**Series registration is sold-out. A limited number of same-day single course tickets will be available one hour before the start of the lecture.**
In the 1960s, Toronto developed one of the world’s most vibrant music scenes, with folk, blues and rock performers who went on to international acclaim. In this whirlwind tour of the musical culture that flourished on Yonge Street and in Yorkville through the end of the decade, Curious Minds favourite Dr. Mike Daley (The Beatles and their World; Leonard Cohen: Words and Music) will bring these legendary artists—and they world they inhabited—to thrilling new life.
Using archival video, photos and recorded music, he’ll immerse us in the sights and sounds of the historic venues where they performed and showcase the extraordinary talents of musicians like The Band, Ronnie Hawkins, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. He’ll celebrate the world-renowned icons who got their start here in our city and the local stars whose musical talents left an enduring legacy.
This course is led by Dr. Mike Daley, a music historian and professional musician who has taught at Guelph, McMaster, Waterloo and York Universities.
May 17: Beginnings - Yonge Street to 1961
Yonge Street has been the symbolic centre of Toronto and a microcosm for Canadian musical life for decades. We'll begin with a virtual walk through Yonge's early theatres, piano companies, sheet music shops and record stores, and examine the birth of the city’s rock and blues scenes. Relive the magic of the Brown Derby and the Colonial, the sweet tunes on CHUM 1050, and the arrival of Arkansas rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins in 1958.
May 24: Rock and roll and R&B on Yonge Street, 1961-1965
With a growing youth audience in the early 1960s, rock and roll bands like Little Caesar and the Consuls and Richie Knight and the Mid-Knights made serious inroads as homegrown Canadian rockers. The emergence of Ronnie Hawkins' Hawks (later to become The Band) expanded this audience while performers like David Clayton-Thomas (who would go on to join Blood, Sweat and Tears), Robbie Lane, and pioneering transgender soul singer Jackie Shane electrified the nightclubs on the Yonge Street strip.
May 31 Folk music in Yorkville to 1962; the after-hours clubs
We'll cover the early history of Yorkville Village and its emergence as a Bohemian hotspot in the early 1960s. As emerging artists like Ian and Sylvia and Buffy Sainte-Marie dazzled the folk music crowd at The Purple Onion and the Village Corner, after-hours clubs like the Bohemian Embassy and Club Blue Note featured live music through the wee hours. The R&B set could be found at Yonge Street’s Club Blue Note, getting its groove on to Shawne & Jay Jackson and Shirley Matthews, who scored a major hit with "Big Town Boy."
June 7: Folk music, blues, jug bands and singer-songwriters in Yorkville, 1962-1965
The Riverboat was Canada’s most famous coffeehouse and a home away from home for talented folk singers and songwriters like Gordon Lightfoot. Down Yorkville Avenue, Joni Anderson (soon to be Joni Mitchell) held audiences spellbound at the Penny Farthing while The Dirty Shames performed in the popular jug band style. The pioneering guitarist Lonnie Johnson arrived in Toronto in 1965 and stayed until his death in 1970.
June 14: Rock and roll and R&B on Yonge and in Yorkville, 1965-1968
As the Yorkville coffee houses transformed into rock and roll and R&B venues, they hosted a new generation of bands influenced by the British Invasion. These bands included Jack London and the Sparrows and the Ugly Ducklings. New R&B groups like the Mynah Birds (featuring Rick James and Neil Young), and Luke and the Apostles regularly filled the Yorkville clubs. We'll also discuss the role of go-go dancers in live performances of the era.
Further Viewing | The Summer of '67 - 1:00 PM
June 21: Psychedelic rock in Yorkville 1966-1968; the afterlife of the Toronto Sound
The countercultural movement of the late sixties changed the Toronto music scene. The Paupers and Kensington Market typified the expanded possibilities of rock music, while the Mandala fused spectacular production with blue-eyed soul. Yonge Street and Yorkville were changing, though, and for a variety of reasons these scenes began to fade. We'll conclude our series by looking at the afterlife of the Toronto Sound and the growing recognition of its importance to our city’s cultural heritage.