Wesley Willis

Wesley Willis
Background information
Birth name	Wesley Lawrence Willis
Born	May 31, 1963(1963-05-31)
Origin	Chicago, Illinois
Died	August 21, 2003(2003-08-21) (aged 40)
Genres	Outsider music, electronic, punk rock, alternative
Instruments	vocals, keyboards,
Years active	1976–2003 (as artist) 1989–2003 (as musician)
Labels	Alternative Tentacles
Associated acts	Wesley Willis Fiasco Monster Voodoo Machine
Website	Wesley Willis on Alternative Tentacles

Wesley Willis (May 31, 1963 – August 21, 2003) was a musician and artist from Chicago. A diagnosed chronic schizophrenic, he gained an enormous cult following in the 1990s after releasing several hundred songs of simple but unique music, with emphasis on his humorous, bizarre, and frequently obscene lyrics. In addition to his large body of solo musical work, Willis fronted the punk rock band the Wesley Willis Fiasco. He was also a visual artist long before his forays into music, and produced hundreds of intricate, unusual, colored ink-pen drawings, most of them of Chicago streetscapes and CTA buses.

Life

Willis was born in Chicago, Illinois on May 31, 1963. In 1989, Willis began hearing what he called "demons" and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He was institutionalized for two months after his diagnosis. He often mentioned that his demons were named "Heartbreaker", "Nervewrecker", and "Meansucker". He called his psychotic episodes "hell rides", and alternatively, he declared rock and roll to be "the joy ride music".

Willis sold ink pen drawings of the Chicago cityscape on the street. In The Daddy of Rock 'N' Roll, Steve Albini tells an anecdote about how Willis was in one train station drawing a detailed picture of a different train station from memory. These works of outsider art appear on the covers of his albums. Willis joined musicians from the city's alternative rock scene to form the hard rock band The Wesley Willis Fiasco. Willis created a fervor in the Chicago music scene and soon caught the attention of American Recordings, an independent label distributed by The Warner Group.

In early 1994, Willis recorded with the Canadian industrial-metal band Monster Voodoo Machine and appeared on their Juno Award winning debut album Suffersystem (RCA Records). In 1995, Willis was signed as a solo musician to American Recordings and went on to record two albums while producing dozens of other albums independently, becoming a minor novelty rock sensation. He toured frequently, was profiled on MTV and was a guest on The Howard Stern Show on September 26, 1996 where he played nearly identical songs about Baba Booey and Howard Stern.

Rock critic and Okkervil River frontman Will Sheff wrote that Willis' "[P]eriodic appearances for crowds of jeering white fratboys evoke an uncomfortable combination of minstrel act and traveling freak show." Conversely, guitarist Scott Anthony, who toured with Willis in 1998, said "It's not frat boys coming to his shows and making fun of him; it's punk rock kids who appreciate that he sings stuff people are thinking."

Death

On August 21, 2003, Willis died due to complications from chronic myelogenous leukemia in Skokie, Illinois. He was 40 years old. A memorial service for him was held on August 27, in Chicago.

Hellride

"Hellride" is the term used by Willis to describe his encounters with "demons," which occurred mainly on the CTA bus lines in Chicago.^{[citation needed]} Willis, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, often claimed that demons were trying to ruin his "Harmony Joy Music" or "Joy Rides". Willis also used the term to describe general harassment: In one of his songs he says, "He gave me a yelldown warhellride." When asked about the demons or Hellrides, Willis would often comment that he was trying to "stay the hell out of prison" by "not hitting people in the street with bricks." In several songs, both terms are used openly. One of Willis' songs is entitled "I Deserve a Warhellride".

Song style and structure

The Wesley Willis Fiasco songs were essentially punk rock songs with Willis howling his obscene, absurd rants as lyrics. Some called it exploitation; others dubbed it "savant-garde." The Wesley Willis Fiasco recorded at least three cover songs: Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak", Pure Prairie League's "Amie", and Duran Duran's "Girls on Film", the last of which was recorded for a 1997 Duran Duran tribute album. Another song by the Wesley Willis Fiasco, "The Bar Is Closed", recreates a section of Rush's "Tom Sawyer"; the song "Casper the Homosexual Friendly Ghost" does the same with Van Halen's "Jamie's Cryin'".

After the Fiasco broke up, Willis' popularity increased markedly. As a solo artist, Willis created more than 50 albums, each with over 20 tracks, full of bizarre, tense, and often obscene rants about crime, fast food, cultural trends, bus routes, violent confrontations with superheroes, commands for his "demons" to engage in bestiality (in The Daddy of Rock 'N' Roll, Willis explained that these songs (e.g. "Drink a Camel's Cum, Suck a Cheetah's Dick") would "gross out" the demons enough to leave him alone), and praise for his favorite actors, friends (both platonic and romantic), politicians, and hip-hop and rock artists. Songs about rock artists were usually confined to describing a show performed by the band that Willis had attended or opened for, recycling key phrases such as "The crowd roared like a lion," "A lot of people met the band," "The band got down like a Magikist," and the opening couplet "This band played the [venue of appearance] / About [number] people were at the show," as well as uses of the phrases "rock show" and "jam session" in conjunction with "the (rock) show was..." or stating that the existence of one of these within the show "was awesome" or "whipped a(n) [random animal, generally a non-human mammal]'s ass". Many songs end with the phrase "Rock over London, rock on, Chicago," followed by a product slogan, such as "Polaroid. See what develops."

Willis' keyboard of choice was the Technics KN series. Willis would obsessively trade in one KN model for the newest ones on the market during the time when he was making the most money (after his break-up with The Wesley Willis Fiasco). The KN1200 was the keyboard he was currently using, according to a Howard Stern interview.

Cultural impact

• In 2003, Filmmaker Daniel Bitton released a film about Wesley Willis called The Daddy of Rock 'N' Roll. The documentary follows Willis around as he talks to himself and others, rides the bus, writes a song on a public computer at Kinko's, performs a concert, records a track, and visits his friends. Bitton also interviewed many people who commonly interacted with Willis. Willis and his band the Fiasco were also featured in the 1997 Chicago rock documentary Out of the Loop as well as in the German documentary Golden Lemons by Jörg Siepmann about the Wesley Willis tour supported by the German band Die Goldenen Zitronen (The Golden Lemons) and the group Grand Buffet.
• In 2008, the documentary film Wesley Willis' Joy Rides made its public debut at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The film comprises footage of Willis collected by the filmmakers over a period of five years, interviews of family and friends after Willis' death, and animations created from his artwork.

Partial discography

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

• 1993 Radiohead
• 1994 Double Door
• 1994 Machine Gun Kelly
• 1994 Mr. Magoo Goes to Jail
• 1994 Prisonshake
• 1994 Rev Norb
• 1994 Rev Norb #2
• 1995 Atomic Records
• 1995 Delilah's
• 1995 Drag Disharmony Hellride
• 1995 Fireman Rick
• 1995 Policeman Steve Harvey
• 1995 Greatest Hits
• 1995 Jason Rau
• 1995 Rock Power
• 1995 Tammy Smith
• 1995 Dr. Wax
• 1995 Wesley Willis (Fuse Records)
• 1995 Daren Hacker (Wesley Willis Records)
• 1995 Wesley Willis (Alternative Tentacles)
• 1996 Spookydisharmoniousconflicthellride (with the Wesley Willis Fiasco) (Urban Legends Records)
• 1996 Mr. Magoo Goes to Jail Vol. 1
• 1996 Mr. Magoo Goes to Jail Vol. 2
• 1996 Mr. Magoo Goes to Jail Vol. 3
• 1996 New York New York
• 1996 Fabian Road Warrior (American Recordings)
• 1996 Feel The Power (American Recordings)
• 1996 Rock 'N' Roll Will Never Die (Oglio Records)
• 1996 Black Light Diner
• 1997 Metal Clink Punishment Jail
• 1997 QUT Music Grads Rock Out Man
• 1998 Rock 'N' Roll Jackflash
• 1998 SMD Promotions
• 1999 Dead End Street
• 1999 Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (Alternative Tentacles)
• 1999 Silver Fish Sea World
• 2000 Guitar Rock of Ages
• 2000 Shake Your Piggy Bank (Coldfront Records)
• 2000 Joe Hunter (Wesley Willis Records)
• 2000 Joe Hunter #2
• 2000 Never Kill an Ape (Wesley Willis Records)
• 2000 Rush Hour (Alternative Tentacles)
• 2001 ASCAP
• 2001 Fool's Gold
• 2001 Torture Demon Hellride
• 2001 Full Heavy Metal Jacket
• 2001 Live EP (with the Wesley Willis Fiasco) (Cornerstone R.A.S.)
• 2001 North Carolina Highway Patrol (Wesley Willis Records)
• 2003 Greatest Hits Vol. 3 (Alternative Tentacles)
• 2003 Big Black Ball Sack (Wesley Willis Records)

External links

• Wesley Willis discography at MusicBrainz
• Wesley Willis Biography and MP3s at Alternative Tentacles
• monzy.org Wesley Willis Biography including Wesley Willis Song Generator
• Press release from Willis' good friend Jello Biafra in memory of Willis
• Art of Wesley Willis, drawings by Willis of scenes in Chicago, as well as a sampling of his music.
• Wesley Willis Art, drawings by Willis of scenes in Chicago
• Loved Like a Milkshake A Wesley Willis tribute album by a variety of artists
• Wesley Willis: Artist of the Streets (1988 video of Wesley Willis drawing and explaining his technique)
• Wesley Willis on Artist Direct
• Wesley Willis: Howard Stern Interview (listen online)