Sunday, November 9, 2008

The Mynah Byrds


True or false: Rick James and Neil Young used to be in a band together, called the Mynah Byrds.

From Wiki:

James and [bassist] Palmer soon formed a new Mynah Birds lineup with guitarists Tom Morgan and Xavier Taylor, and drummer Rick Mason. In early 1966, the Mynah Birds auditioned for the Motown label in Detroit. Morgan was unhappy with the label's attitude towards the musicians and left, with Neil Young taking his place. With Young on board, the Mynah Birds returned to Motown to record an album, but their manager pocketed the advance money the label had given the band. The band fired their manager, who in turn told the label that James was AWOL [from the Naval Reserves]. Motown told him to give himself up to the FBI, and the Mynah Birds' album was shelved. James spent a year in the Brooklyn Brig, after which he briefly returned to Toronto. During the summer of 1967, Rick James formed a new version of The Mynah Birds (sometimes spelled "Myna Byrds") with Neil Merryweather. The band returned to Motown and Detroit and recorded a new version of James and Neil Young's "It's My Time", but the band broke up soon afterwards.


The Mynah Byrds - "It's My Time"

The Mynah Byrds - "Go On And Cry"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

check out http://slowtimer.com/2007/08/21/the-mynah-birds/, we did a story about this a while back with some fun facts and fiction you may have missed, good post! love the site!