Brad Prowly (original) (raw)
2007 Street Video
Thanks to DAvid for recommending this video (Warning: It might give you motion sickness, shaky video!)
New video
Republic of Loose – The Idiots – Directed by Adolfo Doring.
thanks Maria!
New Brad Video
Here’s a video of Brad with the Fun Lovin Criminals in Ireland, where he seems to be the pre-show comedy act. Here’s hoping that he gets a song in before they throw him off stage.
Photos needed!
We need some photos of Brad! If you have some that you would like to share, please post them to this group on Flickr.
Thanks!
Header Image
I’d like to thank the very generous Adolfo Doring (who also directed Kareoke Man), for donating this photo of Brad, which can now be seen in the header.
Check out more of his photography on his website, and on JPG Magazine.
Wikipedia Article
So it only seemed right to start a Wikipedia article about Super Bad Brad, especially when there are so many documented American buskers listed. Feel free to add what you know, and if anyone has a photograph of him that they wouldn’t mind uploading to Wikipedia Commons (don’t forget to license it), that would be great.
BTW, there’s also a group on Flickr where you can post your Brad photos…
BBC Article
Found this link (via sensibleerection.com) to a BBC article dated 05 August, 2004 in which Brad apparently performed a 15 minute opening (before being pulled offstage) at a Fun Lovin’ Criminals show at the University of East Anglia on Saturday 13 September 2003.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/music/gigs/fun_lovin_review.shtml
Life must be hard when you are a street performer: no guaranteed money, hecklers galore and bracing cold weather.
But for Super Bad Brad life has just got easier. I first saw him two years ago in New York’s Greenwich Village, where he was singing his heart out with his giant ghetto blaster for dollar bills.
Looking like a cross between a tramp, John Travolta circa Saturday Night Fever and that man your mum always warned you about, Brad is the perfect way to start – or finish – any Saturday night out.
He sings classic songs accompanied by his ghetto blaster and occasionally a megaphone and that’s it! But the man is a star, simple as that, and I would gladly pay to see him again.
Just 15 minutes into his act and it was time for the FLC bodyguard to drag him off stage. However, quarter of an hour was all the time he needed to turn several boos into riotous cheers and applause.
If you get the chance, see this man and let him make your day.
Blogging Brad
Here are some other blog posts about Brad – more available by clicking on the Google Blog Search or Technorati links to the right…
Super Bad WWWednesday @ heavydluxe.blogspot.com
One several occasions, we stumbled upon Super Bad Brad (aka Brad Prowly) – a street guy with a massive boombox and a killer voice. Brad never seemed to be ‘all there’, but he’d set up on a street corner and sing. And I mean it: This cat could SING.
Super Bad Brad @ blog.bookmach.com
Here’s a few minutes in the life of Brad Prowly, a New York street musician with an incredible singing range. He performs his gigs karaoke style, and apparently can emulate almost any singer alive or dead…
Sometimes things aren’t always what they seem @ bilerico.com
I’m going to feed you on this one. Jerame found an amazing video clip and it blew me away. We did some research on it to see if it was actually true, and it is! Seems that there’s a homeless guy in New York City. He’s fairly well known as a street singer. He puts out a cardboard box for tips and croons to the pedestrians with a huge 80’s style boombox.
“Homeless Marvin Gaye” turns out to be Actually Homeless @ livejournal.com/newyorkers
I made a post here a couple of weeks ago asking help to get a video on YouTube. That video featured a grungy guy who made sweet love to the Apollo audience. the14thjoey came to the rescue and our efforts now snowballed into a revelation. That homeless guy is New York’s Super Bad Brad, a man who listens to the same radio station day and night, and occasionally performs at Greenwich Village street corners “to make 12 bucks to get batteries, man.” Super Bad lives on the streets, lugs around a big boombox everywhere he goes, and wears a funky t-shirt with John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever on it. But when he turns on the music, he is a soul legend. He is the Real Thing. Check out this documentary on him. And be sure to check him out when you’re in Greenwich VIllage!
The Super Bad Brad — One From the Soul @ elgordochico.livejournal.com
Super Bad Brad is a man who is permanently trapped in a timewarp. He still lives like he did in the 70s, lugging around a boombox everywhere he goes and performing soul songs at streetcorners in the Bohemian district of New York City to make a living. He still wears a funky Saturday Night Fever tee shirt. He listens to the same radio station day and night. He knows he is a bit weird, but he doesn’t want to change. His appearance on the Showtime at the Apollo recently became a small internet sensation, in no small part thanks to yours truly. Hehehe. So, now I found this brilliant documentary about him, made by an underground director a couple of years ago. It’s amazing in every single way. It makes your heart tingle. Super Bad Brad is the real thing.
And from an older review of Kareoke Man, found here:
Brad Prowly makes his living on New York City street corners, belting out ’70s hits over an old school ghetto blaster. He’s really good and has a love of music that is so endearingly pure he deserves to get a record deal – but that will probably never happen since he’s already 40 years old. That’s OK (well, really, it’s not) because you can see him in Kareoke Man, a documentary about Brad made by music-video director Adolpho Doring (Sting, Santana, Bon Jovi). Go see it in the theater on a lazy Saturday afternoon this month and watch Brad muse over topics ranging from his deep love of Bette Midelr to his search for “that one great song.” My favorite part is when his sweet falsetto during Michael Jackson’s “Ben” makes a hardened goth girl get misty-eyed. “Cool” people will probably try to hire him for their wedding receptions now. Click here for a documentary excerpt. — Kenya Hunt
Let’s Get It On – Live @ The Apollo
Real life homeless man, Brad Prowly, who makes a living singing classic R&B songs on the streets of major cities not just to get by, but out of a true, life-long passion for music, gets his fifteen minutes on the Apollo stage. House rockage ensues!
more copies out there:
- http://www.spikedhumor.com/articles/95523/Homeless_Guy_Rocks_the_House_at_the_Apollo.html
- http://www.addictingclips.com/Clip.aspx?key=8B2201A70C7BB7E5
- http://influks.com/post948.html
Let’s Get It On
Early Music Video of Super Bad Brad
by Adolfo Doring