A Documentary About the Awesome, Crazy and Highly Influential Yorkville Music Scene in Torono
It’s a pretty trendy part of town now with multi-million-dollar townhomes and condos, high-end shops, five-star hotels and expensive shops. But back in the 60s, Yorkville was where the hippies, folkies and drugged-up weirdoes hung out. They had names like Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Robbie Robertson and Ronnie Hawkins. Those few square blocks were an incubator and accelerator for the Canadian music that was to come.
There’s a finally a documentary on that long-ago scene. Take a look. More at the official website.
Yorkville – Trailer from Moderna Pictures on Vimeo.
its too bad the documentary doesn’t cover why the music scene abruptly, suddenly disappeared from Yorkville . It wasn’t by accident! It wasn’t because the market wasn’t there! All of the music venue operators, were on a regular basis, beaten up by under cover Toronto cops. The latter continued until the venue operator left Toronto.
It seems like yesterday when we the house band at the Cafe El Patio but it is close to 50 years. The Yorkville Scene was like no other in North America. A wonderful time in Toronto’s history.
Brian Price – A Passing Fancy