Mr. Soul

Background and Commentary

The piece was written by Neil Young and first recorded and released by Buffalo Springfield in 1967. “A lot of songs take a long time to write,” Young said during a later live performance. “Generally they take an hour and a half, two hours to write. But this one took only five minutes.” Young subsequently recorded other versions of the song, often with marked stylistic changes. Of all of Young’s songs, “Mr. Soul” has been released the most times. The main riff of the song recalls “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones.—Wikipedia

The piece was one of the songs Alex and Geddy played as part of their set in the band’s earliest years, Neil says in the liner notes to Feedback.

Lyrics

Buffalo Springfield

Oh, hello, Mr. Soul, I dropped by to pick up a reason
For the thought that I caught that my head is the event of the season
Why in crowds just a trace of my face could seem so pleasin’
I’ll cop out to the change, but a stranger is putting the tease on

I was down on a frown when the messenger brought me a letter
I was raised by the praise of a fan who said I upset her
Any girl in the world could have easily known me better
She said you’re strange, but don’t change, and I let her

In a while, will the smile on my face turn to plaster
Stick around while the clown who is sick does the trick of disaster
For the race of my head and my face is moving much faster
Is it strange I should change I don’t know, why don’t you ask her

Tablature

By Wolfgang Deimel (deimel@mabi.de)

Excerpted from Hyperrust.org.

This is the TAB to the Unplugged version of the song.
It is played in D-modal tuning (d a d g b d).

Chords:

D –0—-0—-x—-0—–0–
B –3—-0—-1—-3—–3–
G –2—-0—-0—-0—–0-
D –0—-0—-2—-0—–0–
A –0—-5—-3—-2—–1-
D –0—-5—-x—-X—–X–
D5 G C G/B Gm/Bb

Riff (repeated several times as intro and between verses, additionally played
once after each line)

D —0—————-
B —3—————-
G —2—————-
D -0—0-2-3–3-2-3-2-
A -0—0-2-3–3-2-3-2-
D -0—0-2-3–3-2-3-2-

D5
Oh, hello Mr. Soul, I dropped by to pick up a reason

For the thought that I caught that my head is the event of the season
G D5
Why in crowds just a trace of my face could seem so pleasin’
C G/B D5
I’ll cop out to the change, but a stranger is putting the tease on.

For complete tab, go to Hyperrust.org.

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