Wednesday, December 8, 2010

THE WESLEY WILLIS CHALLENGE

Wesley Willis was a self taught artist and musician, with an immense output. (If you're unfamiliar with his work, you can get an idea of what he was like by visiting this post from April.) The man also had a lot of friends, and, understandably, all are protective of his legacy; this I know. As a friend myself, I cringe when I see things online making portraying him in anything less than a remarkable light, because he was just that, remarkable. So, the reader is advised that this post is meant with all the respect he deserves.


I recently found a site with downloads of royalty free music, imaginatively named "Royalty Free Music." It's chocked full of mp3s, most meant for film background music or motivational tapes. There's a lot of hokey stuff, but some neat enough to pad out a mix tape. So, as I was scrolling through, I ran into two based on Willis' oft-utilized rhythm tracks, titled on the site, "Rock Over London" and "Rock On Chicago." Though these could be used as karaoke tracks, I had something else in mind: The Wesley Willis Challenge. If there's anyone out there who wants to take these tracks, whoop the llama's ass, and put together a Wesley tribute, cover, or remix, in mp3 format, I'll post it here. Though I'm not expecting anyone to take part, there's the offer. Just do it, put it somewhere I can link to, and I'll post it. The challenge is just to get one person to do it. If there's more than one, they'll all be posted, and we can have a "Rock Over London, Rock On Chicago-off." The very least that can come of this post is that at least a few more people will become familiarized with his work.

Kevin MacLeod - Rock Over London mp3 at Royalty Free Music

Kevin MacLeod - Rock On Chicago mp3 at Royalty Free Music
Use of above two cuts permitted under the terms of Creative Commons
Wesley Willis' Eternal Joy Ride - Links to 500+ mp3's, three videos, two interviews and over 100 high resolution images of his art

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