Playlist & Show Notes
In 1985 the Soviet Union banned 38 famous musicians and bands whose “repertoires contain ideologically harmful compositions.” Who is on this list is going to surprise you. Some are the usual suspects, like the first two bands I’m going to play. Some… Not so obvious. Some banned acts will truly astonish you.
I got my hands on that list of bands banned in the U.S.S.R. and during the middle hour of the show, the “Happy Hour,” I play for you the hard rock, heavy metal, and hair bands on the list as well as tell you why they were prohibited from radio play, play in clubs and bars, and from being played live by Russian bands.
Plus: Hits from Bon Jovi, Ratt, Def Leppard, Cinderella, and others. Two songs with the same name from different stadium-filling hair bands, and the Cover Song of the Week, a song every real rock fan knows from just three simple hand gestures.
The List
Here is the complete list of the musical acts banned in 1985 by the U.S.S.R.’s All Union Lenin Communist Union of Youth Nikolayev Regional Committee of Komsomol of Ukraine, in the order included on the original Soviet list. Beside each musical act is the type of “ideologically harmful” propoganda allegedly contained within their respective musical catalogs.
- The Sex Pistols: punk, violence
- B-52s: punk, violence
- The Madness: punk, violence
- The Clash: punk, violence
- The Stranglers: punk, violence
- KISS: neofascism, punk, violence
- Krokus: violence, cult of strong personality
- Styx: violence, vandalism
- Iron Maiden: violence, religious obscurantism
- Judas Priest: anticommunism, racism
- AC/DC: neofascism, violence
- Sparks: neofascism, racism
- Black Sabbath: violence, religious obscurantism
- Alice Cooper: violence, vandalism
- Nazareth: violence, religious mysticism
- The Scorpions: violence
- Genghis Khan: anticommunism, nationalism
- UFO: violenct
- Pink Floyd: distortion of Soviet foreign policy (“Soviet agression in Afghanistan”)
- The Talking Heads: myth of the Soviet military threat
- Perron: eroticism
- Bohannon: eroticism
- The Originals: sex
- Donna Summer: eroticism
- Tina Turner: sex
- Junior English: sex
- Canned Heat: homosexuality
- Munich Machine: eroticism
- TheRamones: punk
- Van Halen: anti-Soviet propaganda
- Julio Iglesias: neofascism
- Yazoo: punk, violence
- Depeche Mode: punk, violence
- The Village People: violence
- 10cc: neofascism
- The Stooges: violence
- The Boys: punk, violence
- Blondie: punk, violence
Source: Everything was Forever, Until it was No More: The Last Soviet Generation by Alexei Yurchak.
Playlist
Own the hits and deep cuts you hear on Hard, Heavy & Hair! Click the iTunes/Apple Music or Amazon Digital Music icons to the left of each song.
Gorky Park – Bang
Bon Jovi – You Give Love a Bad Name
Ratt – Way Cool Jr.
Babylon A.D – Desperate
Mötley Crüe – Rattlesnake Shake
Happy Hour: Banned in the U.S.S.R.
Black Sabbath – Sweet Leaf
Judas Priest – Living After Midnight
Nazareth – Hair of the Dog
Iron Maiden – The Number of the Beast
Alice Cooper – Poison
Van Halen – Panama
UFO – Rock Bottom
KISS – Deuce
Scorpions – Dynamite
Krokus – Screaming in the Night
Styx – Renegade
AC/DC – Thunderstruck
Skid Row – Rattlesnake Shake
Diemonds – Better Off Dead
Love/Hate – Rock Queen
Whitesnake – Is This Love
Cover Song of the Week
Cover: Warrant – We Will Rock You
Original: Queen – We Will Rock You
Cinderella – Shake Me
Def Leppard – Let’s Get Rocked
