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The story of folk icon Neil Young and funk master Rick James were once being in a Yorkville band together has become the stuff of rock 'n' roll legend. They were unknowns at the time and the Mynah Birds just happened to be where their paths converged, along with those of Goldy McJohn and Nick St. Nicholas, future members of Steppenwolf, and Bruce Palmer, who ultimately wound up with his buddy Neil in Buffalo Springfield. The following story, largely excerpted from Nicholas Jennings’ Before the Gold Rush: Flashbacks to the Dawn of the Canadian Sound, published by Penguin Books in 1997, is one of the earliest accounts of the now storied Mynah Birds band. It draws on an extensive interview...

Neil Young returned to the city of his birth in 1965, determined to break into Toronto’s flourishing music scene. He’d arrived with his Winnipeg group, the Squires, but their new folk-rock sound fell on deaf ears. Even changing their name to Four to Go failed to make a difference. So Young parted ways with his bandmates and launched himself as a solo folksinger. Before leaving Winnipeg, Young had become enamored of Bob Dylan’s music and taught himself to play “Four Strong Winds,” Ian Tyson’s Canada-referencing response to “Blowin’ in the Wind.” He’d also encountered Joni Mitchell, who was performing at the Fourth Dimension coffeehouse with her husband. After the show, Young went up to Joni, ...

Sir Elton John was not yet a star—or a knight—when he played a week-long stint in 1970 at the Troubadour club in West Hollywood. Sitting in the audience one night, with his long silver hair and glasses, was Leon Russell, an American singer-pianist whose star was already rising, having written major hits for Joe Cocker and The Carpenters. John later met Russell and they toured together, a great thrill for the English musician, who regarded his American counterpart as a musical idol. As fate would have it, the Rocket Man’s career soared, while Russell’s crash landed. Now Elton is injecting some jet fuel into his hero’s career, by collaborating with him on The Union. John hopes the recording, w...

A man and his guitar. Canada’s iconic rocker has been proving the power of that simple combination for half a century. Young’s latest is a testament to just how much feeling, meaning and, yes, noise he can draw from his instrument. Recorded without percussion, keyboards or strings (but with plenty of sonic effects from producer and fellow Canadian Daniel Lanois), the album’s standout tracks range from the raw “Walk with Me” and the ornery “Angry World” to the gorgeous, Spanish-tinged confessional “Love and War.”

The Troubadour is one of the most storied venues in popular music. Beginning in 1961, owner Doug Weston ran the club, located in West Hollywood on Santa Monica Boulevard, as a showcase for folk and country artists. Later, it featured rock musicians as well. The Troubadour is where Elton John made his triumphant U.S. debut, where the Byrds, who met at a Monday open mic, first performed their classic take on Dylan’s “Tambourine Man,” where Buffalo Springfield made their live debut, where the Eagles’ Don Henley and Glenn Frey met in the front bar and where Led Zeppelin famously played with Fairport Convention in a three-hour jam session. But more than anything, the Troubadour became synonymous ...