Wesley Willis: Rock Star Of Champions
By Wesley Joost
|
2001 An adoring punk-rock audience cheered on chronic schizophrenic street artist and songwriter, Wesley Willis at Club Cocodrie in North Beach. The 6'5" 350 pound Willis, backed solely by his beloved Technics KN2000 keyboard, used the same preset rhythm (country rock 8) for every song of the hour long set. His drum machine kept every head in the house bobbing from the moment he pressed the rockin' "on" button to the second he pressed the rollin' "pause" button. With slight variations in tempo and melody each song stayed true to his strict three minute verse-chorus-verse structure; ending each ditty with his signature phrase: "Rock over London. Rock on San Francisco California!" And yelping commercial slogans like "Guitar Center: The Musicians Choice," "Sprint: Be There Now." and "Radioshack: The Technology Store." Willis won over the crowd with his idiosyncratic turn of phrase, frank observations about life and earthy originality. His garbled diction and colorful choice of words worked as embroidery, embellishing his message of fantastic hallucinations, joyful bus rides and rock n' roll good times. "I can f-- a god damn horses ass anyway in this town," Willis preached to the choir who responded with excited screams. He then led them on his signature chant. "Say Rock," "ROCK!" "Say Rawl." "RAWLLL!" Over and over again they repeated his chant. "This next song is off Guitar Rock Of The Ages, it's called Voodoo Glow Skulls," Willis said, flipping through the Guitar Rock Of Ages, song book, from which he played almost every song that night in order as they appear on the record. The album is put out by his own label Wesley Willis Records and can only be bought from him. He is also signed with the San Francisco punk label Alternative Tentacles who put out his Greatest Hits Volumes One and Two albums. Willis sings a lot of songs about concerts he has been to and how much he liked the band he saw. The funny thing is he likes every band he sees and sings the same song about each group. "Voodoo Glow skulls . . ./ The punk rock band played on/ They really played their asses off/ Finely it was over / The punk rock audience met the punk rock band." His mind an ever creative force he sometimes ventures in the world of the bizarre. Although not on the set list that night Willis has bizarre fantasies such as I Whupped Batman's Ass, Casper The Homosexual Friendly Ghost, and Birdman Kicked My Ass. When asked about the last one he said: "The Birdman didn't really kick my ass. It's just a song."
"This next song is called Outburst Hellride," he continued. "It's about the problems of the ci-tay bus. How are the buses here in San Francisco? Are they a joy ride or a hell ride?" "Hellride!" Shouted the fans. "Rock on. They're full of sh--. You're right on . . .," Willis cues his KN2000. "A bus hell ride, A bus hell ride . . . " he sang in his strangely fascinating tone-deaf croon. The song was about a schizophrenic episode when "demons" in his head made him shout obscenities and call the driver a "devil." "He got sick and tired of my ruckus / He told me to shut up and sit down or he would call the police." Although Willis has mentioned being arrested in several songs, in a post-show interview he denied ever having run-ins with the law. "It's just a rock song. I've never been arrested in my life and I never went to jail. I don't like jail because jail is not my favorite place. In jail you can't play." He then sung a song about rapper Eazy E. It was hard to make out the slant of his review but as their were no curse words used to describe Eazy E Willis probably had something good to say. His faithful keyboard continued to keep the beat and keep the beat and keep the . . . The crowd related most to the sentimental favorite, I'm Going To Kill You. "I'm going to kill you / I'm going to kill you / Your ass is going to die tonight / You're going to be killed!" Willis yelled with conviction before going into another gently rocking keyboard solo. As it was "just a rock song anyway," he didn't seem to think the sentiment was contrary to his overall anti-violence message.
Willis is by no means a contemporary brooding rocker and the subject matter, focused on his day to day experiences is a breath of fresh air; as in U.S. Airways, about a nice plane trip he had. "The people on the airplane were nice. I chatted with them a lot." Unfortunately he did not play the up-beat confessional, I'm Sorry That I Got Fat. Yet his greatest triumph singing for the every man is his classic Rock N' Roll McDonalds. "Their Burgers are the worst. They are worse than Burger King," Willis apparently is making the switch to sandwiches: "Subway: The place where fresh is the taste." After a few more songs about bands he likes the show was over and the punk rock fans met the man. Self appointed hip boys and girls, adorned in gray natty clothes with hair dyed fluorescent colors, lined up to buy CD's and butt heads with the man of the moment. Willis compulsively shakes hands with everyone he meets, sometimes four or five times in the same conversation. But when he really wants to meet people he head butts them. One by one he would take his fans by the back of the head, stare deeply into their eyes to find out if they were down with him.
"Say Rauw . . ." says Willis. Speaking to the Goblin after the show he seemed pleased with the performance. "The show went okay. I made plenty of money on CD and shirt sales, 450 dollars." Favorite TV jingle? "My favorite TV jingle is called "Escape From Alcatraz." Influences? "My favorite bands are Ted Nugent, Aerosmith, The Clash, Joe Strummer. I like all the bands that I love to be on the Rock N' Roll Highway with. I like to rock them to the ground. I like to make them feel good." Rock on Wesley Willis. Wheaties: Breakfast of Champions.
|
The imposing Willis made sure the audience didn't forget he too was rocking the house. "Who's gonna smoke that endo godamnit? Call the marvels doin' a freaky thing godamnit. I'm cookin' tonight godamnit, I'm cookin'! You're really cookin' motherf--! God damn right I'm cookin'!"
"Excite: It's the best way to get there!"