Retro Spins: Make A Difference Foundation - Stairway To Heaven / Highway To Hell

 

The Moscow Peace Festival which took place in August 1989, brought hair and metal bands together under one venue for a night of rock across the USSR. Cinderella, Gorky Park, Nuance, Brigade S, Scorpions, Skid Row, Mötley Crüe, Ozzy Osbourne, Bon Jovi, and special guest, Jason Bonham, would all take respective turns performing a selection of their hits, all broadcast live across fifty-nine nations. The event would go on to inspire the hit, Winds Of Change by Scorpions.

This was followed by the compilation, Stairway To Heaven / Highway To Hell, released under the banner, Make A Difference Foundation, which featured studio performances of cover hits by most of the folks noted above. All album proceeds would be split between Make a Difference and the Soviet Union's All-Union Society for Sobriety.

Now I'll be the first to tell you that most covers never hold a candle to the original, but there are exceptions. What's surprising is that all of them on this compilation fall under the exception. They're amazing!

Each respective artist brings their all, in only the style they know how. With amps cranked up to eleven, and bellowing vocals that would scare a pack of wolves away. Part hair band, part metal, all loud.

It's awesome to hear some of my favorite artists from the 80's performing "new" material, like an old friend come to visit again. While each artist performs their own studio cover, it wraps up with a three-part live performance "jam" from the event with everyone involved performing Hound Dog, Long Tall Sally, Blue Suede Shoes, and Rock & Roll.

Though it was never released on DVD, you can also get a two-volume VHS set from 1989 of The Moscow Peace Festival, though volume one is far rarer than two for some reason. While I wish it was on DVD, this is still a great way to enjoy the show.

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Retro Spins: Scorpions - Love At First Sting

Let's make August a heavy metal kind of month. One that thrashes with sick guitar licks, thumping drums and punchy bass. Let's also start it off with Scorpions.

You definitely get all of the above with their 1984 album, Love At First Sting. Aided by a successful live performance on MTV a few years prior, it was the record which cemented their international fame in the United States. Of course, it didn't hurt that it included smash hits, Rock You Like A Hurricane, Big City Nights and Still Loving You.

Coincidentally, these are the only stand out tracks to be found. Mind you, there's nothing necessarily "bad" here. They're just not anything as impactful as these three. They set the bar pretty high for the remainder of the album.

Despite their popularity, longevity and impact on the 80's, believe it or not, none of them ever broke into the top ten. Rock You Like A Hurricane peaked at number twenty-five, Still Loving You debuted and disappeared the following week at eighty-six and Big City Nights didn't chart at all. This was unexpected news when I dug into the history of the album.

Over the years, the band has come into a lot of controversy over their choice of album covers. While there was none more worse than their original for 1976's Virgin Killer - A cover anyone with any sense of moral compass would find vile and disgusting, the original cover for Love At First Sting continued this trend of backlash. It's because of this that you can find two versions of the album. The original as depicted here and the alternate "clean" version, which is a picture of the band walking towards the camera against a blank background.

Album covers aside, if you're looking for the three powerhouse tracks noted above, this is definitely the place to find them. You'll get a solid album overall, but as I said, these ones definitely stand out among the rest.

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Disclaimer: They Toy Box does not endorse or contribute to piracy. Retro Spins posts are intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. None of the music discussed here is available for sale, downloading or distribution.