For decades it was one of Glasgow's most enduring urban myths, with claims that it happened being met with a very firm, "aye, right". Then, some 35 years after the fact, a reel of grainy footage emerged that proved for once and for all that Neil Young really did busk outside Central Station.
The date is April 2, 1976, and Neil Young and his band Crazy Horse have just arrived in Glasgow ahead of their concert at legendary city venue the Apollo.
Awaiting the Canadian singer-songwriter are a couple of Scots filmmakers, director Murray Grigor and cinematographer David Peat, who have been enlisted by Neil Young's record company, Reprise Records, to capture some "funky s**t footage" of the band before their show.
As the short film, which last just over five minutes, shows, Neil Young and his entourage decide to put on an impromptu public performance. Armed with a banjo and harmonica and donning a deerstalker hat, Young is seen in the footage asking a local gentleman for directions to the Bank of Scotland before plonking himself down at the Gordon Street entrance of Glasgow Central where he breaks out into a version of The Old Laughing Lady from his 1968 debut solo album.
Commuters file in and out of the station as Neil sings away, the vast majority of the onlookers completely unaware they are in the presence of a modern-day music icon.
In a presumed effort to complement the title of Young's song, filmmaker David Peat even manages to capture an elderly Glasgow woman laughing away as the 'unknown' busker performs.
One young man, however, does recognise the singer and duly holds up a copy of the New Musical Express with Neil Young on the front cover to prove it.
"That's him there," says the man, before adding: "It's not bad, but he'd be better with a PA system!"
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While most locals appear to be enjoying it, some are a little more critical about the busking abilities of Neil and his band.
One man says: "They're a lot of rubbish! They should get done, they should get the jail!"
"I got told he's a millionaire," says another passerby. "Is he? Well, it's time to take some of his money then!"
In the years that followed Neil Young's busking session, few of those who witnessed it would be believed. Then, around 10 years ago, the film was made available online, much to the delight of local music fans.
Responding to an article about the footage on Openculture.com not long after the film first appeared online, James McLaughlin said a late musician friend of his had not only been there at Central Station that day, but had actually joined in with Young.
He wrote: "For many years a young man in Dumbarton, and also a friend of mine told everyone in the town that he had busked with Neil Young at the Central Station and no-one believed him until this video came to light and, to my amazement, there he was.
"His name is Vincent McFarlane and he was a great harmonica player. In the video he is trying to say to people who the unknown busker was. No-one recognised Young apart from Vincent who knew his music."
Another witness to the event, Gus Paton added: "I spotted him [Young] at the station and told my older brother at the time, but he thought it couldn't be. The concert was superb I was 17."
The busking film would not be Neil Young's only foray with filmmakers in 1976. That November, on Thanksgiving, he would take to the stage with Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and others in the Martin Scorsese-directed The Last Waltz, which focused on the final performance of legendary Canadian-American rock outfit The Band.
The man behind the film lens for Young's '76 busk, Glasgow cinematographer, the late David Peat worked alongside Murray Grigor on numerous projects, one of the most notable from a local perspective being Billy Connolly documentary, Big Banana Feet, also made in 1976.
You can watch the footage of Neil Young busking outside Glasgow Central in 1976 here.
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