Neil Young plus Rick James equals The Mynah Birds

When Rick James went AWOL in the 60s and came to Toronto, he formed 'The Mynah Birds' with Neil Young, as a part of the vibrant Yorkville scene of the time. They actually signed to Motown, but they were dropped when Motown found out Rick James was a war deserter. He still did alright anyways. So did Neil Young.

According to this post on Stillepost, two tracks by the Mynah Birds are now being released as part of the "complete singles" collection that Motown has put out. If you're lucky, the links on the message board may still be working.

The tracks themselves are pretty amazing, and it makes you wonder what kind of careers these guys would have had if they never split up. Maybe instead of "Superfreak" and "Southern Man," they would be the next superstars of R n' B or something.

That particular messageboard thread also recommends picking up the following books for more reading about Toronto's once-vibrant Yorkville scene; "Before the Goldrush" by Nicholas Jennings and a long lost book called "The Yorkville Diaries. Or you could just take a peek at the Yorkville page at Wikipedia.