I bought this album while I was a college student, and my old battered vinyl copy still sits in my collection. It was one of the records I played almost to death during the late 1960s.
This was the progressive rock Deep Purple of vocalist Rod Evans, bassist Nick Simper, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, keyboardist Jon Lord, and drummer Ian Paice. Evans and Simper were important components in the development of the Deep Purple sound and its growing popularity. While they became somewhat forgotten due to the brilliance of their respective replacements, Ian Gillan and Roger Glover, who helped elevate the band to superstar status, they were nevertheless essential to the group during the early period of its career.
Their debut album, Shades Of Deep Purple, and the single “Hush,” had been huge hits in the United States in 1968. A tour was planned, so the band hurried back into the studio to record their second album in order to not only cash in on its success but to have enough material to fill its live set.
The Book Of Taliesyn proved that their first album’s excellence was no fluke, as it was another album of fine progressive rock.
The band again combined cover songs with original compositions. The seven tracks were longer than the norm, with none being under four minutes, and four of the seven extended out beyond the six-minute mark. Jon Lord’s keyboards had dominated their first album but now Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar playing began to assert itself.
The group chose their cover songs wisely. Neil Diamond’s “Kentucky Woman” was a hard rocking version of the song and became a hit single in the USA. It created a medley of the Beatles tune “We Can Work It Out” and its own song, “Exposition.” It may not have been as creative as their slowed down and lonely version of “Help,” which appeared on their first album, but it was still a credible cover as the band changed the tempo once again.
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