Review Summary: MK I is unknow territory for casual Deep Purple listeners (and some fans). But The Book of Taliesyn is the record that deserve the "the album where all had started" advertising campaign.
1968/1969. The world was conquered by the brits and their psychedelic and prog rock. The Beatles were at their peek, delivering some huge tunes. Everyone were amazed by Hendrix, Cream, The Who and other class acts. Some guys named Pink Floyd had their wheels on motion. Yet, there were this guys, Blackmore, Lord, Pace, Simper and Evans who were trying to hit harder.
Their debut, Shades of Deep Purple went unnoticed in UK while in overseas they made it big time, thanks to US´s smash hit "Hush". Tetragrammaton, their US label, urged them to go back to Studio and record a second album right away in order to strenghten the live set. So they did The Book of Taliesyn. Is it any good?
While "Shades" was basically the band trying to find their sound, their second effort showed inmense improvement. Oh yes, they are still trying to find it, but this record sounds a lot more cohesive, even if they are still experimenting different styles. We still have covers, brit pop tunes, psychedelic interludes and progresive rock feeling all around, but there is also one element found here for the first time: hardness.
Again, comparing this work to Purple´s debut, where we had glimpses of their future signature sound (An The Adress, Mandrake Root), in The Book of Taliesyn they discovered their thing: Hard Rock, hard guitar driven rock, fueled by call and answer duels between Blackmore and Lord. As you probably know by now, i´m writing about Wring that Neck (Hard Road), the standout track. This is the track you casual Deep Purple listeners can relate to, because it sounds like the band we all know. In fact, the harder sound can be tasted from the very begining, listening to the opening track Listen, Learn, Read On.
Kentucky Woman, the lead single, is a great Neil Diamonds cover. It shows Lord/Blackmore skills with great solos and a great band performance overall. Too bad it didn´t went well in the charts back then.
Another highlight of the record is The Shield, a direct progresive track. Evans best performance so far, grooved by Simper/Pace infectious rhythm and brushes of great guitar and keyboards work.
Like the previous effort, The Book is filled with different styles. There is prog and almost psychedelic rock in "we can work it out" interlude and cover River Deep, Mountain High, and pop rock with a twist of classic music (Anthem, a great song).
As for the members of the band, like mentioned before, this is the record where Blackmore began to show his "guitar hero" potential, while Lord (then the musical leader) also had great moments himself. Simper proves to be a good progresive bass player, filling the sound with melodic bass lines (not so suitable for hard rock direction though, that´s why he got fired later), Evans improved a great deal and Pace, the only musician who shined on the first record, showed absolutely great skills and earned his place, not just in the band, but in every drummers list.
Good album? More than good. Recommendable? I think so. Not near one of their great works, but very enjoyable for both Deeper fans and casual listeners. This one is the breaking point between 60´s wannabe band and hard rock pioneers.
Best Tracks:
Hard Road (Wring That Neck)
The Shield
Kentucky Woman
