No flame, but it did take COURAGE back then to run songs longer than 4 minutes, much less 8 minutes, as the radio stations wanted nothing to do with long songs, which meant that The Labels (record companies, for those of you in Rio Linda) would not let most Artists (bands, for those of you in Rio Linda) produce long songs.
I played that song on the air and the long version of Hey Jude when I had to go to the bathroom.
The was the basis for the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, how Queen had to fight to keep the record company from shortening the song.
It would have been ridiculous to cut one second from that song. It would have ruined it.