The Mynah Birds, 1965
A thing I learned today:
Rick James + Neil Young + Berry Gordy + draft dodging + Toronto
Pretty crazy, right?
A few choice quotes about this short-lived and fated band that I had no idea even existed until today:
Its most memorable lineup included future funk star Rick James, Rickman Mason, John Taylor and future folk-rock music stars Neil Young and Bruce Palmer, both of whom went on to form Buffalo Springfield.
(Bass player) Bruce Palmer was walking down Yorkville Avenue when he ran into Young, carrying his acoustic guitar and balancing an amp on his head, coming in the opposite direction. After exchanging pleasantries, Palmer invited Young to join the band. It seemed a ridiculous decision introducing an acoustic player into a rhythm and blues outfit. But by combining Young’s folk inflected guitar and R&B vocals, the Mynah Birds, successfully bridged the two styles.
(Drummer) Mason, who says he never got along with the band’s new guitarist, remembers Young’s first job with the band – the Inferno, a club on Toronto’s east side. “They put rubber gym mats out for us to play on! The first song we go to do, Neil goes up to do his lead and unplugs his guitar. He plays the whole lead without his guitar plugged in. Didn’t even know what he was doing.”
In Jimmy McDonough’s Neil Young biography Shakey, “James, fancied himself the next Mick Jagger, a claim particularly ironic since he was black, although as Bruce Palmer told Scott Young, “as far as we knew he was white then.”
Young: “Intense. Ricky was great. He was a little bit touchy, dominating — but a good guy. Had a lot of talent. Really wanted to make it bad. Ricky was the front man. He’s out there doin’ all that shit and I was back there playin’ a little rhythm, a little lead, groovin’along with my bro Bruce. We were havin’a good time.”
Within weeks of Young joining, the Mynah Birds flew down to Motown to begin sessions for the label under Smokey Robinson’s supervision. Since the musicians were all minors, their parents had to accompany them to Detroit to sign the contracts.
“We were the only white band at Motown.”
After signing the Motown deal, the label had given the musicians an advance. The only problem was that the group never saw it – (manager) Morley Shelman had pocketed it all to fund his growing heroin addiction. When the band fired him over the missing money, Shelman extracted his revenge by informing Motown that Ricky was AWOL.
Their first album was in the works when James was arrested, having deserted the United States Navy prior to forming the Sailorboys. Motown subsequently shelved their recordings.
SOURCES:
http://www.earcandymag.com/
http://www.thrasherswheat.org/
http://bootquake.blogspot.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mynah_Birds
