Friday, December 4, 2009

Who the hell is Wesley Willis?

A number of years ago (pre-youtube days) my brother was listening to this awful yet awkwardly contagious song, which to the best of my recollection he downloaded via Limewire (or maybe even Napster. lol, Napster.)

"I kicked Batman's ass. I kicked Batman's ass... Rock over London. Rock on Chicago."

WTF!?

My brother went on to play me "Rock n' Roll McDonalds" while explaining that this was some homeless guy who performs with his keyboard on the streets of Chicago. His name was Wesley Willis.

We downloaded a bunch more of this "music" which included a handful of songs about bestiality (sucking camels dicks and such) and many more that ended with a corporate slogan ("Taco John's: A whole lot of Mexican"). The Wesley Willis craze lasted a couple of weeks, tops, and all was soon forgotten.

If this were to happen today, I of course would "Wiki that shit" and discover that Wesley Willis was not a homeless man whop performed on the streets of Chicago, but rather s self-proclaimed Rock 'n Roll star and artist who toured the country playing both solo and with his punk band, the Wesley Willis Fiasco. In addition, Willis would sell his drawings after the shows, and actually made some pretty decent cash. Oh, and did I mention he was schizophrenic?

Anyhow, there is a whole lot out there to learn about this guy. I stumbled across a documentary about Wesley Willis on Pitchfork and have posted the introduction below (which is now a different video). I highly recommend watching the whole thing, if you find yourself with 77 minutes of free time.


Intro fromWesley Willis's Joyrides

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