So the other day I was listening to a some music on my pda. I listened to a particular song and was reminded of the great annoyance behind it. Some time around 1995, a shiny new On Cue store opened near me. I visited during their grand opening and came away with a spiffy promo CD full of all sorts of musical goodness. I fell in love with one of the songs, Killing Joke's "Democracy."

Don't judge! That song seemed really, really cool 12 years ago. Anyway, after a few listens I liked it enough that I decided I had to buy the full album. I went back to that On Cue to buy the CD, which is of course exactly what they hoped for when they handed me the free promo.

I looked, but couldn't find any Killing Joke albums. I asked for help. The clerk couldn't find anything either. The clerk looked it up, but found nothing available at all. Hm. Curious.

So I went to a real record store to special order it, only to find it wasn't available yet. I advance ordered it through the record store and waited several months for it to arrive. When it did, there was a completely different version of the song on the album.

What the hell is that?

The album version isn't exactly terrible, but it's certainly not the post-punk British nu metal I was expecting. The promo version of the song is absolutely nothing like any of the songs on the album. Bastards. Such a dirty trick.

It's a good thing Shawn Fanning stole Napster from Seth Green just a few short years later so I could start stealing from artists and record companies to make myself feel better.