Har Mar Superstar - 2013 - Bye Bye 17

 

I had heard of Har Mar Superstar for over a decade before I ever listened to him. I thought of him as a novelty act: a chubby white guy that looked like Ron Jeremy whose shtick was to sing along to pre-recorded track on a boombox, eventually stripping down to his gold lame underwear. I appreciated the sentiment, for sure, but never expected to like him, even if he was a fellow Minnesotan who took his moniker (real name Sean Tillman) from the mall I saw my first ever feature film.... King Kong (1976), starring Jessica Lange. Then, while living in Berkeley in 2013, sufficiently liquored up, I sat out on my front stoop on Ho Chi Minh way (Regent Street between People's Park and Ho Chi Minh Park) and put on my headphones and pressed play. "Lady, You Shot Me", the opener (the title the famous last words of Sam Cooke) played and I was blown away. This wasn't novelty...this was some real shit. I love Har Mar Superstar. He's a mailman now, in Minneapolis, and that's cool. 

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