Canadian singer-songwriter, visual artist and activist Mendelson Joe dies at 78

The inimitable Mendelson Joe has left this mortal coil.

And true to his values, the outspoken musician and painter and activist, who lived a life that rejected compromise, left on his own terms: through medical assistance in dying (MAID) Tuesday morning, finding final relief from the onset of Parkinson’s that he had been diagnosed with circa 2018.

He was 78 — and he was ready.

“Medically speaking, I’m shaking and rattling as it’s been over five years since Parkinson’s Disease surfaced,” he wrote in an end-of-life statement published on his website mendelsonjoe.ca. “Parkinson’s is a dead end for me. The Parkinson’s interrupts my creative flow of writing, painting and making music to say the least. I have ended my job as multi-media artist with the provision of MAID (Medical Assistance In Dying) on February 7, 2023.

“I see MAID as a sign of a civilized society. To be born Canadian is a great blessing. We have free speech. We have healthcare. We have MAID. Thank you Canada.”

Speaking from Victoria, B.C., his long-time friend Anne Hansen said it was in Joe’s character to embrace his fate.

“I think it was well understood that Joe’s time was up. You just needed to spend a few moments in Joe’s presence to know he was very clear on what constitutes a quality of life.

“From the very beginning, he would make very clear that when his end came, he would know it and he would want to have some agency over the way he died.

“So the whole MAID thing was very much in character for Joe,” Hansen continued. “He was really thankful for that. It was a gift because not everybody can get MAID. I think it came exactly at the right time. He knew that he was out of gas.”

Once the news began spreading over social media of Joe’s passing, Toronto’s music and artist communities began to mourn and reminisce about a passionate man who could be equally parts irascible and pleasant, humorous and vitriolic, generous and damning.

Promoter Richard Flohil recalled a concert involving Joe at which the vehement antismoker made a peculiar demand.

“Ah, dear Joe!” Flohil wrote. “ I remember promoting a concert for him; he demanded three ticket prices: front rows $2 for fans, $5 further back for smokers, $10 for entertainment lawyers.”

When something pleased or irritated him, he was quick to send out postcards and letters wielding either bouquets or brickbats, depending on the circumstance. Joe maintained he was exercising his democratic rights by doing so.

“In the process of writing songs and letters to the editor, I learned how to write,” he wrote in his end-of-life statement. “I was driven to write because I believe I exist as a vessel for free speech and that free speech was often published by newspapers. My long-time friend, artist and activist Anne Hansen of Victoria, lives by the quote ‘democracy is not a spectator sport.’ Letter-writing was one of my forms of participating in democracy.”

Robert Priest was befriended by Joe after receiving one such letter.

“When I was in my early 30s, I’d been on the cover of NOW Magazine and I guess he liked what I said,” recalled the long-time friend and poet.

“He sent me a complimentary postcard and he had also heard my EP. It was a very warm postcard that got my attention. Afterwards, he helped me in my career quite a bit.”

Although Joe often didn’t have a lot of money himself, he would barter his portraits to help others.

“At that time, I didn’t have (promotional) photos like you’re supposed to have and Joe traded art to get a photographer to shoot professional photos of me,” Priest recalled. “He traded art to get me studio time to do some recording. For a while, he was a mentor, loving my poetry and encouraging me and loving my songs and my guitar playing; that made him really unique.

“But even in my case, it wasn’t all complimentary. If he didn’t like something, he bluntly told you.”

Mendelson Joe’s career, which began in music, enjoyed a promising start.

Born Birrel Josef Mendelson in Maple, Ont., in 1944, he taught himself to play the guitar at the age of 11 and began performing the blues as Joe Mendelson in 1964.

In 1968, Joe answered a Toronto Star classified ad posted by ex-Luke and the Apostles guitarist Mike McKenna, who was looking to form a band, and they became McKenna Mendelson Mainline, hightailing it to the U.K. for their shot at fame and fortune. They opened for bluesman Howlin’ Wolf and guitarist Jeff Beck on the London club circuit, sharing a festival bill in Holland with the Who and Traffic.

Eventually, everyone got homesick and the band returned to Canada, but not before landing a record deal with Liberty and recording the classic album “Stink,” filled with humorous Mendelson songs like “Mainline” and “Think I’m Losing My Marbles.”

The band continued for three more albums, including the notorious “Mainline Bump ’N’ Grind Revue” recorded at Toronto’s Victory Theatre, which included a televised Citytv concert featuring strippers and band members in drag.

Joe split from the band twice, his first replacement being future R&B soul superstar Rick James.

Reversing his name, the now Mendelson Joe continued on a solo path and recorded a dozen more albums, including a couple of works for Rush-owned Anthem Records, “Born to Cuddle” in 1988 and “Addicted” in 1991, but they sold poorly.

In a 2007 interview with the Star’s Greg Quill, Joe offered his own take on music business success.

“Without a good pimp, an artist will never have a shot in the marketplace. It’s all about the pimp,” he said. “The middleman or the middlewoman is the key to why things happen. In the music business a good advocate — pimp, manager, agent — who believes in what you do, beyond making money, is more important than the artist, until the artist manages to be heard and embraced.”

In 1975, Joe took up another career — painting — and among his most popular works were portraits of politicians, a profession he largely despised. His most famous and controversial portrait featured a pair of human buttocks superimposed on the face of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, but the former PM wasn’t the only figure he lampooned: Jean Chrétien and Stephen Harper were also targeted.

In 1985, he exhibited 25 portraits at Oshawa’s Robert McLaughlin Gallery titled “Working Women,” and Anne Hansen said his love and respect for women was deeply entrenched.

“‘Women are the only hope,’ he’d say it every day, repeating it often,” Hansen recalled.

At the turn of this century, Joe fell in love with the owner of the Karen Robinson Gallery in Emsdale, Ont., and moved to a nearby cabin to be with her.

“They were head over heels in love,” said Hansen.

Robinson devoted her gallery to Joe, selling his art, books (several portraiture books were published by ECW Press) and CDs, and the artist continued painting until recently, working on portraits, landscapes, folk scenes, and social and political commentary.

A nonconformist in the best sense of the word, a square peg in a round-hole world, Mendelson Joe will be best remembered for his integrity.

“I loved him as a unique earthling,” said Priest. “We’re not all one thing and he certainly was damn true to himself. A lovely guy and I’m going to miss him, I tell you.”

Mendelson Joe leaves Robinson, his partner of 20-plus years.

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