Yardbirds – Heart Full Of Soul

The Yardbirds had three of Rock’s greatest guitar players pass through them. Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. They had such a raw edge to them with Jeff Beck so that is the version I like best.

Heart Full of Soul peaked at #9 in the Billboard 100, #2 in the UK, and #2 in Canada in 1965. From the opening, it hooks you.

The lead guitarist Jeff Beck used an early version of a fuzz box on his lead part. They tried a sitar in the intro but they instead opted for Beck’s sitar-sounding guitar. “Heart Full of Soul” was the second of three Yardbirds singles written by non-member Graham Gouldman (the first was “For Your Love,” the other was “Evil Hearted You”).

This was the Yardbirds’ first single after Jeff Beck replaced Eric Clapton as lead guitarist. Released only three months after “For Your Love.” The song is interesting because it contains Eastern and Western musical influences.

Jeff Beck gave the song an Eastern feel by the way he played the intro. When Jeff Beck joined the Yardbirds he didn’t have a guitar.

Jeff Beck: I actually didn’t have a guitar of my own, I was so hard up. The Yardbirds sort of sneaked Eric’s guitar out. He’d finished using the red Tele (Fender Telecaster)
and was using a Les Paul, so he didn’t care about the red Tele. The bands manager, said well, ‘You’d better use Eric’s guitar—we can’t afford to go out and buy one now.’ So I borrowed Eric’s for the first couple of gigs”.

Drummer Jim McCarty: “‘Heart Full of Soul,’ which was very moody, gave us the ability to play the riff in sort of an Eastern way, give it an Oriental touch. Another very good song.”

Heart Full Of Soul

Sick at heart and lonely, deep in dark despair
When you want her only, tell me where is she where?
And if she says to you, that she don’t love me
Just give her my message, tell her of my plea
And I know, if I could have her back again, I would never make her sad
I got a heart full of soul I got a heart full of soul
She’s been gone such a long time, longer than I can bear
But if she says she wants me, tell her I’ll be there

And I know, if I could have her back again, I would never make her sad
I got a heart full of soul I got a heart full of soul
Sick at heart and lonely, deep in dark despair
When you want her only, tell me where is she where?
And if she says to you, that she don’t love me
Just give her my message, tell her of my plea
And I know, if I could have her back again, I would never make her sad
I got a heart full of soul I got a heart full of soul
I got a heart full of soul!

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

41 thoughts on “Yardbirds – Heart Full Of Soul”

  2. My all-time favourite Yardbirds song! I love Graham Gouldman too, so I’m glad you credited him here (he also wrote “No Milk Today” for Herman’s Hermits” and “Bus Stop” by The Hollies, both absolute classics of the era!). Well done, Max 😊.

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  3. This is another great sound of the 60s. I really wish this group had stayed together and made a lot of albums. I would have loved their music better than any of their other groups that were way more famous and hyped.

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  6. One of my favorite 60s songs & way ahead of its time…even beat the Rolling Stones to the satisfactionary (LOL) fuzzbox. And what a writer Goldman was, in the ’70s he was a quarter of 10CC and wrote some of their greats too.

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  12. Cool song cool band.
    Watched an old British film last night (Killer Bees). There was a clip of a rock band at the start and they were in this vibe. The guitarist looked like Ron Wood. The credits said the Birds. Being lazy and you not being lazy I bet you can find that info.

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    1. LOL… Oh I know that one CB…Ron Wood was in the Birds…The English one of course not our Byrds. I’ve seen that clip before. Is the movie any good?

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      1. I didnt know that. Those bands showed up in lots of films I watched. Yardbirds in ‘Blowup. Beck creams his guitar. Back in the day that was the only time you got to see rare bands unless you saw them live. Deadly Bees? It’s that cheesy horror I love. Actors all committed to the performance . Not easy to believe that shit.

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      3. Saint Jack. Ben has a cigar in his mouth the whole time. Being a trivia or knowledge seeker, lots of cool info on the film for you. Off the radar small film. Some good music in it. You’ll hear some Merle.
        Meant to ask. How you enjoying the Burns doc?
        Also I saw on your Bonnie/Delaney take the Vanishing Point reference (anther band in a flick). I sat through that film numerous times when it was released. The ‘On Tour With EC’ album was wore out at my place . My brother had the record. The Dave Mason cut was a good one off the record. You know Im a Traffic guy.

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      4. Oh cool man…I’m looking forard to it. Bailey has been busy but we plan to watch it soon. I’m looking forard to it.
        Oh CB…We are on the 7th episode…out of 8. That last one will be hard to watch but dude I love this. Jimmie Rodgers on to Gene Autry to Roy Rogers. You see the link go through the ages…I’ve learned a lot and found more music that I like…found out stuff about Nashville I never knew.
        You won’t believe this man…but I was re reading Townshend’s autobiograhy yesterday and his first solo gig in the early seventies he played a Traffic song…I had to check it out and I love it. I never heard it before. It’s called No Face, No Name, No Number. What a cool track that is. Excellent song man.
        I’m going to dive into more Bonnie and Delaney… I just posted the most commercial one.

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      5. I never knew that about Townshend doing that cut. Im listening to Steve sing the original right now. So good. Cool that Pete did it. Giving it a go now. Fits him.
        We’ll talk more about the Burns doc. Lots to take in. He doesnt give any time to whatever they’ve done to the music over the last decades. Lost me but I guess lots of folks like it. Back to the tune yu posted here. It’s a keeper.

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      2. Oh, I dunno. The Yardbirds got a huge sound on that record, what with Relf’s vocals and Beck’s guitar work. Big like I would imagine a tanker.

        🙂

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