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wesley willis RIP


otto dix

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not really feeling this dude's death, lets hear some stories, your favorite songs, etc. RIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Dear Friends and fellow Wesleynauts,

 

We are deeply saddened to report that Wesley Willis passed away yesterday, Thursday, August 21st. Wesley will be greatly missed by all that had the privilege to know him, as well as the fans who have been fortunate enough to experience his genius.

 

Wesley was diagnosed with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) at the end of 2002, and had to undergo emergency surgery on June 2nd to identify the source of, and to suppress internal bleeding. It is not clear if this bleeding was related to his leukemia or not, and the exact cause of death is still unknown. Wesley had been recovering at a Hospice in Illinois, and since the surgery his health had deteriorated rapidly.

 

His songs were simultaneously disturbing, hilarious, blunt, and intoxicating. Wesley's sheer excitement and unaffected honesty about every cultural phenomenon, defined his music as truly individual, and truly punk rock.

 

Wesley released well over 50 albums - 3 of which are on Alternative Tentacles, and a 4th, entitled, Wesley Willis Greatest Hits Vol. 3 (CD) had already been scheduled for release in October of this year.

 

For more information on Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia, please visit http://leukemia-lymphoma.org .

 

Currently there are no plans for any funeral service but we will inform you if there will be.

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i saw wesley play a few times.entertaining but annoying at the same time.i got a bruise on my head from his infamous headbutts.

 

 

 

 

here an interveiw one of my friends did with him a few years back.

 

By Victor Vazquez

 

Roughly 40 people crowded into Axis Records, a small, independent record shop in Alameda, California. Who were they waiting to see? None other than Wesley Willis, rock and roll's crazy uncle… And who's that? Wesley Willis is a six-foot, 300-pound schizophrenic homeless man with a Casio keyboard who's penned such classics as "Rock and Roll McDonald's", "Jesus is the Answer," and "Cut the Mullet."

 

The majority of Wesley Willis' songs follow a time-tested formula: Take a subject and talk about it for a while, then yell the title of the song over and over and then talk some more and yell a little more and then do a keyboard "solo" meaning hit the same three keys in succession over and over for roughly a minute.

 

The simplicity of the music is reminiscent of punk rock. In fact, Wesley is signed to the punk label Alternative Tentacles, owned by Jello Biafra, former lead singer of the legendary Dead Kennedys. Wesley has played some pretty big tickets, opening for bands like the Blue Meanies and Sublime, to name a couple. His discography is enormous, and difficult to track. It includes dozens of CDs, two greatest hits albums, and numerous independently produced tapes and live bootlegs.

 

At the performance, diehard fans shouted along with the choruses and requested songs while people who weren't familiar with Wesley looked on with either confused amusement or pity, or sometimes a mixture of both.

 

Wesley Willis is what some pretentious artist types call a "savant" or an "outsider artist," a label for social deviants — mainly mental patients — who create art. Though not much of a musician, Wesley is a talented artist. He does marker renditions of urban scenes from his hometown in Chicago. The scenes are drawn in the quality of an architect's sketch, with an incredible perception of depth, including details like the numbers on buses and the advertisements on billboards.

 

Outsider art has become increasingly popular in modern art because it's so "raw" and doesn't mimic or follow trends. Though it is an interesting idea, outsider art tends to be condescending. Just because an artist didn't go to art school and has an unorthodox style, they're marketed as "outsiders," their art seen more as like a train wreck than a piece of self-expression.

 

It's easy to take Wesley at face value, but there's something else behind his eccentric behaviors and his strange, and at times nonsensical, lyrics. There is a creative, unaffected man with the heart of a child. He is blissfully unaware of the amount of condescension some fans have towards him, and the pity others have for him. All that matters to him is that he's playing music and people are listening to him.

 

Wesley Willis is a rockstar. He doesn't give a damn about what people think about him, he doesn't care if he spills potato chips on his sweatshirt, he doesn't care that many people don't take him seriously. All he wants to do is scream profanely about bestiality and Big Macs and give head butts.

 

14 Questions with Wesley Willis

 

Youth In Control: So, how long have you been doing music?

 

Wesley Willis: I been doing music for 14 years.

 

YIC: 14 years, that's pretty impressive. Do you consider yourself famous?

 

WW: Yeah...

 

YIC: What's the weirdest thing that's ever happened on a tour?

 

WW: Not a thing.

 

YIC: Tours are boring for you?

 

WW: Tour's okay.

 

YIC: In your opinion, what is the worst band ever?

 

WW: The Backstreet Boys

 

YIC: What about Eminem, what's your view on him?

 

WW: Eminem's bad.

 

YIC: Bad as in bad or bad as in good?

 

WW: Eminem sucks.

 

YIC: So what's the best band ever then?

 

WW: Hootie and the Blowfish

 

YIC: So, musically, you're inspired by blues and rock?

 

WW: I'm inspired by rock, heavy metal, death metal, thrash metal, and all that s——.

 

YIC: You've played at places like the Gilman and other various punk places, so what's your favorite venue?

 

WW: The Gilman.

 

YIC: Why's that?

 

WW: I like it a lot, I like it a lot.

 

YIC: What's your favorite song you play?

 

WW: "I Whupped Batman's Ass."

 

YIC: How come you didn't play it today?

 

WW: I didn't want to.

 

YIC: Okay, is there anything else you want to add?

 

WW: Rock and roll will never die!

 

 

 

—Victor Vazquez hasn't worn tightie whities since fifth grade.

 

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http://youthradio.org/music/images/wesley2.jpg'>

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MCDONALDS IS A GOOD PLACE TO LISTEN TO MUSIC!!!!!!!

IM ROCKING THAT SONG AS WE SPEAK

A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, SOME FRIENDS AND I SAW HIM PLAY AND MY ONE FRIEND HAD NO IDEA ABOUT THE INFAMOUS HEADBUTTING. SO IS A VERY LOVELY LADY, SO WE CONVINCED HER TO GO UP AND TALK TO WESELY, 6 HEADBUTTS LATER, WE HAD TO TAKE HER HOME AND ICE HER FOREHEAD AND CLEAN UP HER NOSE, HE MISSED ON THE LAST HEADBUTT. GOOD TIMES. REST IN PEACE WESELY.

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REST IN PEACE.

 

First time I met Weasley was in 1995 at the Clubhouse next to Metro. He asked

for a head-butt and was in deep fear about his bus ride home. He asked to use a

sink in the back to get some water for his medication.

 

The last time I saw Weasley was a month before he passed. He told me of his

worsening medical condition, that now he was fighting canser and was constantly

out of money. My brothers and I set up a benefit show at the rockhouse.

 

Night of the show we picked up Weasley and his keyboard from the hotel he lived

in and went out the eat at the cheesecake factory. Weasley had a cheeseburger

and 7 lemonades, he could not understand why I didn't take full advantage of the

free refills on my beverage.

 

Suburban moms gauked and whispered while staring in his direction, my brother

James interupted them say "Rockstars are people as well, they enjoy being out,

eating a meal and not be bothered by insulting looks." Shocked, they replied

"he is Famous?" James told them that after dinner they should tell there children

that they met Weasley Willis while out for dinner.

 

RIP. to rockstar Weasley Willis. And special thanks to Jello Biafra for the support.

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he died along time ago. who cares. he was funny as hell, but at the same time he was a retard with a pass to be dumb. more fr8s, less wes.

 

i thought this was a Wesley Willis RIP thread, not a fr8s thread. check out the metal forum if you want fra8s man. as for wesley being a retard, learn more about the man before you judge him. if you went through the life that guy went through, you might just be a little "retarded" yourself. i'm not the most politically correct guy on the block, but last time i checked sever schizophrenia isn't mental retardation. it's a condition that you obviously don't understand. welsy might have been a joke to people, but all those beastiality songs, he wrote to piss of the voices in his head. his demons (nervewrecker/heartbreaker/meansucker) fucked with him every waking moment. he was looked at as just another fucking "retard," until someone recorded him and allowed him to perform. the man didn't have much in his life, other than a few friends (good people) who looked out for him. the one main thing he did have, was the rockstar status he gave himself. people might have been laughing at him, and not always with him, but in his mind --he was mick jagger. also, his music wasn't the reason i started making those stickers, it was his story.

 

i'm going to be printing off another run of wesley stickers. if anyone wants some --private message me.

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