I want to thank some of you for whipping the camel's ass with a belt

[datasuspect]

rock over london
rock on chicago

wheaties, the breakfast of champions

[Symarip]

1. Vampire bat bit me in the ass, killing me at last

Rock over London
Rock on Chicago

Diet Pepsi: you got the right one, baby. uh huh.

(How many people will instantly get these references?)

[southpaw]

2. Seemed a bit like exploitation...

But he was into it and obviously having a great time...

Besides, would Jello Biafra literally 'exploit' someone?


Rick Ruben would, without hesitation, but I don't know about Jello.

[Withywindle]

3. I knew him.

Exploitation? To some extent maybe, but I have to say ultimately no. To believe that would eventually lead to the position that people with his disabilities, or people like him, could never be allowed to have a public career - even if that's what they truly want, even if it's their dream - "for their own protection." That's way more paternalistic than is healthy or fair, IMO. He had the deep-seated, driving artist's impulse to get his vision out there, and he had as much right as anyone to try to succeed.

For the most part, Wesley Willis had a lot of decent people around him. Jello Biafra certainly was one. The less famous members of his bands, the friends and roommates who kept an eye out for him, also were. Maybe it helped that the genre was "outsider" indie rock, where there aren't huge amounts of money involved for anyone, so the greed never reached epic proportions.

Willis was a complicated man who could be very hard to deal with, but on another level he was also kind of a simple guy who was just happiest when he was making music. It was a creative, positive way of dealing with his demons and achieving power over them. He loved being heard and appreciated.

[southpaw]

4. I agree...

I didn't really get the sense that he was being exploited, though I am always suspect of Ruben in that regard.

It's probably just the idea that his uniqueness as a songwriter/musician was, at least in part, linked to his schizophrenia. I dare say they are inextricable. And while many of his fans appreciated him for the right reasons, I always suspected that, for many, there was a strong 'novelty' factor at work. Unavoidable, I suppose.

All said, Wesley Willis more than deserved the right to express himself and persue a musical career. It is a good thing that people like Biafra were able to help make that a reality.

[Withywindle]

5. Yeah, it's not a simple issue.

So much has been written about the relationship between creativity and mental illness. His uniqueness was linked to his schizophrenia, no doubt about that. That doesn't really diminish it, though. And there certainly were people who only liked his stuff for the "novelty value", that's true. But I don't think he really cared. As long as people came to his shows and had a good time and talked with him after and bought his CDs, he was happy. He was also a big listener and fan, that's something people tend to forget. It seemed like he was at every single rock show at the Metro throughout the whole 90s. I'm so glad there were people who made that possible for him.

He could be intimidating if you didn't know him, because he was so loud and so huge. I used to work at a copy shop in Wicker Park in the early 90s as the neighborhood was gentrifying. He would sit in there for hours working on his drawings and his CD covers. Every once in a while he'd have a demon episode and start shouting and terrorizing the yuppies. But he was so responsive to people - there was a girl who worked there, a little teeny tiny gothy club kid who probably wasn't even 5 feet tall and 100 pounds. She would just go up to him and take his hand and say so quietly, "Wesley, please don't use bad language in front of the customers," and he would just melt and apologize in the most courtly way, and go back to work.

It makes me sad thinking of all the people out there with his issues who don't necessarily have his charisma or talent or circle of people willing to just let them be themselves. but I'm not really sad for Wesley personally. He would have loved his own funeral - it was standing-room-only and the funeral home covered in his lyrics and drawings, and Jello playing mad MC for all the speakers.