DEEP PURPLE - "Anthem"

Deep Purple
"Anthem"
Album: The Book of Taliesyn
Released: December 1968 (US), June 1969 (UK)
Writers: Jon Lord, Rod Evans
Label: Tetragrammaton (US), Harvest (UK), Polydor (Canada, Japan)
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"Anthem", the last original track on the album, resembles the structure on King Crimson's debut album title track, released a year later. This song is very organ driven and it is perhaps Deep Purple's deepest venture into classical music on a regular studio album, competing with "April" on the band's subsequent third album. In the middle of the song there is a baroque style part with organ and string quartet written by Jon Lord which is not based on a classical piece, but reminds a Bach organ fugue. Due to its complicated structure and the need for additional instrumentalists, no known live recordings of the song exist. 

Deep Purple - "Anthem" (from the album The Book of Taliesyn, 1969) 

Deep Purple Mark I, 1968 - 1969
(l - r: Jon Lord, Nick Simper, Ian Paice, Ritchie Blackmore, Rod Evans)

"...This ("Anthem") delightful ballad features what is arguably Evans finest vocal performance, supported what sounds like the rare appearance of a mellotron. The middle section is a classically based amalgam of strings, organ and guitar which combine in true prog fashion to create a wonderful whole..."

(Progarchives, review by Easy Livin)

Deep Purple - "Anthem" (vinyl version 1969)

Deep Purple psychedelic's cover album The Book of Taliesyn
(Photo courtesy Harvest - EMI)

"Co-written by vocalist Rod Evans and keyboard player Jon Lord - who also arranged the strings - "Anthem" is a very fine lachrymosal ballad about love lost. With Evans sounding like Elvis, and Ritchie Blackmore contributing a timely lead guitar solo, this is further evidence - as if any were needed - that Deep Purple would have been just as big if they had not changed the line up after their eponymous Third Album, although their particular brand of progressive rock would have taken them in an entirely different, and some would say entirely more fascinating direction."

(Songfacts, comment by Alexander Baron, London, England)

Line-up / Musicians:

Rod Evans – lead vocals

Ritchie Blackmore – guitar

Jon Lord – Hammond organ, keyboards, backing vocals, strings arrangement

Nick Simper – bass guitar, backing vocals

Ian Paice – drums

Links / Reviews:

Official website: deeppurple.com
Wikipedia: The Book of Taliesyn - Anthem 
Songfacts: Anthem by Deep Purple
Progarchives: Deep Purple The Book of Taliesyn