Dan "Supie T" Theman
Supie T (also known as Dan Smiley, or Superstar Dan Theman) is an eccentric musician from Cleveland.
He has achieved a moderate level of success, most notably recordings on several albums solo (acapella) and with and with his own backing band, "The Getdown Airwaves".
However, he is probably best known for his portrayal in the 1996 Robert Banks documentary Can't Get a Piece of Mind, which illuminates a disturbing portrayal of the singer, as he stalks a young female college DJ, and threatens [...] if she will not return his phone calls. His band were never contacted to participate in the film and the band feels the film is a pale portrait of the man. It is an interesting story and the film does not capture that at all!
Apart from that, he is best known for spitting on his audience while he sings, for imitating the sound of a guitar with his voice, and for referencing his experiences as a Vietnam veteran in his songs.
Supie T was born Dan Smiley. Rock and Roll has been in his blood since he was a young man. He changed his name to Danny Bernadette and fronted a band called The Refused Deal in the late 1960's and cut one record for the Cameo/Parkway labe that was never released. He severed time in Vietnam before returning to the USA to rock the nation. At one point he was known as Dan Aurora and later as Superstar Dan Theman. Sometime in the 1970's, he went by the name David Alpipe and hosted his own Johnny Carson styled TV show in Fairbanks, Alaska. His most well known nom de roque has been Supie T. A change to Dan Uproar and most recently Dan Symbol has been his name of choice. His friends that made up his band for several years did so because they believed in his vision. After a 10-month tour of duty in Vietnam the first thing Supie T wanted to do was start a rock'n'roll band. Says Supie T: I took the name Danny Bernadette after my discharge, and I had these lyrics that were about all what had happened to me in Vietnam. I had a wife and she was killed and we had a baby that was stillborn, so I couldn't handle it--I went crazy over there. So I was in the psycho ward at the VA Hospital in Wade Park and there was this guy in the bed next to me who heard me sing and said "Yeah, you should write those words down." But it was spontaneous--it was how I felt--what had happened to me--I was just singing how I felt. And then the nurse came in and told him "Don't listen to him--meaning me--he's crazy." But we got it together and that was my first band out of Vietnam--the Refused Deal. And I needed to sing to deal with the horror--it was driving me crazy. Ahead of his time and yet trapped in his own reality, all that can be said is The Supe Is On! Does that answer your question?
Dicography
- (1991) In the Face of Coldness (album, Scat Records)
- (1994) 3,128 Seconds Over Cleveland (contributed track "Queen Of The Airwaves")
- (1996) Coming To A Radio Near You (album, Spazz Action records)
- (1997) Ubu Dance Party (Pere Ubu tribute album, contributed the track "Jones")
References
- Songs In The Key Of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music by Irwin Chusid, © 2000 by Irwin Chusid, published by A Cappella Books ISBN 1-55652-372-6