The Miracle Collector’s Edition - All Discussion

I noticed that as well, My guess is that it's the guide vocal leaking from someone's headphones.

Listened to the vinyl from the box set today. It's absolutely fantastic. Better than my 2015 Ludwig pressing by far, which is odd as I thought it was the same, plus TMLWKY. Not sure if anything additional has been done on this pressing, but it sounds amazing.

Per boxset credits the vinyl album is NOT the Bob Ludwig remaster.
The vinyl was mastered by Kevin Metcalfe & Gordon Vickary.
The CD is the Bob Ludwig master though.

I've been listening to the sessions disc to death.. It's just full of great moments. I only have one complaint: the false starts. I mean, how many false starts do they think we need to hear in order to understand that they are not perfect, and these are works-in-progress? Many of the songs include a major mistake in the first bars of the song (Freddie starting to sing too early, someone missing the cue etc..) resulting in audible acknowledgement of the mistake or a stop & re-start. Any other mistakes apart from those first bar flaws are almost completetly absent from the sessions. IGWFO is the only song that completely breaks down in the middle of the song, and for obvious reason: they never finished it. All the other songs are pretty much complete and flawless. Maybe a bum note here and there?? How many mistakes have you spotted?

I know these version are frankensteined from multiple in-progress takes, so they could pick up the best bits. But if the point of this excercise was to give us the opportunity to be flies on the wall on the sessions, then I think their tool box for achieving that goal is sparing. It's a bit repetetive to have so many false starts on otherwise flawless performances.

Other than that, I've really enjoyed the sessions disc very much. And yes, often the outcomes of those false starts are hilarious... It's just that their ide of raw version follows the pattern of 1) studio chatter, 2) false start, 3) comment on the false start 4) flawless perfomance 5)more studio chatter. And in the end, they're "supposed to be professionals!"

"The Miracle" has always been one of my favourite Queen albums. But it is beyond me why they used less than half of those prolific sessions.
Therefore I have compiled a so-called "The Complete Miracle" album using the box set stuff - just for myself. 22 tracks in total. Of course, I did some minor editing, namely for the sessions tracks, to make the whole thing sound more or less like a finished product.
Since the duration of this compilation is 78 min, I've burned the tracks on one CD and now enjoy listening to it, especially when driving.
For obvious reason I can't upload it here, but would gladly share it if anybody is interested

So here is my track list (I prefer using a 'double LP' concept):

Side A
1. Party (edited 'Sessions' version)
2. Khashoggi's Ship (Stand-Alone Version)
3. The Miracle
4. I Want It All
5. Water

Side B
1. Stealin'
2. Too Much Love Will Kill You
3. Hijack My Heart
4. The Invisible Man (Video Version)
5. I Guess We're Falling Out (edited, 'Fiddly Jam' part omitted)
6. Chinese Torture

Side C
1. When Love Breaks Up (edited)
2. Breakthru (The 'Now' Edit)
3. Rain Must Fall
4. Face It Alone
5. Dig With A Bone (edited)
6. You Know You Belong To Me

Side D
1. Scandal
2. My Life Has Been Saved (Original 1989 Version)
3. Hang On In There
4. My Baby Loves Me (edited)
5. Was It All Worth It

Agreed, it's quite an emotive little piece.

Welcome to the forum. 🙂

Two late-addition thoughts:

1. How have I never noticed the similarities between the end of The Miracle and Freddie's Let's Turn it on?! I only realized after comparing the original Miracle ending to the "new" John's ending.
2. It's surprising how much Freddie seemed to want a spoken word section in these songs: My Baby Does Me, the Breakthru rough mix, and My Life Has Been Saved all have a spoken section. I don't think there's another Queen song with a spoken section, is there?

....Is peace on Earth and end to War.

There's also the 12-minute demo version of Stealin' that has a few examples of spoken words.

Splitting hairs here, but there's an extra bit in "Modern Times Rock'n'Roll" 1973 BBC session.

The song pauses briefly and you hear "It's not that I'm bright, just happy go lucky".

Are you running?

How much did this box set sell for new?

I passed on it at the time because money was a bit tight, but I just snagged a sealed copy online for £125.