As you may or may not be aware, schizophrenic songwriter Wesley Willis passed away on Thursday, August 21st. He was diagnosed with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) late in 2002 and endured emergency surgery on June 2nd at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Illinois for unexplained internal bleeding. While recovering in an Illinois hospital, his health slowly began to deteriorate and Wes passed away yesterday…although word hasn’t spread beyond the Alternative Tentacles website.
Wesley was born on May 31st, 1963 and grew up in Chicago, Illinois, having just turned 40 this year. In 1989, Wesley was diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia, a condition that resulted in him hearing voices, often bombarding him with derogatory statements about himself. In order to combat his nagging inner demons, Wesley explored a more traditional form of artistic expression by producing hand drawings of life in the big city, from the perspective of a Chicago urbanite. By the early nineties, Wes began performing his own music in public, with only his voice and a Technics keyboard.
He can be considered the pioneer of a new style in musical lyricism, having developed a consistent song structure that formed the basis for each and every new album released from 1994 to 2002. Each song is written about a relevant subject, anything from a Hollywood icon to a Chicago newspaper headline, and follows a scheme of: positive verse, chorus, negative verse, chorus and closure. Wesley is most famous for his closures, consisting of “Rock over London, Rock on Chicago” followed by a popular commercial slogan.
Wesley has personally produced all of his own artwork and music, totaling 51 albums. Upon recommendation from Jello Biafra, his biggest fan, Alternative Tentacles produced four of his albums, including 3 greatest hits, while American records produced “Fabian Road Warrior”. Wesley’s songs are remembered for their vile, controversial and blasphemic content, as nobody on this earth will ever be as capable of laying a badass verbal smackdown as him.
Songs such as “I wupped Batman’s ass”, “Cut the Mullet” and “Rock and Roll McDonalds” took audiences by storm. On a personal note, I’ve managed to collect three of his albums and was present for his show at the Starfish Room, March 6th, 2001. It was the night before I left for Amsterdam and my friend Sean and I were of the last four admitted to a sold out show. Wes played an amazing show by himself with only Jack the pumpkin king to keep him company on stage. My only regret is not getting a head-butt from him while I had the chance between sets (his head-butt is our handshake). Fears of a concussion ruining a trip to Europe ringing in my head…
I managed to contact another live tape trader that same year, someone who read my review of the show, who sent me several videos of Wesley performing by himself and with his temporary rock band, the Fiasco. Noone knows what happened to his band, but Wesley claims the tour bus was a “hellride” and that he’d had it with the likes of them. I may offer up these videos to Alternative Tentacles in honour of a tribute that will likely emerge as an “enhanced” CD with video for the third greatest hits compilation.
I recommend you immediately go play the “Whip the donkey’s ass” game in his honour.
(Based on the song of the same title)
Also check out this link for further details.
And get some songs too, like “Scream Dracula Scream”, “Taste a panda’s ass”, “Vultures ate my dead ass up”, “I’m sorry that I got fat” and “Suck my dead Doberman’s dick”.
Duke
p.s. If anyone has the 2001 album, “Never kill an ape”, please contact me. I’m determined to find all 51.
edited by cl, 3:36pm
No comments:
Post a Comment