BABY BABY: Old rock rebel David Bowie...

By Steve Hochman

Oct. 27, 1991 12 AM PT

BABY BABY: Old rock rebel David Bowie couldn’t get away with it. More recent rock rebels U2 decided not to really try to get away with it. But young rock rebels Nirvana seem to be getting away with it: showing full-frontal male nudity on an album cover.

The cover of the acclaimed Seattle band’s album “Nevermind” is a photo of a baby, naked as the day he was born, floating in water and grasping at a dollar bill dangled on a fish hook.

There’s no airbrushing in store for the little tyke, as was done to the four Greek statues on Bowie’s “Tin Machine II” album after several retail chains balked at the nudity. And no strategically placed X, which is what U2 is voluntarily doing to a small photo of bassist Adam Clayton on the CD and cassette packages of the upcoming “Achtung Baby” album. (The U2 vinyl version will be an unretouched collector’s item.)

But the Nirvana baby is going to remain as is for all to see, pledged Geffen Records marketing head Robert Smith.

“I think the Tin Machine cover change was just one step away from making dogs wear clothes in public,” he said. “We’re an artist-oriented company. For us to be the arbiter of community tastes is a daunting and absurd role to play. The cover really makes a comment on how culture corrupts the innocence of a baby. For us to censor that artwork would make us guilty of compromise.”

So far, Smith said, there have been no complaints, though the album (just out last month) hasn’t exactly flooded the family-oriented stores that generally won’t handle controversial material. “This isn’t a record that’s going straight to the K marts and Wal-Marts,” he said. “This is more of an alternative project that’s going to build.”

Even if it does go to the Wal-Marts, Smith said, there are no contingency plans to cover up the cover boy.

“Truthfully, the only thing people have objected to so far is a couple of people thought the fish hook looks too menacing.”