Deep Purple – The Book of Taliesyn – 1968
The first thing you notice when you drop the needle on Deep Purple’s sophomore offering is the edge. This is a darker album, but not murkier. It’s edgier, cutting, trippier by virtue of frenzy. Mirroring the landscape that was being mined by bands like The Moody Blues, DP merges it with their improvisational jam theories and runs it through their own taffy machine so it’s all musch scarier and harrowing than even the darkest moments of their debut.
The issue with this is that the overindulgence is still present and that, married with the galloping drive of the musical engine creates an exhausting listen. And very little lingers long enough for the listener to hold on to it. That’s not to say the songs are short. They are quite the opposite. Nothing clocks in at under 4 minutes and three tracks are over 6. They are healthy and robust but unfocused and immature.
Not the best of the genre that I’ve heard. There are moments, though: Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar work toward the end of “Wring That Neck” suggests at what he might be able to achieve later on.
Half of the album is covers, most notable, Neil Diamond’s “Kentucky Woman”. It’s no “Hush”, to be sure. It’s spectacularly predestined as the HIT SINGLE, and that sense of the pre-ordained stinks all over it. Blackmore really comes in to his own on this track, though. The duel between him and Lord’s Hammond is a treat.
The pomp and majesty of “Exposition” gives way to a veritable psychedelic rave and, finally, pounds in to the cover of another Beatles track, this time it’s “We Can Work It Out”. By the time you get there, if you aren’t already believing that Jon Lord is something of a genius on par with Walter Carlos or Rick Wakeman, you aren’t really listening.
Taliesyn isn’t any great shakes. It’s non-essential, like Moody Blues’ In Search of the Lost Chord.
Grade: C
ASide: Kentucky Woman
BlindSide: Exposition/We Can Work It Out
DownSide: Shield, Anthem
