I am sometimes accused of viewing everything Deep Purple release through rose-tinted glasses.
After my enthusiastic review of the band’s new album Splat, a couple of viewers asked whether I had ever been genuinely critical of anything Deep Purple had recorded. I have often said that, while some Deep Purple albums are better than others, I don’t believe they have made a truly bad one.
However, the comments made me think.
There have certainly been Deep Purple albums that disappointed or confused me when I first heard them. Sometimes that was because they weren’t what I expected from the band; sometimes I simply wasn’t ready for them.
This new series revisits 12 Deep Purple albums I didn’t initially connect with. I’ll be returning to each one, remembering how I felt when I first heard it and asking whether my opinion has changed.
And before anyone assumes that every episode will end with me declaring the album a lost masterpiece, I can reveal that there are at least two where my feelings haven’t changed very much at all!
The first album in the series is the second Deep Purple studio album, The Book of Taliesyn.
Discovering a Very Different Deep Purple
The Book of Taliesyn was recorded in 1968 by Deep Purple’s original Mark I line-up:
- Rod Evans – vocals
- Ritchie Blackmore – guitar
- Jon Lord – keyboards
- Nick Simper – bass and backing vocals
- Ian Paice – drums
Although released in America during 1968, it didn’t appear in the UK until the summer of 1969. The album sits inside a remarkably fast-moving period in Deep Purple’s development, when new records seemed to appear every few months.
My first encounter with it came around 1974, when I was approximately 15.
I was fortunate enough to attend a school that had its own record library. You could borrow an album after school, take it home and return it the following day—after it had been carefully inspected for scratches!
By that point I had already heard Deep Purple in Rock, Machine Head, Made in Japan and Burn. I had also seen the Mark III line-up at Birmingham Odeon. Deep Purple, to me, meant enormous Hammond organ, ferociously exciting guitar, Ian Gillan’s voice and, more recently, the combination of David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes.
Then my friend Paul and I spotted an album called The Book of Taliesyn in the school library.
Neither of us knew it. Even its medieval, tapestry-like sleeve looked unlike the Deep Purple albums with which we were familiar. Naturally, we had to investigate.
Elvis, Engelbert Humperdinck and Doctor Who
From the opening moments of “Listen, Learn, Read On”, it was obvious that this was a very different version of Deep Purple.
The first thing that alienated me was Rod Evans’ vocal style. I was accustomed to Ian Gillan screaming through “Child in Time” and “Highway Star”, or David Coverdale bringing a bluesier quality to Burn. By comparison, Evans sounded as though Elvis Presley and Engelbert Humperdinck had somehow wandered into an episode of Doctor Who.
The amount of reverb added to the voice made the whole performance sound as though it had been recorded inside the TARDIS. To my 15-year-old ears, it sounded old-fashioned and nothing like the Deep Purple I knew.
We persevered.
“Wring That Neck”—titled “Hard Road” on the American release—provided something more recognisable. However, even Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar playing sounded different. It didn’t yet have the fluidity, confidence and almost frightening sense of attack heard on In Rock, Machine Head and Burn.
At the time, I heard it as slightly stunted, as though Blackmore was still working out where he wanted to go. Listening now, the track also reveals Ian Paice’s extraordinary swing, jazz vocabulary and big-band influences. It is a wonderful example of how important Paice already was to Deep Purple’s identity.
Covers, Classical Music and Jon Lord
“Kentucky Woman” was written and originally recorded by Neil Diamond, although that meant very little to me when I first borrowed the album. What stands out now is the magnificent Hammond organ work and the way Deep Purple were already taking outside material and rebuilding it around their own musical personalities.
“Exposition” leads into a radical interpretation of The Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out”. Again, this was some distance away from the hard rock band I thought I knew.
Side two contains “The Shield” and “Anthem”, both of which underline Jon Lord’s dominant role within Mark I Deep Purple. Lord’s classical influences are embedded throughout these early albums, and “Anthem” combines the group with an orchestral arrangement in a way that anticipates his increasingly ambitious ideas.
Those experiments would eventually lead to the Concerto for Group and Orchestra. At the same time, you can sense Deep Purple gradually moving towards the musical tension between Lord’s keyboards and Blackmore’s guitar that would become so important to the group.
The album concludes with an epic, almost ten-minute treatment of “River Deep, Mountain High”. It is huge, dramatic and full of changing textures. I particularly enjoy hearing it in mono, where it seems to possess even more weight.
But on that first listen, Paul and I looked at each other and effectively decided: “We probably won’t play that again.”
Gradually Understanding Mark I
For a long time, The Book of Taliesyn remained outside my understanding of Deep Purple.
I encountered some Mark I material through compilations such as the German Mark I & II, The Singles A’s & B’s and Purple Passages, but I didn’t begin buying the three original Mark I albums individually until the early 1990s.
After seeing Deep Purple on The Battle Rages On tour and immersing myself in releases such as Come Hell or High Water and the expanded Live in Japan, I began looking more deeply into the band’s history.
I bought the third, self-titled Deep Purple album in an HMV CD sale, followed by Shades of Deep Purple. By then I was considerably older, my musical tastes had broadened and the original line-up began to make much more sense.
Rod Evans was an excellent singer, even if his smoother, crooning delivery was very different from where rock music was heading. His later work with Captain Beyond showed how powerful he could be in a heavier setting.
Nick Simper’s bass playing across the three Mark I albums is also superb. He would go on to form Warhorse, but his contribution to early Deep Purple deserves far more recognition.
How Do I Feel About It Now?
Listening to The Book of Taliesyn today, I can understand why it baffled me in 1974.
It doesn’t sound like In Rock, Machine Head, Made in Japan or Burn. It is psychedelic, progressive, orchestral and unmistakably rooted in the late 1960s. There are moments when Rod Evans’ vocal approach feels closer to middle-of-the-road pop than the new generation represented by Robert Plant and Ian Gillan.
It is also an album made by a band developing at tremendous speed.
Blackmore had not yet become the guitarist I first recognised as my hero, but you can hear him finding his direction. Ian Paice already swings magnificently. Simper’s bass is inventive and commanding, while Jon Lord provides much of the record’s musical architecture.
Shades of Deep Purple may be more immediately accessible because of “Hush” and “Mandrake Root”, while the self-titled third album points more clearly towards what Deep Purple would become. Consequently, The Book of Taliesyn can feel slightly lost between the two.
That doesn’t make it a bad album. In fact, it is precisely its unusual position in Deep Purple’s story that now makes it so fascinating.
There are even people who love Mark I Deep Purple while having little interest in the later band, attracted by the psychedelic atmosphere, ambitious arrangements and late-1960s production.
So, have I changed my mind?
Absolutely. I didn’t understand The Book of Taliesyn when I first heard it, but I now enjoy and appreciate it enormously. It captures five gifted musicians searching for an identity—and occasionally discovering parts of the sound that would change rock music.
This is only the first of 12 Deep Purple albums I’ll be revisiting. Some of my opinions will have changed considerably. Others may not have changed at all.
What do you think of The Book of Taliesyn? When did you last play it—and do you prefer the mono or stereo version?
