Heart Full of Soul

HEART FULL OF SOUL
 
 
“Heart Full of Soul”  is a song recorded by English rock group the Yardbirds in 1965.  Written by Graham Gouldman, it was the Yardbirds’ first single after Jeff Beck replaced Eric Clapton as lead guitarist.  Released only three months after “For Your Love”, “Heart Full of Soul” reached the top ten on the charts in the United Kingdom and the United States.  The Yardbirds first recorded the song with an Indian sitar player performing the distinctive instrumental figures.  However, the group was dissatisfied with the results.  Consequently, Beck developed the part on electric guitar using a fuzz box distortion unit.  Music witers have described his contribution as introducing Indian-influenced guitar stylings to rock music.  “Heart Full of Soul” appears on several of the group’s compilations, and renditions have been recorded by other musicians.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

The frequent hit songs by the Yardbirds – “I’m a Man”, “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago”, “For Your Love”, “Heart Full of Soul”, “Shapes of Things”, “Over Under Sideways Down”, etc. – hit my eardrums with at least as powerful an impact as the greatest Rolling Stones songs, like “Brown Sugar”, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”, “Paint it Black”, “Get off of My Cloud”, “Sympathy for the Devil”, “Street Fighting Man”, etc.  To me though, these songs sound every bit as fresh to me today, probably because they haven’t been played to death on oldies’ radio as much as anything else.  

 

(May 2014)

 

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The Yardbirds included “Train Kept A-Rollin’” on their second American album, Having a Rave up with the Yardbirds that is absolutely chock full of classic songs; in addition to their major hits “I’m a Man” and “Heart Full of Soul”, Having a Rave Up includes “Evil Hearted You” and “Still I’m Sad”, plus a full side of the Yardbirds in concert featuring Eric Clapton on lead (taken from their British debut album, Five Live Yardbirds) that includes “I’m a Man” again plus their devastating cover of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning” that I first heard on their 1967 collection The Yardbirds’ Greatest Hits.  Anyone who thinks that the British Invasion began and ended with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones needs to hear this music post haste. 
 
(June 2015)