Anyone else here like Wesley Willis? My friend John and I got a little stupid the other night and downloaded every Wesley Willis song we could find. We have just over 100.
His gems are:
Cut the Mullet
Rock N Roll McDonalds
Alanis Morrisette
Fuck You
Suck a Cheetah’s Dick and all the other “Suck” “Lick” and “Taste” songs
Chicken Cow
His “Kick my ass” and “Whipped my ass” songs
Don’t Curse
Ford Windstar
Jesus is the Answer
Kill Whitey
Most of his songs dealing with Church and God
And his crowning acheivement, the best song I’ve ever heard:
I’m Sorry That I Got Fat
Anyone else like this poor, demented man? Any favorite quotes or lines?
[hijack]
The Washington Post ran a story on Willis last Sunday accompanied by several photos taken, according to the captions, at the Grog Shop in Cleveland, where my old band played many times. Made me kinda homesick.
That man is a fucking riot. I saw him in concert about 5 or 6 years ago, and talked to him before the show. He was wearing what appeared to be a pleather cassette holder around his neck, the kind that zips all around the top and you’d use for your car. It was STUFFED full of crumpled $1, $5, $10, and $20 bills. Overflowing. I can’t imagine how he wasn’t losing money left and right.
Also, he had a small round, nasty looking bruise smack dab in the middle of his forehead, and I was wondering what from. I quickly learned what it was from. Whenever was introduced to anyone (myself included), he would grab the back of their head, and scream “IT’S A PLEASURE TO MEET YOU!” and give you a headbutt. Not hard enough to really hurt, but enough to make you lose your bearings for a minute.
He also was selling some of his “artwork”, which was crayon drawings of the Chicago skyline, Chicago buses, and random other things in Chicago. My friend bought one, I kinda wish that I had. Oh well.
Alanis Morrisette, Cut the Mullet, and Steve Albini are my favorites.
“Rock over London, Rock on Chicago. Wesley Willis, he is whipping on a mule’s ass with a belt.” – Song for Wesley by Heavy Vegetable
Wesley is one crazy musician. I met him at a concert of his in 1997. I talked with him for a good hour while the opening bands were playing. The main topic of conversation was WCW wrestling. He also mentioned how he thought the opening bands sucked, but when they gave him props during their sets, he responded like he liked them.
I also purchased several of his CD’s and one of his artworks. The artwork was of course done in the medium of marker on posterboard, and was of the Chicago skyline.
The biggest mistake I made was passing up the chance to chill with Wesley and his entorage after the show. I asked them if they were going back to Chicago after the show. They said no, and either asked me if I needed a place to crash, or asked me if I had a place for them to crash. Either way, I could have hung out with them, but I stupidly said no, mainly because I didn’t really understand the question.
As for his best songs, anything off of his greatest hits is an instant classic. Other great songs include any about rappers. Don’t Curse in God’s House is a brilliant song about him getting kicked out of church for swearing, and eventuatly assaulting a minister.
He’s incredible. I’ve never laughed so hard about any music in my life. It’s great how he always has a commercial or something after his songs, and how he uses everyday objects like Lawry’s seasoning salt and Heinz Tomato Ketchup so wonderfully. He’s just… so. Damn. Funny.
What exactly is wrong with him? I heard he was retarded, but then, he has a song about chronic schitzophrenia.
Does he just use prerecorded songs on his keyboard or what? And what’s the deal with the robot voices?
“Tell your barber you’re sick of looking like an asshole.”
“Rock Saddam Hussein’s Ass” and “Michael Jackson”, which includes the classic line, “Stop molesting little boys, you freak!”
When you go to see him in concert, befriend him beforehand – he might pen a song just for you (I’ve seen him do this for people the last two times I’ve seen him live).
As for what is wrong with Wesley, I think he actually has chronic schitzophrenia. He apparently has attacks where he hears voices that lead to him doing bad things like getting thrown off of city busses and the like. The very large scar on his face is from being attacked by a man with a box cutter during one of his schitzophrenia attacks or “earth-shattering hell bus rides”.
As for the music on his songs, he does indeed just use the demo on his Technics keyboard, but he does modify the tempo, key, etc. for different songs. That is except for his one album with his band “The Wesley Willis Fiasco”. His band played real music for his songs, but the music was basically rip-offs of existing songs. The music to “Casper the Homosexual Friendly Ghost” for example, sounds very similar to “Jamie’s Crying?” by Van Halen?.
I got to look at his set list and the lyrics to his songs at his show. The list was hand-written, but the lyric sheets were typed or computer printed or somehthing. They listed every word in his songs, including the key-phrase of the song (like Rock’N’Roll McDonalds) repeated however many times he actaully says it. (Instead of writing Rock’N’Roll McDonalds x12, he actaully wrote it out 12 times.)
Rock over London,
Rock on Chicago,
Budweiser, its the king of beers.