The Book of Taliesyn is the second studio album by the English rock band Deep Purple, recorded only three months after Shades of Deep Purple and released by Tetragrammaton Records in December 1968, during their first US tour. The name for the album was taken from the 14th-century Book of Taliesin.
The structure of the album is similar to that of their first, with four original songs and three rearranged covers; however, the tracks are longer, the arrangements more complex and the sound more polished than on Shades of Deep Purple. The music style is a mix of psychedelic rock, progressive rock and hard rock, with several inserts of classical music arranged by the band's keyboard player Jon Lord.
Deep Purple's American record label aimed for a hippie audience, which was very influential in the US at the time, but the chart results of the album and singles were not as high as expected. This setback did not hinder the success of the three-month US tour, when the band played in many important venues and festivals and received positive feedback from audiences and the press. Deep Purple were still an underground band which played in small clubs and colleges in the United Kingdom, largely ignored by the media and the public. The British record company EMI did not release The Book of Taliesyn until June 1969, on the new underground prog rock sub-label Harvest Records, and the album did not chart. Even the release of the new single "Emmaretta" and new dates in the UK in summer 1969 did not increase album sales or the popularity of Deep Purple in the UK. Perception of the album has changed in later years and it has been reviewed more favourably.
Background
Deep Purple were booked for a long tour in the United States, starting in October 1968, as a result of the unexpected success in the US and Canada of their first album Shades of Deep Purple, fronted by the hit single "Hush". The single, released in June, had reached No. 4 in the US Singles Chart and No. 2 in Canada and was the main reason for their sudden popularity overseas. The situation was quite the opposite at home, where the band had been heavily criticized by the media and audiences.
In July, band and crew relocated from West Sussex to London. Their management rented a house at 13 Second Avenue, Acton Vale, which was used as living quarters and to prepare for the upcoming US tour when they were not away for gigs or promotion. Moreover, the eight tracks recorded in May for Deep Purple's debut album and performed live in the British gigs of July and August For these reasons, they were pushed back into the studio just a couple of months before the tour began, even though their debut album had not been released in the United Kingdom yet. Under pressure, the musicians eventually came up with four lengthy original compositions, but to fill up the new album they reworked and expanded three cover songs, following again the example of the American band Vanilla Fudge, The first was "Kentucky Woman", a hit single for Neil Diamond in 1967 which Deep Purple performed live at a BBC session in August. Though the song was written by Diamond, Deep Purple's version musically leans toward the style of Mitch Ryder's recording of "Devil with a Blue Dress On". The second cover was "River Deep – Mountain High", a single released by Ike & Tina Turner in 1966. Finally, the 1965 Beatles song "We Can Work It Out" was chosen after Paul McCartney himself had reportedly expressed appreciation for Deep Purple's version of "Help!" Time was granted in larger amount than for the making of Shades of Deep Purple in May, feeding the band's ambition of coming up with better original material than their previous effort. which sounds like a repeated clash of glass objects, while the second one required a string quartet for the baroque style interlude in the middle. The following days they proceeded with the composition and recording of "Exposition/We Can Work It Out" and of the original track "Listen, Learn, Read On" (a song that mentions the album title "The Book of Taliesyn" in the lyrics). This dismayed the band at first, but the sound turned out cleaner, heavier and more polished than on their debut. but did not replicate the success of "Hush".
In an attempt to improve sales of the album, a shorter and heavily edited version of "River Deep - Mountain High" was released as a single exclusively in the United States and Canada in January 1969, with "Listen, Learn, Read On" as the B-side. It reached No. 53 and No. 42, respectively, in the two countries The album was distributed in Canada (in 1968) and Japan (in June 1969) by Polydor Records.
EMI delayed the release of the album in the UK to June 1969, after the band had come back from the US and set up a proper tour of their home country. By that time, the band had already recorded and released their third album Deep Purple in the US, and recorded a single with a new line-up. The Book of Taliesyn was the first release by Harvest Records, a new sub-label which EMI executives had devised as an outlet for British underground progressive rock groups. "Kentucky Woman", with "Wring That Neck" as B-side, was the only single released in the UK in December 1968, but it was retired after only six weeks. Just as had happened with Shades of Deep Purple the year before, both album and single received little promotion and were widely overlooked, selling much less in the UK than overseas. Besides the original issues, the most significant version of the album is the Remastered CD edition of 2000 by EMI, which contains previously unreleased recordings taken from the sessions of August and December 1968 and from TV shows appearances as bonus tracks. All the songs were digitally remastered by Peter Mew at Abbey Road Studios in London.
Musical style
The musical style of The Book of Taliesyn is a mix of progressive rock, psychedelic rock and hard rock and different observers think that in this album the band is more mature and in greater control of its own means of expression. Critics highlight how the compositions are generally longer and more complex than in their debut album. but he already defined Deep Purple as a symphonic rock band in a 1968 interview. "Anthem" is perhaps the band's deepest venture into classical music on a regular studio album, with its baroque-style interlude reminiscent of a Bach fugue written by Lord and performed using Mellotron and string quartet.
The lyrics written by the band's singer Rod Evans are very functional to the music and the marketing Deep Purple's record label was building up for the American hippie audience.
Cover art
Cover art and sleeve notes convey Tetragrammaton's decision to aim the album at the vast American hippie audience, which was very influential in the US at the time. The original cover was drawn in pen, ink and color by the British illustrator and author John Vernon Lord, who coincidentally appears to share the same name as Deep Purple's keyboard player. The Book of Taliesyn was the only record cover John Vernon Lord ever designed and, according to the artist's recent retrospective book Drawing upon Drawing, the original artwork was never returned. In his book, John Vernon Lord remembers the assignment received from his agency Saxon Artists:
Deep Purple's albums and singles were almost completely ignored in the UK, a fact that puzzled American reporters.
Personnel
Deep Purple
- Rod Evans – lead vocals
- Ritchie Blackmore – guitars
- Jon Lord – Hammond organ, backing vocals, string arrangement on "Anthem"
- Nick Simper – bass, backing vocals
- Ian Paice – drums, temple blocks
Production
- Derek Lawrence – producer, mixing
- Barry Ainsworth – engineer
- Peter Mew – restoring and remastering at Abbey Road Studios, London (2000)
Charts
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;Singles
Kentucky Woman
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River Deep, Mountain High
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Notes
References
External links
- The Book of Taliesyn lyrics