Review: Wesley Willis & The Dragnews

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Wesley Willis & The Dragnews
“Greatest Hits Volume 3”
(Alternative Tentacles)

Oh man, what can you even say?  It’s brutally sad when such a promising (and schizophrenic in the truest sense of the word) musical career is cut short due to cancer.  If you haven’t heard Willis before, “Greatest Hits Volume 3” is the best excuse you’ll have to get aboard the hell-ride.  Hailing from Chicago’s ghettos, Willis and his 350-pound frame began his career as a street musician, blaring annoying hippy-skippy beats from his preset Casio keyboard while rasping over the top of them in a way that can only be described as terrible.

To say that Willis is tone deaf is to say that Stevie Wonder is losing his sight-the absurdity of the entire situation is captured brilliantly on “Volume 3”, as Willis is at his raving best on tracks such as, “Suck a Polar Bear’s Dick”, “Suck a Pitbull’s Dick”, “I Whipped Spiderman’s Ass” and “The Horse Bit Me”.  Yeah, you thought I was kidding when I said he was schitzo, didn’t you?  Well, loyal reader, I ain’t lying and the peek that “Verbal Assault” and “Chuckie” afford you into the head of the mentally ill is worth the grating Casio and the butchered vocals.

To call the man a genius is absurd.  To state that he’s a competent musician is insane.  To ignore his simple, honest, thoughts (even if they are “My Mother Smokes Crack Rocks”) is criminal.