The Mynah Birds was a Canadian
R&B band formed in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, that was active from 1964 to 1967.
[Chong. 2005.] Although the band never released an
album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
, it is notable as featuring a number of musicians, such as
Rick James
James Ambrose Johnson Jr. (February 1, 1948 – August 6, 2004), better known by his stage name Rick James, was an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, James began his musical career in ...
and
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...
, who went on to have successful careers in
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
,
folk rock
Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers suc ...
and
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
.
Over its short lifespan, the group featured many members in its many different configurations. Its most memorable lineup included Rick James, Neil Young,
Bruce Palmer
Bruce Palmer (September 9, 1946 – October 1, 2004) was a Canadian musician best known as the bassist in the seminal Canadian-American folk rock band Buffalo Springfield, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.
Early y ...
, Rickman Mason and John Taylor. Rick James would later become a major funk star in the 1970s and 1980s. Young and Palmer went on to become two of the founding members in the popular West Coast folk rock group
Buffalo Springfield
Buffalo Springfield was a rock band formed in Los Angeles by Canadian musicians Neil Young, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin and American musicians Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. The group, widely known for the song "For What It's Worth", relea ...
. After leaving Buffalo Springfield and
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) were a folk rock supergroup made up of American singer-songwriters David Crosby and Stephen Stills and English singer-songwriter Graham Nash. When joined by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young as a fourth member, ...
, Neil Young would go on to achieve fame as a solo artist.
Goldy McJohn
John Raymond Goadsby (May 2, 1945 – August 1, 2017), known as Goldy McJohn, was a Canadian keyboard player best known as the original keyboardist for rock group Steppenwolf. Originally a classically trained pianist, he was a pioneer in the ...
and
Nick St. Nicholas
Nick St. Nicholas (born Klaus Karl Kassbaum on September 28, 1943) is a German bandleader, bass guitarist, singer and songwriter; best known for his partnership in Steppenwolf.
Early life
He was born in Plön, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany ...
would later become members of the rock band
Steppenwolf. Also, a late-running 1967 version of the Mynah Birds featured heavy rocker
Neil Merryweather
Neil Merryweather (born Robert Neilson Lillie, December 27, 1945 – March 28, 2021) was a Canadian rock singer, bass player and songwriter. He has recorded and performed with musicians including Steve Miller, Dave Mason, Lita Ford, Billy ...
.
History
The Mynah Birds grew out of a 1964 group fronted by Jimmy "Liver" Livingston (born February 28, 1941, Nova Scotia; died June 1, 2002) and also including guitarist Ian Goble, drummer Rick Cameron, organist John Goadsby (aka
Goldy McJohn
John Raymond Goadsby (May 2, 1945 – August 1, 2017), known as Goldy McJohn, was a Canadian keyboard player best known as the original keyboardist for rock group Steppenwolf. Originally a classically trained pianist, he was a pioneer in the ...
) and bassist Nick Kassbaum (aka
Nick St. Nicholas
Nick St. Nicholas (born Klaus Karl Kassbaum on September 28, 1943) is a German bandleader, bass guitarist, singer and songwriter; best known for his partnership in Steppenwolf.
Early life
He was born in Plön, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany ...
).
In the early 1960s, a 15-year-old singer named James Johnson signed up for the U.S. Naval Reserves. When called up for active service in August 1964, he went to Canada and made his way to Toronto, Ontario. There he almost immediately got into an altercation on Yonge Street. As he tells it in his autobiography, Johnson was rescued from a beating by a couple of local musicians,
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm (May 26, 1940 – April 19, 2012) was an American musician who achieved fame as the drummer and one of the three lead vocalists for the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. H ...
and
Garth Hudson
Eric "Garth" Hudson (born August 2, 1937) is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist best known as the keyboardist and occasional saxophonist for rock group the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. He was a ...
of Levon and the Hawks, who would achieve legendary status as
the Band. Hudson and Helm took the shaken young sailor to a local bar, where he jumped up onstage with the band playing at the time. That group was impressed enough that they invited him to join them, and renamed themselves the Sailorboys.
Johnson quickly built a rapport with many of the Toronto music scene's busiest performers. One of them was
Shirley Matthews
Shirley Matthews (1942 – January 2013) was a Canadian pop singer.
Matthews sang in a church choir and at high school dances prior to embarking on a career in music. She worked in a Bell Telephone office while singing nights at the Club Bluenote ...
, a local celebrity at the time: she’d had a big Canadian hit with “Big Town Boy” the previous year. Matthews, learning that Johnson was a fugitive and in danger of being found out, suggested he call himself Ricky Matthews (or Ricky James Matthews), after a cousin of hers who had died. At some point, the Sailorboys changed their name to the Mynah Birds, though the lineup shifted frequently.
An amended line-up, comprising Rick James, St. Nicholas, Rick Cameron and guitarist Frank Arnel (aka Frank Iozzo), recorded "The Mynah Birds Song" for
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...
in late 1964 as a prospective single. However, the track was not deemed strong enough and a new track, "The Mynah Birds Hop", was recorded for the A-side.
The second track saw James and Livingston trading vocals, backed by St Nicholas, Arnel, McJohn and drummer Richie Grand (born June 11, 1945 in Toronto, Ontario). The single was released in Canada in early 1965, but was not a hit.
Shortly thereafter,
Bruce Palmer
Bruce Palmer (September 9, 1946 – October 1, 2004) was a Canadian musician best known as the bassist in the seminal Canadian-American folk rock band Buffalo Springfield, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.
Early y ...
joined the band in an unusual bass-player swap:
Jack London & The Sparrows
The Sparrows was a Canadian blues rock band of the 1960s. Notable for being the first group to bring musician John Kay into the mainstream, the Sparrows later morphed into the popular heavy rock group Steppenwolf.
Early years
The original J ...
gave up Palmer to get Mynah Birds bassist St. Nicholas.
Shortly after, a major split in the group left Matthews and Palmer to put together a new version of The Mynah Birds. In essence they absorbed a band from Brantford, Ontario, called the Bunkies - drummer Rickman Mason (born 1945) and guitarists Tom Morgan (born 1944) and John Taylor (1946 - 2002). Morgan was replaced by
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...
in January 1966.
(Singer Jimmy Livingson, after leaving The Mynah Birds in April 1965, joined The Muddy Yorks and then
The Just Us
The Tripp, known earlier as The Just Us and later Livingston's Journey, was a Canadian rock band, based in Toronto from the mid-1960s, featuring Neil Merryweather and Stan Endersby.
History
Keyboard player Ed Roth, drummer Bob Ablack, lead guita ...
, which evolved into
The Tripp
The Tripp, known earlier as The Just Us and later Livingston's Journey, was a Canadian rock band, based in Toronto from the mid-1960s, featuring Neil Merryweather and Stan Endersby.
History
Keyboard player Ed Roth, drummer Bob Ablack, lead guita ...
.)
In early 1966, the Mynah Birds were signed to
Motown Records
Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmant ...
. Shortly before recording began, bassist Bruce Palmer invited an acquaintance of his to join the band: local folk musician Neil Young. An article about the Mynah Birds in a May 1966 ''Billboard'' magazine indicated that their first single would be an original song called “I’ve Got You In My Soul.” That never happened, likely because somebody noticed that “I’ve Got You In My Soul” sounded remarkably similar to a '
Them
Them or THEM, a third-person plural accusative personal pronoun, may refer to:
Books
* ''Them'' (novel), 3rd volume (1969) in American Joyce Carol Oates' ''Wonderland Quartet''
* '' Them: Adventures with Extremists'', 2003 non-fiction by Welsh ...
' (the band fronted by
Van Morrison
Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards.
As a teenager in t ...
) song called “Little Girl”. Still, the Mynah Birds completed a single that was prepared for release on Motown’s V.I.P. imprint, called “It’s My Time”.
But the band’s manager apparently misappropriated their advance money from Motown and they fired him. In return, the manager informed Motown that the band’s singer was AWOL from the Navy. Matthews was taken into custody and incarcerated by the Navy. “It’s My Time” remained unreleased, and Motown scrapped plans for a Mynah Birds album.
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...
and
Bruce Palmer
Bruce Palmer (September 9, 1946 – October 1, 2004) was a Canadian musician best known as the bassist in the seminal Canadian-American folk rock band Buffalo Springfield, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.
Early y ...
bought a hearse, drove to L.A., and helped form
Buffalo Springfield
Buffalo Springfield was a rock band formed in Los Angeles by Canadian musicians Neil Young, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin and American musicians Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. The group, widely known for the song "For What It's Worth", relea ...
, whose tribute to that period of their career was the Neil Young song, “Mr. Soul.” (“It’s My Time” became one of the great lost Motown singles. It made its first official appearance in a Motown boxed set released in 2006, and recently appeared in its originally intended form, with its b-side “Go On and Cry," for 2012's '
Record Store Day
Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fa ...
.')
As the Motown contract stipulated that the group must fulfill six months of work, Rickman Mason and John Taylor drafted in former guitarist Tom Morgan and two new musicians, singer Mark Smith and former Bunkies bass player John Klassen (b. Brantford, Ontario). The Mynah Birds resumed gigging, appearing at numerous venues throughout Ontario, including a return to the El Patio in Toronto (8–10 August), a performance at the
Whitby
Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a maritime, mineral and tourist heritage. Its East Clif ...
Arena (31 August) and a show at Peggy's Pavilion in
Stroud
Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021.
Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five ...
(10 September) by which point Robert Benedict had replaced Morgan on guitar.
After some months in the navy brig, Matthews was released and returned to Toronto in May 1967 to assemble a new group of Mynah Birds and returned to Motown to record. The new lineup, which included Neil Lillie (aka Merryweather) on bass, Al Morrison on drums, Vernon Wayne Pickell on organ and Bill Ross on guitar, was short-lived, but did record a new version of "It's My Time" (and likely other songs) for Motown. Sessions ended following a strong disagreement between Matthews and Ross; Ross left and the others returned to Toronto where Matthews was arrested and spent time in the Don Jail.
Matthews later returned to Motown in Detroit and produced Bobby Taylor's "Taylor Made Soul" album. Possibly because there was no longer any need to hide behind the borrowed Toronto surname, Ricky James Matthews became simply
Rick James
James Ambrose Johnson Jr. (February 1, 1948 – August 6, 2004), better known by his stage name Rick James, was an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, James began his musical career in ...
.
1966: Motown Records
The Mynah Birds signed a seven-year deal with
Motown Records
Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmant ...
in 1966.
They recorded a number of tracks, and their first album was in the works when James was arrested, having deserted the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
prior to forming the Sailorboys. Motown subsequently shelved their recordings. (James would later re-sign with Motown and have a successful career there.)
A planned single, "It's My Time" b/w "Go On And Cry", assigned the catalog number V.I.P. 25033, was withdrawn just prior to its scheduled release by Motown.
It was not released until the single was included in the 2006 box set ''The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 6: 1966'', released in a limited edition of 6000 by Universal archival label
Hip-O Select
Hip-O Records is a record label that specializes in reissues and compilations. It is part of Universal Music Group. Established in 1996, the label has distributed releases from 'out of style' genres such as disco and early hip-hop music as wel ...
.
[The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 6: 1966]
. allmusic.com. Retrieved 2010-12-17.
On the ''Motown Unreleased 1966'' digital album release, two additional songs by the Mynah Birds were included: "I Got You (In My Soul)" and "I'll Wait Forever".
Discography
Singles
Compilation inclusions
See also
*
Music of Canada
The music of Canada reflects the diverse influences that have shaped the country. Indigenous Peoples, the Irish, British, and the French have all made unique contributions to the musical heritage of Canada. The music has also subsequently been ...
References
*Chong, Kevin.
Neil Young nation'. p. 128-132. 2005. Greystone Books. 9781553651161. Retrieved 2010-12-16.
*McDonough, Jimmy.
Shakey: Neil Young's Biography'. 2003. Random House of Canada. 9780679311935. Retrieved 2010-12-16.
McJohn's official web-site. Retrieved 2010-12-17.
Citations
External Links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mynah Birds, The
Musical groups established in 1964
Musical groups disestablished in 1967
Canadian rhythm and blues music groups
Musical groups from Toronto
Motown artists
Neil Young
Columbia Records artists
1964 establishments in Ontario
1967 disestablishments in Ontario