Alien: The Strange Life and Times of Mendelson Joe

By Mendelson Joe and Nadia Halim

Musician, artist, anti-smoker, ecological gadfly -- here is Mendelson Joe's story, in his own outrageous word.

He believes that speaking out can make a difference, that women are the only hope for the future, and that there's truth in a good blues song. He doesn't believe in God, compromise, or schmaltz. Meet Mendelson Joe: musician, artist, activist, and avid writer of letters to Canadian politicians and editors.

Alien brings together some of the best of Joe's artwork, along with extensive interviews with the man and the people who know him. Joe holds forth on the things that fascinate him: the female body, motorcycles, rabbits, nature, art, and music. He tells of touring the world with his blues-rock band Mendelson McKenna Mainline in the early '70s, sharing concert stages with burlesque strippers, and discovering a passion for art after rescuing a set of acrylic paints from a garbage can. He also talks about the things that make him angry: the stupidity of humans, who "piss where they drink," destroying the environment through greed and carelessness; the treatment of women by men; racism. And Joe's friends and colleagues talk about knowing this funny, talented, and deeply principled guy who's never afraid to speak his mind.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1550224263
• ISBN13: 9781550224269
• Release Date: November 2000
• Publisher: ECW Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

the gentle and cranky genius of mendelson joe

I first encountered Mendelson Joe when he was with his group Mainline back in 1972; at the time, they had 2 hit albums (Stink and Canada: Our Home and Native Land) and a hit single on the charts ("Get Down To"). They were already legendary as being both a serious hard blues-rock band and for having raunchy lyrics. They surprised me that night for sitting down- and immediately all the high school kids sat down to- thereby defining the evening as a concert and not a dance. They stunned with their intensity (especially a 20 minute "Going to Toronto",) and I've never forgotten the eccentric precence of MJ that night: the way he talked, sang and played- his thinking- was like nothin I'd ever heard before. As the years went by, Joe left the group and struck out on his own- becoming increasingly feminist, humanitarian, stubborn and quixotic along the way. He also began (around 1976) to paint- in a completely natural, untrained way. I visited his first show and was impressed with the intensity of his vision- some were portraits, some were self-portraits, and some were landscapes. And from the beginning, a srong sense of social and political justice was present. Since that time, Joe has greatly developed his technique, both in clarity of vision and also in colour- and to see his canvasses in person is to be shocked by the intensity of the whole presentation- the colours and the thought of the art. For many years Joe has painted a series called "Working Women" which includes working women from all walks of life, and a book of this series will soon be released (around Novenmber 2004). This present book, Alien, is the combined autobiography/ oral biography of Joe, and like the man, it's stunning in its directness: Joe always tells the truth as he see it, calls a spade a spade, and damn the consequences; how many of us can say the same? He has remained true to his art, his principles, and his ideals. It has cost him: he lives alone, a virtual "hermit" (in his own words) up north in a log cabin; he paints, writes music and writes letters to newspapers: he is a hermetic social activist, and one of the country's artistic geniuses. It breaks your heart when Joe says "nobody has cared for the last 10 years whether or not I paint or do music", and he has been forced to make his albums available on his web-site, as tapes, and cds burned on a computer. But he still makes wonderful, uncompromising music, and unique intense art (a recent portrait of Dick Cheney may be the most incisively damning political painting he has ever done) and remains (along with artists such as Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen and Neil Young) an exemplar of the Canadian 60's generation who have stuck to their principles, dreams, and ideals, even as they become battle-worn. But Joe is special in that he is so direct and honest that people are often offended, and view him as cranky and condescending. However, I don't think this is quite true. Joe has a finely tuned "bullshi# detector" and won't tol

Not warm and fuzzy

Calling Mendelson Joe a curmudgeon doesn't really get to the heart of him. He's spent much of his life in perpetual outrage over what he sees as gross injustices in the world and, as one acquaintance puts it in this book, he'd even find Mahatma Gandhi's virtue wanting. Mendelson Joe is a severe critic of humanity; he's also a steadfastly honest man who speaks his mind and lives his life as close to "walking the walk while talking the talk" as he can. As editor and co-writer of this book, Nadia Halim manages to present Joe, his friends and his detractors in as fair and forthright a light as possible. Those who don't live in Canada are probably largely unfamiliar with Mendelson Joe, so suffice it to say that he'll confound your expectations and may tick you off initially. He also just might win you over to his way of thinking.