My album of original music, Funeral Business (featuring Andrew Lee), has been available for purchase for some time. Well, now is the time when you can just listen to the whole thing for free on youtube. You can click here to get to my youtube webpage and subscribe, but below I am also putting all the songs in order for posterity’s sake. Again, thanks to everyone who contributed to this record, you know who are and I love you all. Again, if you like what you hear please follow these links to purchase. It means a lot.

Available for purchase on iTunes, Google Play and Amazon MP3 —

iTunes

Google Music

Amazon Music

Without further ado, here are the tracks, enjoy.

“If there’s a smile on my face, it’s only there trying to fool the public, but when it comes down to fooling you, now honey that’s quite a different subject.”

I don’t think there is a better opening line of lyrics and verse melody ever crafted in a pop song. It’s the perfect combination of clever introspective word play and a soaring melody that cuts through the air like a skyscraper. It’s sublime and it’s no wonder that it was crafted primarily by Motown titans Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder. In the past week, I must have played this song about 30 times on my iPod. This song has become a key part of my late Spring 2015 soundtrack as I walk around the city. The music just animates NYC as I turn corners, climb steps and gaze at crystal blue colored skies with this jam kaleidoscoping through my brain.

It’s ironic how much joy this song gives me despite it’s depressing subject matter. It’s a great breakup song with perfect rhymes. The only complaint I have is the circus like orchestral melody which is supposed to tie in with clown theme. It’s incredibly catchy and suits the song musically but I wish they made it a bit cooler and less commercial. Maybe record it with a Rhodes electric piano or a fuzzed up electric guitar line. That doesn’t matter, this song is fantastic and will probably be replayed thousands of times in the lives of the people who come to love the song. Become one of them by watching the video below.

BTW, here is the friendly reminder to check out my album “Funeral Business,” which is for sale on iTunes, Google Play, and Amazon. More information on this modern rock and roll classic album masterpiece can be found by clicking here. Also, for previews of the album you can check out the cool videos on my YouTube channel or check out my Pandora radio station. Thanks for all the continued love and support!

-Willie

After nearly five years of writing, singing, recording and mixing, my first full-length album is complete and available for sale on practically every major internet music store. I actually finished “Funeral Business” three weeks ago but had to wait until iTunes, Google Play, Amazon and all the other music stores made sure I wasn’t uploading copies of “Thriller” by Michael Jackson instead of my own original music.

While “Funeral Business” isn’t “Thriller,” it certainly is a thrilling joy ride of electrifying rock and roll and heart-felt folk-rock stylings. I hate to be one to wave my own banner but I love every song on this record. In many way that was the main inspiration, to create a rock and roll record that I wanted to hear. Well, now that I’m sold on the wonderfulness of “Funeral Business,” I think it’s only appropriate that I share it with the world.

Now I know that buying music isn’t exactly in vogue these days and I completely understand. Often times I need to be convinced by an artist before forking over my money and devotion. Luckily, you can preview some of the best songs on my official YouTube channel by clicking here or by exploring the original music page on this website.

Before I re-list all the sale links, I’d just like to thank everyone who helped me make this record, starting with my great friend Andrew Lee. I’d also like to thank Matt Sturm, Ian Wehrle, Ken Kocses, Sonia Rapaport, Feliziano B. Flores and Lilja Nielsen. Thanks to all you wonderful and beautiful people who not only contributed to the music but also to the overall enrichment of my life.

Ok, to get your paws on “Funeral Business,” please follow the links presented below. All the best,

Willie

iTunes

Google Play

Amazon

UPDATE: 12/22/2013.  This song has undergone an significant overhaul in the past few months. First, the immortal Feliziano B. Flores came by to help me flesh out the chorus and middle part. Mr. Flores was wonderfully inspiring, providing incredible work under time pressured conditions and my less than reliable producing. I thank him for that. Still, after working through some changes with the talented FBF, it still was missing something. At long last I found the missing piece and balance needed to send the song off on the glittering flying saucer I envisioned in my head when I first created it. As a result, I pulled the original YouTube video down and replaced it with the one below. I hope you enjoy it as I near the finish line of finally finishing my new album, Funeral Business!

Originally published on September 7, 2012: I wrote this song by accident.  I came home from Australia after five months of having no guitar to play with, and started to write a song about how miserable life could be.  The opening line, “27 lonely years, you’ll be living with your fears, if you don’t send, this message to your friends,” was all I had.  I had no idea what the song would be about, but I loved the rhyme scheme and the rapid fire delivery.  As I kept writing lines that fit the pattern, it dawned on me that I was writing about the doom and gloom found in chain letters.  After that revelation, it was only a matter of ripping off “Paperback Writer” and “Day Tripper,” and boom, I had a delirious new psychedelic pop song.  My last music video, “Funeral Business,” featured the Ghostbusters rocking out to that jam, so I figured I’d return to the pop culture well for the equally spooky “Chain Letter.”  One of my favorite shows ever, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” offered the perfect template for a song about tempting supernatural fate.  I’d like to thank my friend Andrew Lee, first and foremost, for his incredible guitar solo.  I’d also like to thank Lilja Nielsen for much needed video editing critiques, and the brilliant George Gross for more of the same.  Lastly I’d like to thank my friends Matt Sturm, Sonia Rapaport, and Ian Wehrle for a bunch of moral support and musical advice.  That’s enough yapping, so please enjoy the song and video below, and remember, chain letters only work when you share them with all your friends, so if you don’t wish to be cursed with 27 years of misfortune, please share this video with everyone you can!

Well, I haven’t updated the ole’ website in a good while, and the reason is because I’m still making more rock and roll. The intention of this humble little corner of internet space was never to be a daily rock and roll blog, that happened more or less organically. The site was created to feature my music, and to that end, my album, which I’ve previewed extensively on this site, is nearly finished. The album in question, which I’ve named Funeral Business, is something I’m growing increasingly proud of. The album art, which the ever lovely Sonia Rapaport created, is the thing you’re looking at right above. Right now I’m collaborating on one last tune with Andrew Lee, and from there, the future promises to reflect the glimmering wonderfulness to be entailed within it. I’m planning a mini documentary movie in the coming weeks about the creation of the record, and a further reflection on my thoughts on rock and roll and what it means to me. Its a flourish of self centered activity that I find rather distasteful, but necessary to further spread the joy this music has brought to me. I want to thank all my friends and family who have helped me along the way here, and I also want to post this incredibly cool video someone made deconstructing the “Sgt. Pepper” song, because it goes against everything in my nature to provide an update without some music. This little video is really fascinating, breaking the song down into its component parts, giving you a sense of how the Beatles created their masterpieces. You will also be hypnotized by those groovy multicolored lines of sonic goodness. Enjoy.

For your consideration, I submit yet another song from my forthcoming album “Funeral Business.” “Heart On My Sleeve” is a moderately paced romantic dance rock song that I am very proud of. The lyrics were all true to my heart, written during a lonely time last year when I extra pathetic, giving it the double layer of heart broken authenticity. The music has that crunchy minor key harmonic wistfulness that I love, and the guitar solo by Andrew Lee soars and roars, but what else would you expect if you’ve been following along? Again, the stunning artwork was provided by Sonia Rapaport, including the sneak peak preview of the upcoming album art for the whole LP. I’m really excited about all this music and art I have laying around, just waiting to find its fans the world over. I hope you enjoy it. All the best, Willie.

Are you OK? Did you survive the wrath of Hurricane Sandy? Somehow, in the middle of Brooklyn, I managed to hold onto power, internet, and hot water, a real miracle. I had never heard more menacing and frightening winds ever in my life. It was quite the experience. Well, I hope you are fine, and I hope you’d like to hear some new music. I wrote “The Necrophiliac” a long time ago in 2006, and like many songs I made in that era, when I was still learning how to be a good musician, it sat on the shelf. I always loved the pulsating rhythm and manic harmonized vocals, so I dusted it off for a remake. Like a lot of my recent releases, it fits in perfectly with the spooky season of Halloween, and is PERFECT for all your dance parties. The beautiful artwork was provided by Sonia Rapaport, and if you’d like to see more of her brilliance, just click on her name there, and you can explore her wonderful online gallery. The incredible rough and rumble guitar solo in the middle of the song was provided by my great friend, Matt S., who moonlights as a wanna Keith Richards when he’s not affecting government policy down in DC. Much thanks to him and his VOX sound-station.  So please, give a listen, I think you’ll like it, and lastly, I offer this one DISCLAIMER: The song “The Necrophiliac” was intended for artistic parody only. I do not support, endorse, or necrophilia or necrophiliacs of any kind. Having sex with dead things and corpses is horrible, and should never be attempted, or even thought about, may God have mercy on your soul.

I wrote this song originally in 2007 (I think) in a fit of post break up madness. The song was my therapy for an otherwise sad separation. It went through a few iterations before I left it incomplete with shambling static laced vocals, unfinished drums, and an overall horrendous mix. I always kept the song on my back burner though because it had a good structure, and a funny message, and it being near Halloween, I thought it fitting to dust it off and completely re-record it. With the help of the beautiful guitar work of Andrew Lee, who provided me with gorgeous acoustic and electric slide work, not to mention a last minute brilliant backwards guitar solo, I was able to cobble together a more or less complete version of the tune. I’d also like to credit my old buddy Ken Kocses for helping me write the part the in the middle that starts, “what are you thinking?” Ken has always been an enthusiastic fan of my music, and anytime we have collaborated, its always been a fun and thoughtful experience. Anyway, the video below, is merely just the title card above with the song plodding away in the background. If you like what you hear, be sure to check out both the videos for “Funeral Business” and “Chain Letter,” my two other most recent rock and roll projects. Thanks for listening, and Happy Halloween.

Andrew Lee is an amazing guitar player.  Better then amazing actually, a genius.  How do I know?  Well outside of the fact that he has played lead on a ton of my recordings, including this one, he has just today started making no frills videos showcasing his incredible talent.  The video below shows Andrew, matching Eric Clapton of Derek and the Dominos, note for bloody note.  Andrew’s casual perfection was attained through a hard earned, borderline servile dedication to blues music, a dedication that if you know him in person, is awe inspiring.  Andrew is a real talent who pours genuine emotion into everything he does with a guitar, so please, just take a few minutes to bask in the “Presence of the Lord,” and remember who brought you there, Andrew LEE!

So, several months ago, I posted a song I made called “Funeral Business,” on this site.  The presentation of the song was wrapped around a simple title card youtube video, nothing fancy.  Well, consider the fanciness level knocked up a notch.  Over the past month, I’ve been slaving away on music video extravaganza for this song, and after 9 versions, its finally ready to the world.  The video features your favorite Ghostbusters, as well as your favorite ancillary Ghostbuster characters, all rocking with spooky verve to “Funeral Business,” a song of thrashingly dynamic rock power.  The song’s origins trace back to my college days, neglected, but never forgotten.  When I dusted it off last Spring, I had my good friend and musical genius Ian Wehrle help me flesh out some lyrics and construct a better bridge.  I then brought in another musical genius, Andrew Lee, to play the jaw dropping guitar solo that appears in the middle of the song.  The second, and less draw dropping guitar solo, was performed by me, so future Andrew Lee fans, don’t judge that solo’s simplicity with that of Mr. Lee’s now legendary, um, future achievements.  The rest of the music was produced and performed by yours truly, Willie Simpson.  The video itself, which went through 9 alterations, was willed into its final version with aid coming in the form of technical advice and moral support from film making genius, George Gross.  George is an up and coming movie man whose work not only helped inspire this video, but has been featured on this very site.  (Just click his name to see.)  The deliciously cool title card sequence was edited and co-conceived by this site’s brilliant banner creator, Sonia Rapaport, an insanely talented visual artist in her own right.  I also want to thank Lilja Nielsen, my  sonically battered roommate, who provided candid insight with each incarnation, as well as enormous patience as “soooulll” echoed endlessly throughout our little apartment.  With that, I proudly present, “Funeral Business,” for you all to enjoy and share with your friends.