songs for broken hearts, no. 41

Bob Cowsill was really fun last night. As my friend likes to say, Bob is the Jerry Garcia of Ventura Blvd English pub players. Heart Full of Soul was among the two dozen or so great 60s classics in his set. If you talk to me at the right time and under the right circumstances, there's a good chance I'll tell you that Heart Full of Soul is my favorite song, period. I prefer the Yardbirds during the stage when they moved away from straight blues and went in the direction of psychedelic pop. Their grounding in the blues remained an important part of their identity and was the reason why even their most pop oriented offerings still sounded so heavy. It was still some heavy-duty shit, but the hooks became so much more inviting than what would be possible with a more traditional conception of the blues. Listen tonight for the acoustic rhythm guitar. Jeff Beck's lead guitar crackles with waves of euphoric electricity, and he does that classic mid-60s thing - perfected by the Beatles and Buffalo Springfield, among others - where his solo simply replicates the song's core melody. It's a simple but oh-so-satisfying solo within two-and-a-half minutes of pop ecstasy. Guaranteed to lift you out of your doldrums when you need it most...