There are a lot of these albums in my collection, but this one stands out as being sort of the soundtrack to my younger life. It's one of those albums that though it's a double and contains a lot of speech, I can listen to regularly, though I wouldn't flip it over and listen to it right after having already done so. The combination of a brilliant and classic storyline, excellent music and some totally amazing players make this a real gem, and even though I listened to (and will shortly review) the twenty-first century version recently, and it brought back those memories in part, I was still more inclined to go root out the original.
Add to that the fact that some of these stars have now passed on and it's not only a link to the past but a reminder of the talent we have lost, and how we perhaps failed to appreciate them enough while here. It's also got the most amazing cover art and, if you bought the original gatefold vinyl album like I did (nothing else available at that time) you got some incredible drawings inside too, plus a lot of quotes from the book and so forth.
Brilliant album, fantastic project and one I return to year on year. Will never grow old in my eyes, even more than thirty years later.