Did The CIA Write SCORPIONS Hit "Wind Of Change"? New Podcast Series Investigates Secret History Of Cold War Espionage And Heavy Metal
July 14, 2020, 4 years ago
It’s 1990. The Berlin Wall has just come down. The Soviet Union is on the verge of collapse. A heavy metal band from West Germany, the Scorpions, releases a power ballad, “Wind Of Change". The song becomes the soundtrack to the peaceful revolution sweeping Europe - and one of the biggest rock singles ever. According to some fans, it’s the song that ended the Cold War.
Decades later, New Yorker writer Patrick Radden Keefe hears a rumor from a source: the Scorpions didn’t actually write “Wind Of Change”. The CIA did.
This is Patrick’s journey to find the truth. Among former operatives and leather-clad rockers, from Moscow to Kiev to a GI Joe convention in Ohio, it’s a story about spies doing the unthinkable, about propaganda hidden in pop music, and a maze of government secrets. “Wind Of Change.” An offbeat eight part investigation
Wind Of Change is an Original Series from Pineapple Street Studios, Crooked Media and Spotify. Binge the full season here.
