[URBAN NOTE] "Twenty-two storey Yonge street mural pays homage to music legends"

[rfmcdonald]

Metro's Tara Deschamps reports on a perfectly good mural that will be put up on Yonge Street to remind people of the neighbourhood's past.

A 22-storey mural splashed with images of Gordon Lightfoot, Ronnie Hawkins and Oscar Peterson is taking appreciation for Yonge Street’s musical past to new heights.

The first stage of the piece featuring the faces of nine icons was unveiled today, but the 70-metre mural near Yonge and Gerrard streets is expected to be complete in November.

Organizers hope the mural, being painted by artist Adrian Hayles with the help of a lift, will be visible from as far away as Bloor Street. They say it is meant to capture Yonge Street’s heyday in the ‘50s and ‘60s when music lovers flocked to Sam the Record Man’s famed store and stars like B.B. King and Muddy Waters played in clubs along the strip.

Since that time a bit of “historical amnesia” has set in, said Marc Garner, the executive director of the Downtown Yonge BIA, the organization behind the mural. “That’s why we needed to do this to pay homage to the past performers who made Yonge the Canadian icon music street what it was.”