed for the album. Nobody expected Nevermind to be a hit, let alone an international sensation that would define an entire era. No one saw it coming but we’re all really thankful that we were along for the ride.” It completely changed my life for the better, everybody I know closely associated with the band will say the same thing. Kurt had written a bunch of amazing songs that were super hooky but I had no idea it was gonna be a zeitgeist moment, it just completely exploded, it really was like a revolution. “I mean, the band had been playing really well and they were really tight and focused when they came into the studio. “ Nevermind was a special record,” the album’s producer Butch Vig recently fondly recollected to Far Out.

Cobain did eventually agree to not show Elden’s penis on the cover on the record but only on the condition that there would be a sticker covering the genitalia reading: “If you’re offended by this, you must be a closet paedophile.” Geffen didn’t want to show Elden’s penis on the cover and tried their hardest to get Nirvana to agree on an alternative cover but getting the band to budge would be easier said than done. Photographer Kirk Weddle was sent out by Fisher to a local pool to shoot the cover art after recruiting his friends baby to take part, for a fee of just $200. They then came to a compromise and went for the swimming baby option but the label was unwilling to shell out $7,500 on a stock image of a swimming baby so, instead, they created their own. The singer then brought this up next time he saw Geffen’s art director Robert Fisher who discovered some stock footage of underwater births which was immediately ruled out by the label bosses. Cobain was the mastermind behind the operation and the initial idea came to the late frontman when he was watching a programme about water births.

What does nirvana nevermind cover mean