What follows is basically a reworking, a compilation, of some posts I wrote over five years ago for another site.
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Most of you are no doubt aware that the front sleeve design of Elvis' first album was used as a template for the front cover of The Clash's third album, "London Calling", in 1979.
Here are the covers of both albums. For the Elvis one, I have chosen the rare Mexican version, for a change :
But what is not so widely known is the fact that the first single to be released from "London Calling", which coupled the title song with the non-album track "Armagideon Time", also included a visual mention of Elvis' debut album.
That 45 sleeve featured a vintage looking design of a couple listening to records, with several album covers spread all around them.
From left to right, we can see the debut albums of The Beatles, The Sex Pistols, The Rolling Stones, The Clash, and Elvis Presley. As a bonus, they also featured the back cover of Bob Dylan's sixth album, "Highway 61 Revisited" :
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We all know how the uncropped Elvis photo looked like, but here's the uncropped photo showing Clash's bass player Paul Simonon while he smashed his instrument.
The photo was taken by English photographer Pennie Smith, at The Palladium, New York City, on Friday, September 21, 1979 :
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A couple of neat photos of Strummer and Simonon :
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More original Clash / Strummer record sleeves with the LPM-1254 connection :
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And finally, as a bonus, one of Bruce Springsteen with a very similar, if not identical, t-shirt :