Questions answered on this page:
- "Deacon John"??
- Different Classic Queen CDs
- Hollywood Remastering Errors
- Valule of Old EMI Releases
- The Highlander Soundtrack
- Queen's "New York, New York"
- Defference between "At the BBC" and "At the Beeb"
When the first album was being worked on Roger and Freddie decided that
it sounded much more interesting to switch John's name around. Being new
to the group, John didn't feel comfortable protesting much, so his namei
went on the album as Deacon John. By the second album, he put his foot
down and went back to being John Deacon.
Yes, in 1989 Capitol Records (Queen's 2nd US record company, from 1984-
1989) released a promo only CD with 12 of their greatest hits from the 70s
along with two versions of "I Want It All". This is different than the
1992 Hollywood compilation that was officially released. The Capitol
promo CD is considered a collectible and is rather hard to find.
Here's the list of the three errors that I know of. Does anyone out there
have a Hollywood Records copy of Sheer Heart Attack or The Miracle that's
been fixed for sure?
On News of the World, the first 4-5 seconds of "It's Late" were left off--
the first couple guitar chords were missing. This one's definitely been
fixed.
On Sheer Heart Attack, one of the screams at the beginning of "In the
Lap of the Gods" is missing, resulting in the beginning being a bit shorter.
I've never heard of anyone with a corrected version.
Also, on the Miracle, "I Want it All" is different. There's a chorus line
that has been left out, and I believe there are some extra vocals somewhere.
The difference comes about 1:15 into the CD if you compare it to a Capitol
or EMI release. The missing line results in the IWIA on Hollywood's CD
being shorter than the original.
No, not more than any other used CD. EMI has issued remasters of the
Queen's entire catalog, which correct the previous tracking errors and
probably have better sound quality. Jacky Smith from the Queen
International Fan Club said in one of the club magazines that if you
already owned the first ones, it was not really worth your while to
purchase the new ones. The errors that were fixed were mostly to correct
track markings on the CDs and such. (The music was all there, but the
track separations that CD players use were in the wrong places.)
Despite the fact that the trailer to the _Highlander_ movie lists a
soundtrack, one was never released. Most of the songs from the movie were
reworked into a "proper songs" (as Brian said in one interview) and appear
with a few other songs on the album _A Kind of Magic_.
There are abundant rumors of a few 'test pressings' of the soundtrack that
got released, but word of these is always second or third hand. There is
absolutely *no* evidence that such a thing exists. Indeed, the fact that
it has never been bootlegged seems evidence to the contrary.
There is no known recording of a complete version of "New York, New York".
During the question and answer session at the OIQFC convention in 1995, Spike
Edney said that he was there for the recording of this song and that a complete
version had not been made. More recently, in the Winter 1995 OIQFC magazine,
Brian May seems to say that there wasn't a complete version of the song
recorded. The only bootlegs that have this song have the clip recorded directly
from the Highlander movie, complete with bits of dialog.
The albums are the same. "At the Beeb" was released in Europe, and
a few years later when Hollywood Records released the album in North
America, they didn’t think that people would know that "Beeb" was
slang for the BBC, so they changed the name. The cover artwork is
different, and "At the BBC" comes with a fold-out poster, but the
music is identical.
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