 With the exception of "Still I 'm Sad", the songs on Having a Rave Up were not composed by the Yardbirds. Two of the album's hits, "Heart Full of Soul" and "Evil Hearted You", were written for the group by Gouldman, who had composed "For Your Love". Both songs saw the group continuing to move beyond their blues-rock beginnings with Beck's experimental guitar work. "Heart Full of Soul" is one of the earliest rock songs to incorporate Indian musical influences. Several months before the Beatles popularised the sound with "Norwegian Wood", demos for "Heart Full of Soul" were attempted with sitar accompaniment. However, the Indian sitar player had difficulty with the 44 metre and the instrument lacked the power the group desired. Instead, Beck produced a sitar-like effect by bending the higher notes on his guitar in an Eastern-sounding scale and using a Tone Bender distortion device to get a more distinctive tone. The minor key, pop-oriented "Evil Hearted You" also incorporates exotic-sounding elements. Rock critic Richie Unterberger notes the "haunting Middle Eastern-influenced melody ... typically eerie backup harmonies, [and] Keith Relf's menacing, hurt lead vocal". Beck provides a steel guitar-like slide solo, which biographer Martin Power describes as a "shimmering two-octave slide solo sounding almost ghostly". "You 're a Better Man Than I" was written by Mike Hugg and his brother Brian. The song reflects the folk-rock style of the time with socially conscious lyrics. Relf's folk-ballad vocal is complemented by Beck's vibrato- and sustain-heavy guitar solo. "Still I'm Sad" is the album's sole original tune by the band, written by Samwell-Smith and McCarty. It is a slow, brooding piece with psychedelic pop elements. Built on a mock-Gregorian chant, the song has seven vocal parts with producer Gomelsky adding a droning bass vocal under Relf's melody.
