Torture Demon Hellride

I don't recall why I was thinking about my birthday today, it's not till May. But for some reason I was and I was thinking about how it seemed at the time like Clint Eastwood was the only pop icon that was born the same day as me. So I went over to wikipedia to find out who else was born on May 31st too. Turns out there are some other notable people born that day including: Colin Farrell, DMC, Corey Hart (yeah I know I said notable - but he never surrenders), frickin' John Bonham!, Chris Elliot..., Johnny Paycheck (or Paycheque in Canada), Karl Bartos AND Fritz Hilpert from Kraftwerk (what are the odds?), Lea Thompson (it's written all over your underwear) and one Wesley Willis.
I thought back to the first time I ever heard Wesley and it was during a special broadcast back in '94 where Eddie Vedder did a radio broadcast from some jam space in Seattle. Eddie played a bunch of music he was into at the time including a demo of Dave Grohl's new band The Foofighters, had live performances from Soundgarden, Screaming Trees and Mad Season, and interviewed fellow musicians like Krist Novoselić and Stone Gossard. As a fledgling musician myself at the time it was alternative rock bliss.
At one point, Eddie calls Mike Watt at home for a chat and Mike immediately tells Eddie he has to hear something. So Mike Watt puts the receiver up to his speakers and plays "They Kicked Me Outta Church" by Wesley Willis. That whole radio session was so memorable and I recorded it to tape and must have listened to it a million times but that Wesley Willis song made me laugh every time. It was so random, extra crunchy due to the radio frequency/phone connection that I heard it through, Wesley sounded like an old blues singer. About a year later mp3 technology had come along enough that I found a few Wesley Willis songs on Napster and I was hooked. His songs were so simple, and hilarious.
I had no idea that he was a diagnosed schizophrenic but even when I found out, it didn't change my feelings toward his songs. I think that Wesley would probably have been happy about that. They say that he wrote and performed to help control the demons aptly titled "Heartbreaker," "Nervewrecker," and "Meansucker". He referred his psychotic episodes as "hellrides".
In 1999 I went to see Wesley at the old New City Suburbs in Edmonton and I think that Rock critic Will Robinson Sheff got it right when he wrote:

Willis’ "periodic appearances for crowds of jeering white "fratboys" evoke an uncomfortable combination of minstrel act and traveling freakshow."

I was SO disappointed with the show. Between the "fratboys" who kept jumping and yelling (read requesting) "ROCK AND ROLL MCDONALDS!!!" over and over again and Wesley's 7-10 minute bridges in each song where he would hold one finger on the keyboard and kind of rock back and forth - I had enough after 3 songs and left.
I know that what he was doing was therapeutic, but I wanted to come away with more than what I left with. All I really got from the show was the ability to tell people that "Yep, I saw Wesley Willis before he died."

Speaking of dying, here are some people that died on my birthday: Timothy Leary, Terry Sawchuk and Spuds Mackenzie.

But anyway, I should get going. Gotta end this the right way. You know what's coming.

Rock over London, Rock home Chicago. Bud Light: Right out of the Ice.