"Kentucky Woman" / "Hard Road"
Released: December 1968 (US), 6 December 1968 (UK)
"River Deep – Mountain High" / "Listen, Learn, Read On"
Released: February 1969 (US only)

Remastered re-issue cover

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The Book of Taliesyn is the second studio album by English rock band Deep Purple, recorded only three months after Shades of Deep Purple and released by Tetragrammaton Records in October 1968, just before their first US tour. The name for the album was taken from the 14th-century Book of Taliesin.

The structure of the album is similar to that of their debut, with four original songs and three rearranged covers, although the tracks are longer, the arrangements more complex and the sound more polished than on Shades of Deep Purple. The music style is a mix of psychedelic rock, progressive rock and hard rock, with several inserts of classical music arranged by the band's keyboard player Jon Lord.

Deep Purple's American record label aimed at a hippie audience, which was very influential in the US at the time, but the chart results of album and singles were not as high as expected. This setback did not hinder the success of the three months long US tour, when the band played in many important venues and festivals and received positive feedback from audience and press. On the contrary, Deep Purple were still an underground band which played in small clubs and colleges in the United Kingdom, largely ignored by media and public. The British record company EMI released The Book of Taliesyn only in June 1969 on the new underground prog rock sub-label Harvest Records, but the album did not chart. Even the release of the new single "Emmaretta" and new dates in their home country in the summer of 1969 did not increase the album sales or the popularity of Deep Purple in the UK. Perception of the album changed in modern times, when it received more favourable reviews.

My main complaint about Deep Purple is that when we did get some success, which was very, very quickly after we started, we were just worked to death by the management and the record company.

Deep Purple were booked for a long tour in the United States, starting in October 1968, as a result of the unexpected success gathered in North America by their debut album Shades of Deep Purple, fronted by the hit single "Hush". The single, released in June, had reached No. 4 in the US Singles Chart and No. 2 in Canada and was the main reason of their sudden popularity overseas. The situation was quite the opposite at home, where the band had been heavily criticized by media and audience.

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