Young Neil

The Sugar Mountain Years

Sharry Wilson

• Publisher: ECW Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781770411869
• eBook ISBN: 9781770905993
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music Biographies

"A supremely compelling chronicle" of Neil Young's early life ( Rolling Stone).
 
Covering the years from 1945 to 1966, this book documents the childhood and teenage life of Canadian musician and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Neil Young. From his birth in Toronto through his school years in Florida, Ontario, and Manitoba, the book examines the development of Young's unique talent against a backdrop of shifting postwar values, a turbulent family history, and a musical revolution in the making—and includes many previously unseen photos and set lists.
 
"Not only takes us on Neil's voyage but also uncovers life in the 40's, 50's, and 60's in Ontario and Manitoba . . . Wonderful." —Bernie Finkelstein, author of True North: A Life In the Music Business
 
"Having covered Neil Young for a good portion of his career, I thought I knew everything there was to know about the man and his music. I was wrong. Sharry Wilson's book, marked by enormous depth of study and research, opens windows into Young's early life and creative development I never knew existed." —Dave Zimmer, author, Crosby, Stills & Nash: The Biography

ó PART ONE ó

BORN IN ONTARIO

I was born in Ontario

Where the black fly bites and the green grass grows.

That’s where I learned most of what I know

’Cause you don’t learn much when you start to grow old.

I left home at a tender young age

’Cause Mum and Daddy never seemed to stay

In any one place for very long

So we just kept moving, moving on.

— Neil Young, “Born in Ontario”

ó 1 ó

IN THE BEGINNING …

IT WAS A HARSH AND unwelcoming winter night — hardly unusual for early February in Toronto. A blizzard had rendered travel precarious. Only the hardiest souls ventured out.

On the morning of February 5, 1945, city residents woke to over 12 centimetres of fresh snow, bringing the total snow­fall since November to more than 1.5 metres — more than would normally fall over an entire winter. And although the snow was not in itself overwhelming, it was accompanied by frigid, blinding winds.

Scott Young, then a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, was in Toronto on medical leave for fatigue, spending time with his wife, Rassy, and their nearly three-year-old son Bob. Scott was to undergo tests at a hospital in Ottawa, and Rassy and Bob planned to join him at the Lord Elgin Hotel during his recovery. But the snowstorm forced them to revise their travel plans.

They were invited to take refuge overnight in the home of good friends Ian and Lola Munro1 at 361 Soudan Avenue, near the intersection of Eglinton Avenue East and Mount Pleasant Road in what was then a northern suburb of the city. The Youngs had been visiting the Munros as the day passed and weather conditions worsened.

Ian retrieved a spare mattress and put it on the dining-room floor as a makeshift bed for Scott and Rassy. The couple had been apart for a long period due to the demands of Scott’s service. Happily reunited, they quietly made love as the snow sifted and deepened outside the darkened house. Scott Young writes:

I know the exact time when Neil was conceived. I remember the street in Toronto, the wild February blizzard through which only the hardiest moved, on skis, sliding downtown through otherwise empty streets to otherwise empty offices. All trains were marooned or cancelled.2

NEIL YOUNG’S FATHER HAD ALREADY led a diverse and in some ways uniquely Canadian life. Born in Cypress River, Manitoba, in 1918, Scott’s first job, at age 16, was manning the desk of a tobacco wholesaler in Winnipeg. He was a hockey fan from an early age — in 1935 he lined up for hours to buy a $1 ticket to the Memorial Cup final between the Winnipeg Monarchs and the Sudbury Wolves. His literary career began in 1936, when he took a job as a copy boy at the Winnipeg Free Press.

Scott Young, Maclean’s Articles Editor, 1945-48. [Trent University Archives, Scott Young fonds (06-002 Box 1)]

361 Soudan Avenue. [© 2010 Sharry Wilson]

Aerial photo of Toronto General Hospital, 1951. Neil was born in the Private Patients’ Pavilion, the T-shaped structure with the circular driveway in front. [University Health Network Archives, Toronto]

Scott Young in naval dress (circa 1945). [Trent University Archives, Scott Young fonds (06-002 Box 1)]

In June 1940 Scott married Rassy. Born Edna Blow Ragland in 1918, Rassy was given her nickname — Rastus, later shortened to Rassy — by her father. She was the youngest of three daughters born to William N. Ragland3 (a.k.a. Rags or Daddy to one and all) and his wife, Perle. Her two older sisters were Lavinia, known as Toots, and Virginia, nicknamed Snooky.

The marriage began on a troubled note, with Rassy facing an unwanted pregnancy. Neither she nor Scott was prepared to face the prospect of raising a child so soon and under their financial circumstances. Rassy told Scott she did not want him involved in what she decided should happen next. She tried various home remedies without success and eventually paid $15 for an illegal kitchen-table abortion that left her seriously ill. She recovered slowly, and according to Scott both of them regretted the decision.

Their relationship survived, and in November 1940 Scott left the Winnipeg Free Press to take a new job on the night rewrite desk with the Canadian Press in Toronto. Scott’s uncle Jack Paterson,4 then assistant editor at Maclean’s, the iconic news and culture magazine, welcomed them to the city and found an apartment for them; Jack’s wife, Ruth, helped them settle in.

Scott and Rassy’s first son, Bob, was born on April 27, 1942. Five months later Scott was sent by cp to England, where for two years he wrote about the war. In 1944 he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve as an ordinary seaman. Later that year he was commissioned and served in the landings in southern France and Greece, and with Royal Navy torpedo boats in the Adriatic.

Scott had come home suffering from chronic fatigue and weight loss. After the storm in Toronto, he completed the medical tests in Ottawa, but no serious problem was discovered, and following some rest and recovery he learned about a new position in the information branch of the navy. Scott was interested, and he secured the posting as assistant to Clyde Gilmour, lieutenant and chief public relations officer to the Flag Officer Newfoundland in St. John’s. Gilmour would go on to achieve success as a print journalist and radio broadcaster and later enjoyed a half-century association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (cbc), where his weekly music program, Gilmour’s Albums, was a much-loved staple. Scott was soon promoted to lieutenant and succeeded Gilmour as chief public relations officer (CPRO-Newfoundland).

When the war in Europe ended a few months later, Scott had volunteered for duty in the Pacific. On leave for several weeks before reporting for duty, Scott met Rassy and Bob in Toronto in early August. They were staying with friends when the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A few days later Scott received a telegram from Ottawa — he was to remain on leave until further notice. When the Japanese formally surrendered on September 2, 1945, Scott was released from the service.

A civilian again, he needed to find a full-time job and a place for his family to live — Scott and Rassy began to search for a new home in earnest. Bob was an active three-year-old, and by this time Rassy was at an advanced stage of her second pregnancy. Repeatedly rejected by landlords and rental agents who were reluctant to rent to families with young children, they decided to try and scrape together a minimum down payment on a home of their own.

Scott found work again at the Canadian Press. His mana­ger, Gillis Purcell, had real-estate connections, and Gil’s endorsement helped Scott and Rassy purchase a new three-bedroom bungalow in north Toronto, at 335 Brooke Avenue,5 near the intersection of Lawrence Avenue and Avenue Road. Gil guaranteed their security for a $500 down payment and the builder agreed to reduce the price of the house by $500 to $6,500.

The Young family had barely settled into their new digs when Rassy went into labour. They didn’t own a car, but a friendly next-door neighbour drove them to Toronto General Hospital, where Rassy was admitted to the Private Patients’ Pavilion, later renamed the Thomas J. Bell Wing.6 It was a plush environment in which to give birth. The ornate nine-storey, T-shaped structure, with a cut-stone entrance and Doric facade, was a complete hospital unto itself, accommodating more than 300 private and semi-private patients. It had officially opened on April 24, 1930, in an elaborate cere­mony in which Ontario’s Lieutenant-Governor W. D. Ross unlocked the door with a gold key, accompanied by the music of Romanelli’s Orchestra. Mary L. Burcher, an executive member of the Canadian Hospital Association and a guest at the opening, said the new structure was “suggestive of a palatial and exclusive hotel.”7 Construction, the Canadian architectural and engineering journal of the day, glowingly wrote:

Every unpleasant feature usually associated with hospitals has been most carefully eliminated from this building and a home-like atmosphere has been created.… The rotunda of dark panelled treatment, the operating an...

Table of contents

• PRAISE FOR YOUNG NEIL
• YOUNG NEIL
• PART ONE: BORN IN ONTARIO
• PART TWO: WINNIPEG...FIELD OF OPPORTUNITY
• PART THREE: LEAVING SUGAR MOUNTAIN
• APPENDIXES
• END NOTES
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• OTHER SOURCES
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• About the Author
• Copyright