I was in college (another codger here). Got the black label original on release. Before that, we got the demo, which had a few different bits of dialogue than what wound up in the actual game. And I would have sworn there were subtle changes here and there with dialogue between the black label...
Didn't Uematsu say the first few chords of One Winged Angel were inspired by the opening of "Purple Haze"? The Shinra theme seems to have a "Kasmir" vibe in places.