The Book of Taliesyn is the second album by English rock band Deep Purple [MK I], released in 1968 by Tetragrammaton in the US, and by EMI's Harvest Records in the UK, and Polydor in Canada and Japan in 1969.

The album follows the psychedelic/progressive rock sound of Shades of Deep Purple; however, there is a harder edge to several songs, beginning to show the new sound Deep Purple would introduce in 1970 with Deep Purple in Rock.

There are three cover versions on this album - "Kentucky Woman", originally from Neil Diamond, "We Can Work It Out" from the Beatles and "River Deep Mountain High", known from Ike and Tina Turner version.

The album's name is taken from a famous 14th century Welsh manuscript including certain poems attributed to the 6th century poet Taliesin.

Track Listing [320k MP3]

01. "Listen, Learn, Read On" (Evans, Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, Paice) – 4:05 
02. "Wring That Neck" (Blackmore, Nick Simper, Lord, Paice) – 5:13 
03. "Kentucky Woman" (Neil Diamond) – 4:44 
04. "Exposition"/"We Can Work It Out" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 7:06 
05. "Shield" (Evans, Blackmore, Lord) – 6:06 
06. "Anthem" (Evans, Lord) – 6:31 
07. "River Deep - Mountain High" (Barry, Ellie Greenwich, Phil Spector) – 10:12 

Bonus tracks on the CD re-issue

08. "Oh No No No" (studio outtake) (Mike Leander, Leon Russell) – 4:25 
09. "It's All Over" (BBC Top Gear Session) (King, Bert Berns) – 4:14 
10. "Hey Bop a Re Bop" (BBC Top Gear Session) (Blackmore, Lord, Paice) – 3:31 
11. "Wring That Neck" (BBC Top Gear Session) (Blackmore, Lord, Paice) – 4:42 
12. "Playground" (studio outtake 18/8/69) (Blackmore, Simper, Lord, Paice) – 4:29 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Artwork
The cover of the 1968 album shown here, was created by the illustrator and author John Vernon Lord who 'coincidentally' appears to share the same name as the band's keyboard player, Jon Lord. ‘The Book of Taliesyn', was the only record cover John Vernon Lord ever designed and according to the artist's recent retrospective the original artwork was never returned.

The brief from the artist's agent is detailed in Drawing upon Drawing as follows:

"the agent gave me the title saying that the art director wanted a ‘fantasy Arthurian touch’ and to include hand lettering for the title and the musicians’ names. I mainly drew from The Book of Taliesin, which is a collection of poems, said to be written by the sixth century Welsh bard Taliesin."

The fee for the job was £30 (minus 25% for the agent). John Vernon Lord was until recently, Professor of Illustration at the University of Brighton.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rod Evans - lead vocals 
Ritchie Blackmore - guitar 
Nick Simper - bass, backing vocals 
Jon Lord - Hammond organ, keyboards, string arrangements on "Anthem" 
Ian Paice - drums