My favorite H.R. Giger story was from when he met the rock band Emerson Lake and Palmer and agreed to do the album art for Brain Salad Surgery. The album name - innuendo for a sex act - inspired an equally sexual album cover. [1] The original image was a futuristic woman with a penis covering her mouth.

The band loved it, but the record company refused to release the album. The band, placed in a difficult position, petitioned to Geiger to adjust the artwork. Geiger refused to bow to the band's and record company's demands, and in the end the record company had to hire an airbrush artist to remove it as much as possible... leading to the "shaft of light" along the neck.

[1] http://images.coveralia.com/audio/e/Emerson,_Lake_y_Palmer-B... (SFW)