Queen Greatest Hits II was the first CD I ever bought. The second was Micheal Jackson's Dangerous but we no longer talk about that. I blame my older cousin Matt for the Queen purchase. He was a Queen fanatic. I think after failing to petition his mother for permission to change his name to Roger Taylor the cat was renamed Roger. I remember one birthday at the Beach house Matt played me Queen songs as a present. Believe me when you're 10, this is awesome!
So I played that CD like forever and I fell in love with I Want It All. I think it was a song about Gen X but in all likelihood it was a rallying cry for 'black African youths'. Hell I was like 16 and I just wanted to get into Pulp Fiction without being ID'ed back then. I loved the guitar solo. Brian May at his best. A Blitzkrieg of a riff.
So when I happened to get myself a copy of the album the song came from, The Miracle the other day I was mega surprised to hear the album version was a different version from the greatest hits. There was a different intro, and there there was an additional beginning to the solo. The music was made angrier and harder by this! It also made Brian May look even more clever by half. Red Special indeed.
So here's the lesson, record companies and radio stations screw you with edited songs and speed up versions so they can fit more room on a CD or play list. Oh god, I just realised there's probably a radio edit of Meat Loaf's I'd do Anything for Love out there and someone is missing out....
Here's the full version with Blistering Brian on youtube with cuts of Queen..
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