Janis Joplin was a defining icon of counterculture. Sadly, she also defined its inevitable demise meaning that her final day in the studio came far too soon. However, even this recorded swansong encapsulated the era. In quickfire time, the belting star powered through a quick single take of the masterful ‘Mercedes Benz’, and then a tribute to the ever-beloved John Lennon. Therein lies the brilliance, brotherhood and oblivion of the era.
Just three days before her tragic death in 1970, the 27-year-old phenom waltzed into Sunset Studio and laid the acapella hit ‘Mercedes Benz’ in one single take. The song came from a jam between Joplin, Bob Neuwirth and the poet Michael McClure. The story it tells is one of a desirous want for possessions and pleasure. However, there are arguments that beneath the surface, there is actually a rejection of consumerism.
The possessions she sings of are a mere façade for what is actually a proclamation more aligned to Jack Kerouac’s view on life. As the writer famously said: “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!’”
Credence for that theory comes from the often-forgotten recording that followed that track. Joplin’s final studio take was, in fact, a birthday message to Mr No Possessions himself, John Lennon. Joplin’s love of the ‘Fab Four’ and what they stood for was profound. Thus, she figured she’d put it to tape and give thanks to the ‘Clever One’. This was confirmed by Lennon himself when he appeared on The Dick Cavett Show in 1972.
The message is all the more notable given that the admiration purely came from afar. “We didn’t meet, but she sent me a birthday tape on my birthday for my last birthday,” Lennon revealed for the first time. “Yoko asked all different people to make a tape for me, and she was one of them, and we got it after she died. It arrived in the post, and she was singing happy birthday to me in the studio.”
This slapdash studio visit of kindness and skill is one that typified Joplin. Her spirit was a generous one and her skill knew no bounds. The astounding vocal take of ‘Mercedes Benz’ is rendered with a spiritual edge in retrospect when you consider that it was the final song that Joplin ever recorded only three days before she died. The track rattles with the same passionate vigour that Joplin applied to all her vocal lines.
The backstory to this fateful vocal is also befittingly true to the life that Joplin lived. As Patti Smith recalls in her memoir, Just Kids, whereby one day Joplin and a group of friends were in a bar and she began chanting the line “Oh, Lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz” continually. The others present began banging their beers on the table to create a rhythm and Joplin and Bob Neuwirth hurriedly scribbled down some lyrics on a napkin. Joplin later introduced the song at her show that evening by joking, “I just wrote this at the bar on the corner. I’m going to do it Acapulco.”