Back in late 1989 several heavy metal and hard rock artists gathered at the now historic Metropolis Studios in London for a project to raise money to help those affected by the December 7th, 1988 earthquake in Gyumri, Armenia. It was called Rock Aid Armenia - The Earthquake Album and was released in 1990. This humanitarian album project consisted of original tracks by the bands of the different contributors (including The Spirit of Radio from Rush) and a popular re-recording of one of Deep Purple's famous hit songs Smoke on the water, with different vocalists singing each verse. Contributors included Bryan Adams, Geoff Beauchamp, Ritchie Blackmore, Bruce Dickinson, Jeff Downes, Keith Emerson, Ian Gillan, David Gilmour, John Paul Jones, Tony Iommi, Jon Lord, Brian May, Paul Rodgers, Chris Squire, Roger Taylor and Rush's own Alex Lifeson. A 20th anniversary re-release of the Smoke on the Water track along with a making-of DVD titled Smoke on the Water: the Metropolis Sessions will be released next month on November 22nd and is available for pre-order here. An mp3 version of the CD is already available for download at this link. You can watch the original video for the song below or at this link and catch glimpses of Alex Lifeson at the 1:44, 2:13, 3:25 and 4:03 marks.

Thanks to jeffb2112 for the heads up.

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