Wesley Willis is a dangerously obese schizophrenic artist with a whole lot of fans, and although I am one of them, I don't tend to like the fans. This is a problem because my best sweatshirt is a Wesley Willis sweatshirt that says \good news is rock 'n' roll."" I love my sweatshirt, but people talk to me a lot while I'm wearing it.
Wesley fans make me uncomfortable because they only understand irony as a concept, not as a tool. The fact that a huge schizo sings songs like ""I Whupped Batman's Ass"" is enough for a lot of them. His shows make me uncomfortable. Watching the interaction between him and some of the fans can be like watching Maury Povich when he has the progeria girl on.
There are pills that might cure the schizophrenia. That is a different moral issue than whether it is right to enjoy Wesley Willis, but it's a factor'by supporting his music we might give him incentive to continue not taking medication. Is he happier seeing rock shows free and traveling around the country in his bus than he would be trying to lead a normal life? I think he probably is.
It still bothers me when people don't feel any consternation toward liking Wesley Willis. He seems to be a sort of cliche that people can identify each other with. Liking Wesley tends to identify you as a person who takes pride in being ""ironic."" These people get boring fast.
Purposeful use of irony is different from having the concept of irony. The Frogs are insane on purpose, and they write decent songs. Gwar is Ivy-League educated. Wesley is not being ironic. He is doing what he knows amuses people. I'm going to take the aesthete's stance again and say ironic things should be measured by their success at using irony to convey their message. In that sense, I think Beck's Midnite Vultures was a success. Other people hate it because it used irony so heavily that it appeared to be all irony and no substance. I say I like the blips. Wesley's songs are terrible musically. They consist of him using the fingered chord button on a keyboard and he doesn't usually change the beat. What I enjoy is his use of words.
There has to be a solid ground for appreciating a work or else the appreciater turns into another irony kid. In a war between Beck and Har Mar Superstar, Beck wins because Har Mar has no redeeming musical value whatsoever. Is he trying to make fun of people like Beck who work on more than one level at a time? Screw everyone who currently likes Har Mar.
I think irony kids often end up taking care of Wesley when he's on tour. Some people I think are genuinely concerned and some just like to say that they took care of him. Do they really care or are they just looking at a car wreck? It's a question that I'm not sure most of them can answer. I can't answer it myself, and it weirds me out.
It's really quite beautiful that a man like Wesley can live a fairly comfortable life in America, but it's a bad omen that he has to use a gimmick that may continue hurting him. It's pretty hard to decide on whether life rules or sucks. In the meantime, I'm retiring my shirt.
