Poll: Favorite Version of Keep Yourself Alive

Pick your favorite of the three!

Feel free to defend your choice below, as polls have a tendency to get screwed with. I picked the demo version, mainly because I like the vocals and the drum solo the best of the three.

I'm gonna have to say the long lost retake is my favorite. The album version is fine, the demo is really just raw version of the album which i like very much, but then we come to the retake which incorporates the best of both worlds and its really fantastic.

Have to say long lost retake. It's the most energetic.

Had to go with De Lane Lea. Album version has great vocals and great guitar work but shitty drum sound. The retake is great but the drum solo is heavily truncated and the guitar solo is somewhat simplified, though I do love the chorus harmonies on that version. De Lane Lea is my overall favourite, the band sound great, it's very relaxed but powerful and upbeat at the same time, and Freddie's voice has a certain youthful quality to it which I think complements the song nicely.

They all have their charms, but the re-take is just so well done. It's probably what they would've wanted to do in 1972 but didn't have the time and/or technology to. By 1975 their studio chops had greatly improved, and those three years of growth are very apparent.

We can only imagine how good The March Of The Black Queen would've sounded had they redone it in 1975 on 24 track tape.

Btw, to waunakonor..

"Hey baby, I think I'm getting religious, 'cause you're looking divine tonight!"

Is this from a Roger song? I don't recognize it, but it sure is his style.

[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]

Btw, to waunakonor..

"Hey baby, I think I'm getting religious, 'cause you're looking divine tonight!"

Is this from a Roger song? I don't recognize it, but it sure is his style.[/QUOTE]
Haha, it's a dumb little joke that I have with myself. In Breakthru, when it says "I get religion quick, 'cause you're looking divine," I thought that sounded like some sort of pickup line, so I turned it into that. So, yes, it is a Roger song, just a little twisted.

Montreal '81 because I like how the guitar "solo" is worked into the song.

Has to be the retake for me. But one has to wonder what went wrong with the drums on Queen 1. RT's feelings towards have been documented in the past and I agree. It says something when the demos beat the main production on drum sound.

Long Lost Re-Take is amazing!! but i like very much the LK version

[QUOTE] [b]marc.s wrote:[/b]

But one has to wonder what went wrong with the drums on Queen 1.

[/QUOTE]

Easy - they had little say in how they were mic'd and EQ'd. They had creative control (within the limited time they had), but comparatively little say in the mix and overall sound.

For me, it's not even close. Long Lost Re-Take by a mile.

Was it ever explained why it wasn't released in the USA and they just re-released the original instead??