Deep Purple - The Book of Taliesyn (UK 1968)

Roddus Album Of The Day

1. Listen, learn, read on 04:04
2. Wring that neck (instrumental) 05:13
3. Kentucky woman 04:44
4. Exposition / We can work it out 07:07
5. Shield 06:06
6. Anthem 06:31
7. River deep, mountain high 10:12
8. Oh no no no (Studio Outtake) 04:25
9. It's all over (Live) 04:14
10. Hey bop a re bop (Live) 03:31
11. Wring that neck (Live) 04:42
12. Playground (instrumental) 04:29

I have been into The Purple for many many years, but until a few years ago only ever owned their double Cd Anthology set from 1991, which served me pretty well and survived many a party.

This second album I scored on CD some time ago was released in 2000, remastered with bonus tracks. tracks eight and twelve are previously unreleased studio tracks and stand up pretty well with the other original songs on the LP although "Oh No No No" is a bit rough on the recording quality but "Playground" sounds much better and is a very good piece as well and adds  to the release, whereas the rest of the bonus tracks are pretty lo-fi recordings taken from the BBC's Top Gear and are really unnecessary here.

As for the seven tracks from the original release, "Wring That Neck" and "Shield" I know well from Anthology and are classic Purple, brilliant songs awesome guitar and of course the trade mark organ sound. I really enjoyed the tight bass playing in this set and there are some classic bass lines happening here. Some of this sounds like the purple were taking notice of The Nice as well. The rest, except "Anthem", are pretty good covers and again Ritchie's soloing on "River Deep..." is great. " The Neo-Classical "Anthem", apparently one of their best known songs off this set(according to the liner notes) and not on the Anthology set, doesn't cut it for me and lets the whole thing down a bit. For such a rushed second album it sure is pretty strong , but the covers testify that The Purple  were still finding their feet and although there are shades of what was to come, this sounds still rooted in the sixties.My Rating 4/5 without the bonus tracks, 3.5/5 with bonus tracks.

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