Season 1 · Episode 3

Yonge Street: Toronto Rock & Roll Stories: 1965-1970

By the mid-60s, Yorkville had become the mecca for folk music until Dylan went electric and everything changed. Clubs for rock 'n' roll and psychedelic music became part of the same lineup as the folk music of coffeehouses. Artists like Neil Young, Rick James and The Myna Birds, John Kay and The Sparrow, John & Lee & the Checkmates, and The Paupers were all big names playing the Yorkville clubs, but Canadians didn't have the airtime support needed to sustain them. Toronto musicians had outgrown Toronto, so they left to find fame and fortune in the U.S. The Rock Pile, at 888 Yonge Street (now CTV's Masonic Temple studios and home of MTV) became a focal point for great bands like Led Zeppelin, The Who, Jeff Beck, and Frank Zappa on their pit stops to Toronto. Finally, Part 3 looks at the early '70s and how the proliferation of strip clubs drove the final nail in the coffin of the Yonge Street music scene.