Levon Helm: Gone But Not Forgotten

Levon Helm, Stephen Stills, Paul Butterfield, Neil Young, Ron Wood at The Last Waltz
Photo by Bo Shannon (c)
(Click photo to enlarge via Purple Words on a Grey Background)

We're glad to say that we had the honor and pleasure of seeing Levon Helm perform over the years. We didn't catch The Band in their very early days, but were lucky to see the various incarnations right up until last summer when Levon, while still vigorous on drums, could barely croak out a verse. Nevertheless, memories to cherish.

Much, much has been written to acknowledge Levon's place in musical history and we won't try and do justice. But we'll make note of the various musical intersections of Levon Helm and Neil Young.

Levon Helm played drums and contributed vocals on Neil Young's On The Beach (reviews) on the tracks "Revolution Blues" and "See the Sky about to Rain". Helm also appeared on "The Old Homestead" on Hawks And Doves (review) .

Bob Dylan, in a post on his official website, writes:

"He was my bosom buddy friend to the end, one of the last true great spirits of my or any other generation.

This is just so sad to talk about.

I still can remember the first day I met him and the last day I saw him. We go back pretty far and had been through some trials together. I'm going to miss him, as I'm sure a whole lot of others will too."

From Levon Helm: So Real It Makes You Believe < PopMatters by Sean Murphy:

There are certain albums you come upon at the ideal age, and I reckon, as a freshman in college, it was the ideal time to fall under the spell of Neil Young’s On the Beach. Much more on that album another time (short summary: it’s impeccable), but one of the songs that has never ceased to leave me at once unsettled and exhilarated is “See the Sky About to Rain”. It was interesting enough in its earlier incarnation as an acoustic number that Young performed on his ’71 tour. In fact, hearing that version helps you appreciate how much Young and his band did to elevate it (here I go again) to that other place.

Beyond boasting one of Young’s most desolate (and beautiful, yes beautiful) vocal performances, it has the whiskey-soaked Wurlitzer, the harmonica, the steel guitar (!) and that dark-night-of-the-soul vibe that more than a few folks—coincidentally or not—tapped into during the early-to-mid ‘70s. But mostly it has those drums: Helm’s work here is a clinic. Like all his playing and like the man himself, it is muscular, sensitive, soulful and masculine. It prods and occasionally cajoles, but it mostly keeps the time and supplies the requisite pace to the proceedings. (In a wonderfully full-circle sort of touch, Young—who had recently felt some rebel blowback for his acerbic, if accurate, cultural critiques in “Southern Man” and “Alabama”—alludes to his own recent and the region’s older history by name-checking “Dixie Land”. It’s one of those improbable moments that you shake your head at and remain in thrall of for the rest of your life.)

I can’t imagine music without Levon Helm. I can’t imagine my world without Levon Helm. Fortunately I’ll never have to.

More on Levon Helm on Purple Words on a Grey Background: RIP Levon Helm (26 May 1940 -19 April 2012)).

(Merci Jacques!)

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The Mynah Birds: An In Depth Exclusive

The Mynah Birds
John Goadsby (aka Goldie McJohn), Bruce Palmer, Richie Grand, Ricky James Matthews, Jimmy Livingston and Frank Iozzo (aka Frank Arnel)
February 1965
(Click photo to enlarge)

Editors Note: In honor of the annual Record Store Day and the vinyl release of The Mynah Birds single, we bring you an in-depth look back at The Mynah Birds.

Reduced to a footnote in Neil Young and Rick James’s careers, Toronto R&B sensation, The Mynah Birds have been overlooked in the annals of rock history. In a Thrasher's Wheat exclusive, Nick Warburton uncovers the fascinating story behind the first largely white band to sign to Motown Records. Nick Warburton is an award-winning journalist with over 15 years’ experience of writing across a wide range of topical issues and is a specialist in the field of popular music. His pioneering work on The Mynah Birds was recognised by Universal Records, which contacted him to assist with the band’s entry on its Motown 1966 Singles Boxed Set.

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In 2006, Universal Music Distribution unveiled volume six of its epic Complete Motown Singles series. Like its predecessors, the five-disc package, documenting the year 1966 and containing no less than 125 tracks, had been compiled and presented with immaculate detail.

Housed in a hard back cover and adorned with a replica copy of The Four Tops’ classic “Reach Out, I’ll Be There” in the front window, the boxed set was a fitting tribute to the ground-breaking music recorded under the auspices of Motown Records during the 1960s.

However, what made the 1966 singles series stand out for many avid rock fans was the inclusion of two previously unreleased tracks by The Mynah Birds, the legendary Toronto R&B band that for a mere six weeks married the unlikely talents of future funk star, the late Rick James (or Ricky James Matthews as he was then known) and Canadian guitar legend Neil Young.

The Mynah Birds - October 1965
(Click photo to enlarge)

Scheduled for release as a single on Motown’s V.I.P. subsidiary in spring ‘66, and assigned the catalogue number 25033, the garage/folk-rock classic “It’s My Time” (allegedly one of several Rick James/Neil Young collaborations but credited to Michael Valvano, Ricky James Matthews and R Dean Taylor in the boxed set) should have been a smash single.

Driven by James’s distinctive soulful voice and Young’s ringing 12-string guitar, the infectious “It’s My Time”, coupled with the contrasting “Go On and Cry”, a soft ballad credited to James, rhythm guitarist John Taylor and Motown staff writers, Michael Valvano and R Dean Taylor, had all of the ingredients to be a hit record.

But it was withdrawn when, half way through the recording of an album with producers William “Mickey” Stevenson, Michael Valvano and R Dean Taylor at Motown’s Hitsville studio, the band imploded in spectacular fashion.

James was AWOL from the US Navy, and his surrender to the FBI put an end to any further recordings. Left to reassess their futures, Neil Young and bass player Bruce Palmer promptly relocated to Los Angeles where they founded Buffalo Springfield. For Young it was the start of an illustrious career that would lead him to superstardom and a successful solo career.

But how did an interracial Canadian R&B band come to fall under Motown’s radar in the first place, and, more importantly, what happened to the rumoured album that was shelved?

To answer these questions, we need to go back to the autumn of ‘64 and a thriving Toronto live scene, into which stepped a young man wanted by the FBI: James Ambrose Johnson Jr.

The Mynah Birds at El Patio, Toronto in Feb '66.
Photo by Toronto Telegram.
(Click photo to enlarge)

Months shy of his 17th birthday, the Buffalo native made an instant impression after being invited to sing a few songs with Klaus Karl Kassbaum’s band at the El Patio coffeehouse in Toronto’s bohemian district, Yorkville Village. The future Steppenwolf bass player, better known as Nick St Nicholas, duly hired him as singer, and, dressed in the teenager’s US naval gear, they became the aptly named Sailorboys.

Besides Rick James and Nick St Nicholas, the line up at this time also comprised lead guitarist Ian Goble and drummer Rick Cameron. One early witness to the nascent group was Bev Davies, who later ran the Cellar coffeehouse in Yorkville where she befriended struggling folkie Neil Young.

For those in the know, Bev Davies was the woman that missed out on Neil Young and Bruce Palmer’s famous road trip to Los Angeles after being promised a place in the hearse.

“I was at Ontario College of Art fall 1964 [and] “I used to go to the El Patio to see Ricky James Matthews band,” says Davies. “I think Nick had an older brother who was at art school that year. The art school had a band called ‘the art school rubber band’ and he may have been in that. There was some connection between the band sometimes called The Sailors and the art school.”

Davies remembers James strutting around the stage. “Two outstanding songs that I remember him doing were ‘Hitch Hike’ and “I Got My Mojo Working’, she adds.

Local fame soon beckoned when eccentric businessman Colin Kerr, the owner of a local nightclub called the Mynah Bird, offered his services as a manager and renamed them after his favourite pet, a minor bird called Rajah. He also insisted the musicians adopt Rajah as band mascot and dress in minor bird colours on stage!

“He had [this] one minor bird that he would leave in a cage with a tape running 24-7 saying, ‘Hello, Ed Sullivan’ because he was quite convinced that sooner or later we’d end up on his [TV] show,” remembers new drummer Richie Grand.

The Mynah Birds - "Mynah Bird Hop" 45RPM
(Click photo to enlarge)

In a more constructive move, Kerr engineered a recording deal with the Canadian arm of Columbia Records, which resulted in a hopelessly rare one-off single – the R&B belter “Mynah Bird Hop”, coupled with the calypso-flavoured “Mynah Bird Song”.

Both sides of the single were penned by Colin’s brother, the late Ben Kerr, and featured another future Steppenwolf member, John Goadsby (aka Goldie McJohn) on organ plus new guitarist Frank Iozzo (aka Arnel).

Issued in early ’65 with the catalogue number C4-2660, the single bombed. Yet despite its chart failure, the two tracks offer a fascinating glimpse into James’s formative years as a singer. Even as a teenager, his charisma and immense talent is clearly evident.

Of the two tracks, “Mynah Birds Hop”, is by far the more impressive and finds the teenager sharing vocals with a man nearly 10 years’ his age – the late Jimmy Livingston, who co-fronted The Mynah Birds for a few months and would go on to front The Just Us, The Tripp, Livingston’s Journey and Heather Merryweather.

One of rock’s true madcaps, Livingston’s off-the-wall stage persona was way ahead of its time – readers are advised to check out The Tripp on Canadian filmmaker Bruce McDonald’s three-part documentary series Yonge Street: Toronto Rock & Roll Stories, where the singer’s unnerving performance beats Joy Division’s Ian Curtis to the punch by 10 years.

Livingston later decamped to L.A where his prodigious consumption of hallucinogenic drugs would tragically see him fall into the Syd Barratt/Skip Spence orbit of rock casualties.

The troubled singer was but one of many musicians that would pass through The Mynah Birds’ ranks during late ‘64/early ’65; another journeyman being future Mandala, James Gang and Guess Who guitarist, the late Domenic Troiano.

But it was arguably the arrival of the late Bruce Palmer, traded with Nick St Nicholas from local rivals, Jack London & The Sparrows (later to morph into Steppenwolf) that shifted The Mynah Birds up a gear.

Soon after Palmer’s arrival, Kerr landed the band an important showcase gig at the Collonade Theatre in downtown Toronto and, according to Grand, in an inspired move he paid hundreds of girls to rush the band’s limo as it pulled up outside the venue!

The Mynah Birds - "Mynah Bird Song" 45RPM
(Click photo to enlarge)

The writing was on the wall, however, and by late spring ’65, The Mynah Birds had split from their eccentric manager. “We broke away from him and went with another little promoter,” remembers Grand, who left soon afterwards to join The Stormy Clovers, the first group to perform Leonard Cohen songs. “We went to Montreal as The Swinging Doors and played at the Esquire Show Bar.”

Left with the band name, James and Palmer secured the patronage of well-healed businessman John Eaton, and in June 1965 brought in three musicians from Brantford, Ontario band, The Bunkys – lead guitarist Tom Morgan, rhythm guitarist and songwriter John Taylor and drummer Rick Mason.

Eschewing the Kerr wardrobe and decked in clothes to match their idols, The Rolling Stones, The new-look Mynah Birds soon turned heads.

One was the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which, according to Mason, filmed the band for a long-lost documentary while playing at the Devil’s Den. “CBC came down the stairs and filmed the whole night of us,” says Mason. “Somewhere in their archives they have the footage of us.”

Eager to get a foot in the fledging Canadian rock market, one of Eaton’s first moves was to buy the musicians some new equipment and to set up an expense account. They also acquired a new manager, a shady character known as Morley Shelman, who was suspected of pocketing most of the money Eaton forwarded them.

Nevertheless, it was Shelman who used his connections with actor Sal Mineo to pique the interest of Motown Records. In October 1965, an awe struck band drove down to Detroit to audition personally for Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson.

According to Garry Graff and Daniel Durchholz in the excellent Neil Young: Long May You Run: The Illustrated History, The Mynah Birds got as far as taping a backing track for “No Greater Love”, written by Howard Lemon and produced by Harvey Fuqua.

But for Tom Morgan, the session was a turning point. Sensing the label was only interested in Rick James, he bailed out two months later making way for an unlikely replacement – struggling folkie Neil Young.

The Mynah Birds
Rick Mason
Photo by Nick Warburton
(Click photo to enlarge)

Rick Mason remembers Young’s first job with the band – the Inferno, a club on Toronto’s east side in early January 1966. “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!”

Soon after, the new line up returned to Detroit to begin sessions for an album, but only completed four tracks, cut between 18-26 January. Mason remembers the label being a hard taskmaster. “Twenty-four seven, day and night until we dropped,” is how he describes the workload.

“Neil used a 12-string a lot,” he continues. “But we never did anything as a band. It was all done in parts and they put it together. Then everybody would drop in and do songs with us, like Smokey Robinson and Tammi Terrell.”

Several of the song titles are listed on the Broadcast Music Inc (BMI) website. Only one is credited to Neil Young: “I’ll Wait Forever” which is listed as a co-write with Ricky James Matthews, Michael Valvano and R Dean Taylor, and was completed at the January sessions.

The other finished track is “I Got You (In My Soul)”, a Rick James/John Taylor co-write that sounds suspiciously like a direct lift from Van Morrison and Them’s ‘Little Girl”!

John Taylor’s widow Carolyn has five separate song-writing contracts signed by Rick James and her late husband for Jobete Music, dated 18 January 1966. These include “Go On and Cry” and “I Got You (In My Soul)”, as well as three previously unknown songs – “We Gotta Go”, “Don’t Change Your Mind” and “Pretty Words”.

The Mynah Birds - August 1966
John Klassen, Rick Mason, Mark Smith, John Taylor and Tom Morgan
Photo by Rick Mason
(Click photo to enlarge)

According to an article in Billboard, dated 5 March 1966, The Mynah Birds only recorded four tracks in January but had plans to return to Detroit the next month to undertake further recordings.

“The Mynah Birds are billing themselves as the first Canadian group to be signed by Tamla Motown, with the first single under their new recording and management contract to be released shortly, it’s ‘I’ve Got You [In My Soul]’, written by lead singer Rick James [sic], one of the four numbers cut last month at the Motown studios in Detroit,” ran the review.

It then added: “The group’s personal manager, Morley Shelman, reports they’ll return to Detroit next month for more sessions with an album in sight and talk of US tour upcoming.”

Regrouping in Toronto a week after the first batch of sessions, The Mynah Birds were billed to play the El Patio in Yorkville Village on 11-13 February when news of James’s AWOL status reached Motown. The April sessions were duly scrapped, and with James in the FBI’s custody, The Mynah Birds’ career derailed. But that’s not quite the end of the story.

With Young and Palmer heading to Los Angeles, remaining members John Taylor and Rick Mason kept The Mynah Birds going for another year. Bringing back former member Tom Morgan alongside The Bunkys’ bass player John Klassen and new singer Mark Smith, the group gigged incessantly before finally dissolving in spring 1967.

Not long after, and having served time in military prison, Rick James was offered a second shot at Motown. Pulling together yet another version of The Mynah Birds with former David Clayton-Thomas sidemen, guitarist Bill Ross and drummer Al Morrison, plus bass player/singer Neil Lillie (aka Neil Merryweather) from The Tripp, they rehearsed at the label’s Gold Star studio before laying down a couple of backing tracks at Hitsville with R Dean Taylor in the producer’s chair and an unknown organist.

Session logs for 21 June 1967 reveal that two songs – “Masquerade” and “Fantasy” were cut before a studio dispute curtailed the sessions and irrevocably split the band, leaving Rick James to go on to a plethora of fascinating groups such as Salt & Pepper, Heaven & Earth, Great White Cane and The Stone City Band before finally striking gold with “Super Freak” in 1981.

While the Motown sessions in January 1966 provide a tantalising glimpse of what might have been had James’s arrest not scuppered the record deal, it would not be the last time that Rick James and Neil Young would cross paths.

Watch this space for the next chapter!

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Nick Warburton has been researching the history of The Mynah Birds and its related groups for a documentary and for a forthcoming book. He would like to thank Rick Mason, Stan Endersby, Tom Morgan, Carolyn Taylor, Carny Corbett, Richie Grand, Neil Merryweather, Harry Weinger, Bev Davies, Ivan Amirault and Goldie McJohn. This is an extended and modified version of an article that was published in Record Collector in March 2012.

Email: Warchive@aol.com
Web: www.nickwarburton.com
Follow Nick on Twitter @Lucifersblues

Copyright © Nick Warburton, 2012. All Rights Reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior permission from the author.

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Thanks Nick! Great research.

More on Rick James and Neil Young: The Mynah Birds, The "Super Freak" and Neil.

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Photo of the Moment: Neil Young and Donald "Duck" Dunn

Neil Young with Booker T & The MG's (Donald "Duck" Dunn)
Finsbury Park, London - 1993
Photo by Jimmy Newark
(Click photo to enlarge)

The Photo of the Moment is Neil Young and Donald "Duck" Dunn on bass of Booker T & The MG's at Finsbury Park, London in 1993.

Thanks Jimmy!

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Neil Young & Crazy Horse To Co-headline Outside Lands 2012 Festival

Neil Young & Crazy Horse, along with many others, will be co-headliners for the fifth annual Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival, in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park from Aug. 10-12.

Other co-headliners include Stevie Wonder, Metallica, Jack White and the Foo Fighters.

Full lineup at Outside Lands 2012.

Outside Lands pairs music with wine and food, and is known as "the world's only gourmet music festival."

Tickets on sale this Thursday (Apr. 19) at noon PST.

(Thanks to everyone who notified us!)

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Radiohead Samples "After the Goldrush" at Coachella 2012 + PLUS, RARE Interview

Radiohead headlined the Coachella 2012 Festival this past weekend and partially covered Neil Young's "After the Goldrush".

During the first encore, as an intro to "Everything in It's Right Place" (1:27:25), Thom Yorke went a capella on "After the Gold Rush."

The following interview with Thom Yorke was conducted by Mark Cooper, on January 27th 2008 at the BBC TV Centre in London. Sections from this interview were supposed to be used in "Don't Be Denied", a documentary on Neil Young.

Sadly, the footage went completely unused in the final edit. Here is the complete, unedited raw footage of that interview of Thom Yorke on Neil Young's influence.

Thom Yorke: “I once watched him [Neil Young] play ‘Cortez the Killer’ with the Pearl Jam band . . . and there was probably the most sustained wind — I can’t think of another way of putting it — but this wind was coming off the stage as he was playing his solo and it just did not stop, it was just like this force of nature coming off the stage.

It was extraordinary, because if you sat down and analyzed or listened to the bits, you know, there was nothing sort of special necessarily in the elements, but something happens and it all comes together: boom. The idea is to be a channel of what is going on.

And that’s what you should be doing.”

More on Radiohead Covering Neil Young Songs.

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5 Things That Remind Me Of Neil Young (That Really Shouldn’t) « The Pulmyears Music Blog

Ok, here's some silly, Neil fun.

From The Pulmyears Music Blog | "5 Things That Remind Me Of Neil Young (That Really Shouldn’t)".

We'd have to agree. These are 5 things that really shouldn’t remind us of Neil. But we are acquainted with the phenomenon of Neil is everywhere.

Afterall, there really are more that just "5 Things That Remind Me Of Neil Young (That Really Shouldn’t)".

Right?

Share your "5 Things That Remind Me Of Neil Young (That Really Shouldn’t)" in comments below.

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Comment of the Moment: Reappraising "Are You Passionate?" 10 Years After

Are You Passionate?
(Back Cover - Click photo to enlarge)

Quite a pleasantly surprising reaction to the recent re-appraisal of Neil Young's Are You Passionate? on the album's 10 year release anniversary.

The Comment of the Moment is from D. I. Kertis regarding the back cover of the album and the listing of song titles, including the elusive "Gateway of Love":

Neat thread, as I've come to regard this as an album with its own special place.

The title track is actually one of my favorite NY songs of the 2000s. Although it's very personal, but I think it's also as much about 9-11 as Let's Roll ("a world that never stops/turning on you/turning on me", and most obviously the countermelody verse beginning with "Once I was a soldier...").

AYP?, for me, is one of those tracks that plays almost like a poem set to music.

I like Goin' Home, too, but the title is definitely my favorite track here. The last couple tracks also appeal. Even though She's a Healer is a long one based on a repetitive riff, I love the overall sound of it--NY grunge crossed with Booker T's highly jazz-influenced Motown sound.

If nothing else, this one of the more musically experimental, fusion-oriented albums, and Healer seems to define its sound the most strongly. Maybe it's because I tend to enjoy exploring many different musical styles (I.e. Not a fan of just electric Crazy Horse or only acoustic folksy) that this album is interesting to me. Mr. Disappointment and Differently also stand out in this regard, as does Quit to a degree (I can understand the lyrics being seen as somewhat hackneyed, but the collage of guitar and keyboard is very evocative on its own at times).

Like others, I sometimes skip Let's Roll, not so much because I think it is terribly jingoistic (though I can certainly understand how it might come off that way), but because the subject matter is unpleasant, which is compounded by the very heavy-handed approach, and it has some outstanding lines, but really isn't that great a song in my opinion.

On a related note, thinking about this makes me wish Neil would release Toast, which I seem to remember hearing was being prepared back in 2009, about the time Fork in the Road was coming out. Given that it was the project directly preceded AYP?, and that Goin' Home was recorded during those abandoned sessions, it seems like it might make an interesting companion piece, provided that it ever finds its way out of the vault.

Not to clog up the board, but another thing I wanted to mention having a massive post: the alternate track listing provided by following those notecards shown on the back cover, minus the unreleased Gateway to Love (which I hope is on Toast, crossing fingers again).

I actually use iTunes to place the tracks in this order, with interesting, certainly not-bad results. I'm assuming anyone interested in doing this themselves owns the CD (or images can probably be found online), so I won't type out the entire sequence unless anybody asks, but for reference, note that I followed the cards horizontally rather than vertically (i.e. Left to right by rows, rather than by columns).

I find this order makes the album darker and heavier, and potentially less commercial. It's bookended by When I Hold You in my Arms and Quit (Don't Say You Love Me) respectively, which drew out some lyrical and musically connections between the two that I hadn't thought about much before and makes the album seem more tightly structured and much more conceptual. But the most radical change is to move Healer from being the album's finale to track 2. But I was surprised how much this started to click after one or two playbacks. I'll let others try it on their own, but suffice it to say that Healer is given two very different lyrical/musical contexts depending on which order one chooses, and in my opinion the most impressive and interesting part is that both musical roles make complete sense.

Like I said, though, it's also a tonally darker, possibly edgier album this way. Let's Roll and the title track are still placed back to back exactly as on the original, but are sequenced immediately before Quit, meaning the whole album is now a build-up to its darkest tracks, especially the title track, which also effectively becomes the climax. Whether or not this is desirable really depends on personal preference, and to be honest, I could probably argue either side of that depending on which way the wind is blowing.

So I'll leave everyone else to make their own assessments as they wish to. I just encourage other Neil fans to try it, especially if the album doesn't appeal much in the official sequence. I have a hunch the notecard picture may show this as a sequence that was considered for release before Gateway was dropped, especially because I remember a description of them shuffling notecards to determine the sequence for Harvest Moon somewhere in Neil's authorized biography.

And in an ideal world, we might be able to in include Gateway to Love in the sequence, but for now this will have to do : )

D. I.Kertis

Thanks D.I.! Good to hear from you. It's been awhile. Please come back again soon. peace

Also, thanks to Matthew Wilkening over at Ultimate Classic Rock for the reappraisal article "Neil Young’s ‘Are You Passionate?’ Turns 10 Years Old".

More reaction to the recent re-appraisal of Neil Young's Are You Passionate? on the album's 10 year release anniversary.

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