#8 - Elvis Presley: Elvis Presley (1956) / London Calling: The Clash (1980)

 

It’s a tie! Two for one! 

I guess you could call the latter one an homage. Personally, though, I think it’s a lot more than that. 

It was the work of Ray Lowry, mostly known as a cartoonist.

He loved rock ‘n roll, though, ingratiating himself with and later touring with the Clash. Overall, he’s only got five album credits, with three of those for Gaye Bykers on Acid.

The photo, by the way, was taken by Pennie Smith. 

And here’s some of her work:

The cool thing about the Clash was that they were as punk as it gets, but at the same time, were not bad musicians and wrote some great songs.

London Calling is a great example of that. It’s also #8 on Rolling Stone’s greatest albums of all time.

A couple other Clash covers I like:

And the band (Mick Jones, Topper Headon, Joe Strummer, Paul Simonon):

Elvis? Well, I understand he was pretty influential too.

This was his debut, coming out in 1956. It was also the first rock ‘n roll album to reach #1 and also to sell a million albums. The big hit on this one was “Blue Suede Shoes.” Perhaps you’ve heard of it?

The photo was taken by one William V. "Red" Robertson, and is affectionately known as the “tonsil shot.” I’m really not sure who did the design.

Here's another cover of Elvis’s that I like (sorry, most of them are pretty cheesy):

Some other homages (for both), and a few parodies:

That last one was courtesy of the famous Banksy, by the way.

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