[bravura]

Is this it? From wikipedia:

'A studio version was made for John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show at the Maida Vale Studios on 28 October 1977 and first broadcast soon after on 14 November. It includes a separate section that begins with an abridged session version of the original comprising the first verse, chorus and guitar outro - this part has become known as We Will Rock You (slow). Between the two parts there is a brief reading of Hermann Hesse's novel Siddhartha, used in a BBC Radio documentary. This audio was found on the BBC tapes being reused to record the session and was retained by the band.'

[mturk]

That's the one! And all this time I'd been holding on to something I read on a mailing list or website back then, attributing the reading to Brian May "just because he liked that book."