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Deep Purple - The Book of Taliesyn CD (album) cover

THE BOOK OF TALIESYN

Deep Purple

 

Proto-Prog

3.23 | 607 ratings

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Sean Trane
Special Collaborator
Prog Folk
4 stars With their second album , Purple went on to confirm their adventurous psych-laced proto- prog rock ! Clearly , the album was axed more towards experimentation and this album deserves to be regarded highly by all progheads.

The opening track Listen, Learn And Read On gives indirectly the name of the album by mentionning the Book Of Taliesyn (and the superb artwork sleeve , we are still in 1968 and they dared such a great cover). Wring That Neck is another track bound to become a live favorite (expanded to almost 30 min also) and shows the full capacities of this combo. The obvious single is Kentucky Woman (a hit in US only though) , but the other incredible moment is the purple-signed intro (Exposition) to yet another Beatles cover. In those 2,5 mins , Purple explodes into a full-blown prog outfit!

Side 2 starts with a superb Anthem already forcasting Jon Lord's envies of foraying into classical orchestras , something more evident with the next album. Anthem is the cornerstone of this album while The Shield is a strange but interesting track exploring somber moods. Finishing out the album is a long version of Ike And Tina's River Deep, Mountain High. Although not-always successful (and a bit ill-advised) it does show some limitations to Evans's voice compared to Tina's.

I am tempted to give this album another halfstar , but will not do so because some tracks are flawed. But clearly all progheads discussing whether Purple was prog should get a full listen to this album before answering honestly to this album. And I dare say the answer should not be negative.

Sean Trane | 4/5 |

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