This was a difficult one to figure out, largely because I think I was misled by the brilliant Dave Hickey. His essay on this album is one of the finest things I've ever read. But I think he was confused or misremembering the particulars. He was kind of a genius, so I think we need to give him some latitude in that regard. Anyway, he tells the story of buying this in 1954 and it being his "all-time favorite record." I'm sure it was, but he later describes it as "made up of eighteen two-and-one-half minute cuts." The first version of this, which came out in 1954 as he describes, was a 10-inch LP with the above cover, with 8 cuts averaging more like 3 minutes and coming in at just 23 minutes in total. Basically what we would come to call an EP. I would buy a copy, but it's at least $100 for even a shabby one, and I don't love it like Hickey did. But that is my preferred way to hear it, and the grade is for that.
There is a 12-inch version from 1956, and I thought Hickey might have been referring to that, but that one has 14 cuts, not 18, so I'm not sure he was talking about that. The cover of that one looks like this:
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