A sad sad day for the music industry..

Abelard · Post by **Abelard** » August 23, 2003, 11:37 am

Wesley Willis died. I'm copy/pasting the article for you all..

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.

Etasi · Post by **Etasi** » August 23, 2003, 3:13 pm

Now who will lead the musical crusade against mullets?!

Seriously though, sad news.

Sionistic · Post by **Sionistic** » August 23, 2003, 6:25 pm

ive never heard of this guy, what did he do? punk rock?

eOmniz · Post by **eOmniz** » August 23, 2003, 10:53 pm

I listened to him a little, its nothing you can "get into" or anything. Basically he just sings about random shit to an obviously premade electric keyboard type beat. Songs are usually like verse, repetition of song name, verse, repetition of song name, random advertisement (TIMEX, IT TAKES A LICKIN AND KEEPS ON TICKIN). He sang about Kurt Cobain, and Vampire Bats, and "They threw me out of church"

A lot of his songs mentioned voices telling him what to do, I've heard (doubt its true) that he was a homeless schizophrenic just yelling random shit on the streets when someone wanted to record him or something. Doubt thats true, but listening to his songs makes it easy to believe.

Random song names to download from KLE~
Kurt Cobain
Chronic Schizophrenia
Batman Whupped My Ass

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » August 23, 2003, 10:58 pm

Isn't 'Alternative Tentacles' Jello Biafra's label? Never heard of Wesley, but that name strikes a bell.

Etasi · Post by **Etasi** » August 24, 2003, 1:36 am

He was actually a homeless guy, at least when he first started. I dunno about schizophrenic, but I did know some people that met him and he was pretty damn weird.

Most of his music was just too bizarre for me, but he had a great song called "Cut the Mullet." Favorite lines:

"Your mullet is the reason people hate you"
and
"Go to your barber and tell him you're sick of looking like an asshole."

Post by **Sylvus** » August 25, 2003, 1:36 pm

His most notable song, at least in my mind, was "Alanis Morrisette". A friend of mine knew him to some degree (WW was a recurring guest on their radio show) and I believe he confirmed the schizophrenic claims. Unless I'm remembering it wrong, in which case he said the guy was just fucking nuts.

Truly a sad day.

Sueven · Post by **Sueven** » August 28, 2003, 6:32 pm

Download the video for Alanis Morissette. It's worth it.