Label: Harvest Records (Europe), HVL 751, 2564618347
Style: Hard Rock
Country: London, England
Time: 43:41
Format: Flac Tracks 24/96 kHz
Size: 868 Mb
Early
Deep Purple was always quick to write new albums, and 1969 gave life to
their second output The Book of Taliesyn. Mark I, led for a great deal
by the classically-trained Jon Lord, continues to write more of their
own material, but still includes three covers in the album: Neil
Diamond's Kentucky Woman, The Beatles' We Can Work It Out and River
Deep, Mountain High by Ike and Tina Turner. Taliesyn is often seen as
the bridge between the 60's pop/psychedelics and the 70's hard rock Deep
Purple would become pioneers of.
And for fans of that hard rock,
Taliesyn will be more easily digested than Shades. From the very first
notes of Listen, Learn, Read On, a catchy psychedelic/blues rocker, Deep
Purple sounds harder-edged. Notable standouts are Pace's drumming,
which has now grown much more fierce (a style he would stick with
throughout the rest of his career) and Evans' vocals, which have
thankfully improved. Evans feels more at ease, it sounds like, and
although he would be easily overshadowed by the likes of Gillan and
Coverdale in later times, his performance is not as bland as it was on
Shades.
Where the first track gave way to show an improved drummer
and vocalist, the second track Hard Road (Wring That Neck) reveals the
combined talents of the virtuosos Blackmore and Lord. An instrumental
track, it starts off with an incredibly tasty jam on the keyboards by
Lord, which gets countered one and a half minute in by what is
Blackmore's first great (bluesy as it would always be) solo, after which
the two continue jamming together until the end.
Although a slight
improvement from Shades, the cover work is still nothing especially
noteworthy. Closer River Deep, Mountain High is the weakest of these,
being too much of a replica of the original. Kentucky Woman might
feature a little bluesy improvisation, and Exposition, a prelude to We
Can Work It Out but not an actual part of it, is interestingly
bombastic, but that does not mean the actual cover work gets anyhow
better by it. Luckily, Deep Purple would pursue their very own direction
after this album and ditch the covers altogether.
The non-standout
The Shield, which is essentially another jam session, reveals that
although Deep Purple is developing their trademark sound here, they are
not entirely sure of themselves just yet. Anthem hints of a lingering
Shades-style, being a rather straightforward 60's pop song, but contains
a heavily classical-influenced break that makes no complete sense being
there but at the same time provides a surprising interlude for the
song.
The Book of Taliesyn is an interesting mixture of a newly found
harder sound, remnants of the pop/psychedelic directions found on
Shades and another bunch of covers that fail to really add anything, but
the transition is sound is the most interesting of its features. Vital
to Deep Purple's development, their second album is a step up from their
first, but remains merely passable overall.
(sputnikmusic.com/review/32712/Deep-Purple-The-Book-of-Taliesyn/)
- Roderick Evans: Lead Vocals
- Richard Hugh Blackmore: Lead Guitar
- Nicholas John Simper: Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals
- Jon Douglas Lord: Keyboards, Organ, Backing Vocals
- Ian Anderson Pace: Drums
01. A1 Listen, Learn, Read On (04:03)
02. A2 Hard Road (05:13)
03. A3 Kentucky Woman (04:45)
04. A4 a - Exposition, b - We Can Work It Out (06:58)
05. B1 Shield (06:00)
06. B2 Anthem (06:31)
07. B3 River Deep, Mountain High (10:07)
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