Show Hard, Heavy & Hair – 135 – Banned in the USSR

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.

1. The Sex Pistols: punk, violence
2. B-52s: punk, violence
3. The Madness: punk, violence
4. The Clash: punk, violence
5. The Stranglers: punk, violence
6. KISS: neofascism, punk, violence
7. Krokus: violence, cult of strong personality
8. Styx: violence, vandalism
9. Iron Maiden: violence, religious obscurantism
10. Judas Priest: anticommunism, racism
11. AC/DC: neofascism, violence
12. Sparks: neofascism, racism
13. Black Sabbath: violence, religious obscurantism
14. Alice Cooper: violence, vandalism
15. Nazareth: violence, religious mysticism
16. The Scorpions: violence
17. Genghis Khan: anticommunism, nationalism
18. UFO: violenct
19. Pink Floyd: distortion of Soviet foreign policy (“Soviet agression in Afghanistan”)
20. The Talking Heads: myth of the Soviet military threat
21. Perron: eroticism
22. Bohannon: eroticism
23. The Originals: sex
24. Donna Summer: eroticism
25. Tina Turner: sex
26. Junior English: sex
27. Canned Heat: homosexuality
28. Munich Machine: eroticism
29. TheRamones: punk
30. Van Halen: anti-Soviet propaganda
31. Julio Iglesias: neofascism
32. Yazoo: punk, violence
33. Depeche Mode: punk, violence
34. The Village People: violence
35. 10cc: neofascism
36. The Stooges: violence
37. The Boys: punk, violence
38. 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

Skid Row – Rattlesnake Shake

Diemonds – Better Off Dead

Love/Hate – Rock Queen

Whitesnake – Is This Love

Cinderella – Shake Me

Def Leppard – Let’s Get Rocked