anybody ever hear of Wesley Willis?

[CJ Shearn]

ever hear the music of this cornball? He was a 350+ pound schizophrenic who had such songs as "Suck a Pitbull's ****" and "I Whupped Batman's Ass". The remarkable thing is that every one of this guy's tracks has the same preset keyboard rhythm, on over apparently 30 self produced albums.

[Brandon Burke]

Yeah, it's a pretty sad story actually. Dude got taken advantage of bigtime. Basically a travelling freakshow (with merch).

[Alexander]

I know a music theory professor (who currently teaches at UNCG) who did some work on "outsider music" and actually worked pretty closely with Wesley. Some of the messages Wesley left on this guy's answering machine are priceless...

[CJ Shearn]

really? Wesley was used as a subject of a class? interesting. What kind of messages did he leave?

[AfricaBrass]

We were really into Wesley Willis at my old office about 5 years ago. We would play clips of "Rock N' Roll McDonalds" etc... all the time. We loved to talk like him and quote him.

That is until, the entire crew went to see him play live. It was at this tiny place and they hung out with him. He was bumping their foreheads and stuff. The next day all the guys came into work and they seemed to be a bit disturbed.

I think the reality of his state really got to all of them and nobody played the Wesley Willis music anymore. It wasn't funny anymore, it was just sad.

I guess I'm glad I didn't go to the show.

[CJ Shearn]

heard he played my neck of the woods

[AfricaBrass]

Sorry about the negative post, but that's my Wesley Willis story.

We really used to enjoy his songs; pretty crazy stuff.

[CJ Shearn]

yeah "The Chicken Cow" is pretty creative.

[Alexander]

really? Wesley was used as a subject of a class? interesting. What kind of messages did he leave?

Well, Wesley was one subject of this professor's research. Others included groups like the Shaggs. I'm not sure exactly what the thesis of this study was. I'll have to ask.

The answering machine messages sounded remarkably like Wesley's songs. Very stream of conciousness...

[Jim Dye]

I met Wesley a few times. He lived in the same building as a friend of mine. I used to carry his albums on consignment at the record store I managed. I still wish I had the message he left on my answering machine, complete with musical accompaniment.

"Jim Dye. When are you going to buy some of my CD's. Rock over London, Rock On Chicago." etc....

Contrary to what you guys say, I believe that it was his musical career that helped him get OFF the streets. Wesley had a few people looking out for him. He also sold some original artwork. If it wasn't for the music, he would have died a long before he actually did.

Edited February 17, 2005 by Jim Dye

[Late]

Contrary to what you guys say, I believe that it was his musical career that helped him get OFF the streets. ... If it wasn't for the music, he would have died a long time before he actually did.

Agreed (even though I never knew the man). My feeling is — I want to celebrate the music. Any time a positive light can be seen through mental illness, which doesn't happen too often, that seems something worth hollering about. And I love it when Willis hollered.

"Elvis Pres-LEEEEE!"

... or another favorite —

"He's doin' time in jail. Now he's doin' time in jail ..."

If anybody was ever given a natural right to use CAPS LOCK, it was Wesley Willis.

Wheaties: Breakfast of Champions

[AfricaBrass]

I LOVED "Cut the Mullet"; we used to sing that one all the time.

My favorite part was:

Get the rat's nest off your head

Get that crazy-ass mother off your skull

Take your ass to the barber shop

Tell the barber that you're sick of looking like an asshole

His ads at the end of every song were great too.

[Guest ariceffron]

if you guys this w.w. is crazy, you should check out FAST FORWARD... its this dude who wheres a black cape over his head and body, and then a gasmask with a mic duct taped to it, and he has a little casio strapped on, and all his songs sound like sun ra's disco 3000 but faster and while hes playing and singing hes running around the audience as fast as he can bumping into people. i have seen him twice- once in san diego and once in seattle and i am all for weird performance art but this was insane