Re-Sugarman

Brilliant Bob. As a South African who grew up during his "success" period there I too feel this movie is hardly a representation of the truth. Success in South Africa is just a drop in the ocean and would not a rich man make. There are South African bands who are equally as big as Rodriguez is there and no one anywhere else in the world has heard of them, as there are in Australia, England and even our neighbor Canada. The documentary has used so much poetic license to make it a tear jerker it has pissed me off to no end. He was not a political figure. Anyone involved in the struggle had never even heard of Rodriguez. Thanks for making the people think a little more.

Selwyn Solomon

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Hi Bob,

spot on. We couldn't understand the premise of the movie at all as Rodriguez was a big name here for years but, the phrase "Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story" seems to have eluded these guys.

cheers

Kieran Stafford
Birdland Records
Sydney Australia

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Re Sugarman: the Swedish film doesn't even mention Rodriguez's Australian connection. Before he toured with Midnight Oil in 1981 he'd sold over a huge number of albums in Australia and headlined a tour in 1979. Record sales are unknown but estimates range from 75,000 to 250,000. Rodriguez says he received no royalties. The vibe began with Holgar Brockmann, an announcer on 2JJ, the mutant offspring of the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) which first subverted airwaves in Sydney in 1975. Word of mouth and community radio throughout Australia completed the job. His albums Cold Fact and Coming from Reality were recorded in 1970 and 1971, then released in South Africa and Australia years after he had been dropped by his American record company. Much of the vinyl sold throughout Australia in the mid-70s was pressed in South Africa.

Cheers Bob

Anthony O'Grady

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Hi Bob,

I'm an American contemporary of yours living in South Africa. In 1998 I was a partner in a big music club in Johannesburg called the Blues Room. We were approached by a local booking agent to host a show by some guy called Rodriquez. We'd never heard of him. But everyone assured us he was a legend in South Africa. I listened to some of his material, found it mediocre, pseudo-Dylan. But people in ZA spoke about Rodriquez as if he were a god. Seems that somehow his music slipped through most of the Apartheid-era censoring and banning and perhaps since it was some of the only imported protest music available, it became a fad. (Remember fads? An early form of viral (word of mouth) marketing.) So we went for it.

On the appointed night the venue, which held about 550 people, was packed to the rafters. For one of the worst shows I've ever seen in more than 50 years in the business.

South Africa session/backup musicians are of a very high standard. They can play pretty near anything you put in front of them really well. But they were at a loss as to what to do because Rodriquez was blind drunk! He couldn't stand, let alone sing and play guitar. The irony is that no one in the audience seemed to know or care. Once the band got the song started, the audience carried the show, singing all the words. I was baffled. Perhaps the deeper cultural connection made to the resistance in the early post-Apartheid era is what made the difference. Or maybe it was just the "everybody else says he's cool, so who am I to disagree" phenomena. I don't know. The show was such a disaster by Blues Room standards that we declined to host him again. Because, while he may have changed, grown, matured, mellowed with age or maybe experienced some sort of conversion since 1998, back then he was THE most arrogant, irresponsible, marginally talented performer we ever had the misfortune of presenting.

Stephen "Sugar" Segerman is a sincere and devoted Rodriquez disciple. It was he who pushed and pushed until others, the Swedish director among them, bought into the myth. As for Australia, the reason why Rodriquez did a tour there is because many places in OZ are South African suburbs. Its where all the fear-filled South African ran to when Mandela was freed.

I think a really pertinent question to ask of the Director, Segerman and all the other Rodriquez ZA fanboys is who is making money from this? I have a feeling old Rodriquez ain't seeing much.
Stay well

Michael Canfield

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What seemed fishy to me is that the people trying to track down Rodriguez searched his lyrics and found the reference to Dearborn and followed that "lead." I would have looked for the producers of the recordings - how hard could Dennis Coffey be to find? And I am sure he knew that Rodriguez was still alive. You are
right not to believe the story or the hype - I agree with you that Rodriguez comes off as genuine.

Bob Paris

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Dear Mr Lefsetz,

I am a 20 year old sound engineering student and musician currently residing in Cape Town, South Africa.

I have not seen the "60 Minutes" you spoke of but what I'd like to tell you is that I grew up on Rodriguez's music. My parents are huge Rodriguez fans and went to see his show when he toured here. I am also aware of Rodriguez's success in Australia and New Zealand because I lived in New Zealand for 6 of my teenage years. So it is not surprising to me that you discovered that fact on wikipedia.

I went to see the film "Searching For Sugarman" 2 weeks ago here in Cape Town. The theatre was sold out on a weeknight with people of all ages in attendance. When each of his songs played you could hear people humming and singing along. When the film ended there was a loud applause and nobody left their seats until the very end of the credits.

The film obviously focuses on his success in South Africa but that's the point.The people who were interviewed had very interesting things to say and the home footage tells a story of it's own. I'd highly recommend that you go and see it.

Rodriguez had a massive impact in this country. There is no denying that. There are thousands of his fans in this country that will go see the film just because it's Rodriguez. I do understand why in other countries they may need to 'manipulate' because this is a story that needs to be heard and if there was not a little bit of manipulation no one would care. No one would go and see this movie because Rodriguez is unknown to them.

This response may not mean much to you coming from a 20 year old student but I felt obliged to share my opinion on the film and Rodriguez himself.

Kind Regards,

Jess Solimene

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Re: Rodriguez...

You couldn't have stated it better Bob. I've got a friend in Detroit who was initially tapped by the filmmaker to sit for an interview, a very in-tune crate digger who'd known the story (the truth) for awhile. When he was presented with a prepared script to read from for his interview he walked. The biggest bummer of all of this is...the story is good enough without any manipulation!

please keep anon as I still deal with the film company professionally

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Bob,

longtime Rodriguez fans like me and several of my friends have been bemused (and pleased) by the spotlight's sudden swivel towards him - but it's true, he's nowhere near as obscure as the marketing makes out. I first encountered him as a schoolkid in the mid-90s, when my friend's older brother made us a tape of his two albums. This stuff was in circulation far more than a lot of other obscure early 70s s-sw material. Mojo was writing features about him several years ago, and practically everyone I know who's into early 70s sounds has original copies of both his albums, on Sussex. Until a few months ago sealed originals cost $20 or so on eBay - now mediocre copies are going for $500!

Richard

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You're not kidding he was in plain sight. While I was at EMI we had the legendary Clarence Avant's Tabu catalog. Clarence also owned Sussex and frequently asked me to look into re-issuing the Rodriguez albums because things were starting to happen in South Africa.

Alas I was unable to generate any marketing rationale to convince the powers that be to re-release these titles, other than the fact I suspected there could be something there. And as so often with music catalogs, it takes a spark - outside of everyone's control - to ignite a fire. But Clarence was a believer all along. I was looking for unreleased Alexander O'Neal masters and he kept pushing Rodriguez at me. Contrived or not, i just goes to show that most every artist eventually gets his day...

Tom Cartwright

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Yes and after the album was finally re-released here a few years ago (long before the documentary was in the works) he also toured. I saw the show at The Bowery Ballroom and was hugely disappointed. He has a "pick up" band of young/hip musicians and although they were tight and professional there was none of the magic of the album and that album is indeed magic.

Leigh Lust

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His first gig post release of the film... @ Newport Folk Festival

Sony Picture classics had a LOT to do with making this the hit it has become

i.e. they flew a copy of the film up to my little town north of boston, had someone rent a town car and come show it to me on a DVD player and as soon as I watched it they took the copy got back in the car and then flew back to nyc just so I could understand why I should book him.

Jay Sweet

Producer
Newport Folk

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Bob

For someone who goes on about the way that the Internet builds its own momentum, you've missed where this one has come from. It's been building for over a decade.

This isn't the first time you've completely missed a slow build because you've come across it first in the mainstream media - you did the same with Aloe Black - both of which were championed by essentially the same group of people on the Internet. The same crowd getting who were behind Sharon Brown and the Daptones a decade before they hit the US charts.

Rodriguez was totally lost to the public, from about the time of his tour with Midnight Rock - that's thirty years ago - until he was unearthed about a decade a go.

His rediscovery began when David Holmes put together a compilation in the late 90s and I was tasked with licensing the track Sugarman. No one knew anything about him, he had disappeared with very little trace. David's comp got a lot of attention, especially for the Sugarman track.

We licensed the record from Clarence Avant Enterprises, and I'm pretty sure that they had no idea where he was. You say that you find it hard to believe that he could have this success but not know about it. I'm not sure why he would, record companies in the 70s and 80s liked to pretend they didn't do work with apartheid South Africa.

Since that point his music has been rediscovered, listened to, loved and enthused about by fans of off-kilter 70s music around the world.

It's one of the advantages of the Internet that very little is made of within the industry, but if you want to find someone to pay them some money, most of the times these days you can.

Anyway it was after that release that people really started looking for Rodriguez, and I guess they found him.

Now I, like you, haven't seen the film yet, so I don't know if they are saying that they found Rodriguez last year, but I suspect they found him about a decade ago and it has taken that long to make it onto the screen.

Even if they are fudging the time line a little, the central story is essentially true.

Dean Rudland

Ace Records / Rufus Music Publishing

Sent from my iPhone

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He said he worked on the film for 4 years and then put it aside. Didn't know the iPhone was 6 years old.

Charlie B. Dahan

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Hey Bob.

I live in Australia and am a huge Rodriguez fan. I know his story intimately. In '81 I hitchhiked 250 miles to see him play and I have seen him since. I still play his music regularly. A few years ago I made contact with Regan, his daughter/manager, regarding a publishing question. Yes, he did shows in Australia with Midnight Oil. And Powderfinger, one of Australia's biggest-ever bands, occasionally played a Rodriguez song in their live set.

John O'Donnell. Sydney, Australia.

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Bob:

I loved searching for Sugarman but your report about 60 minutes is right on. Years back Scott Pelley did a story on Springsteen with so many inaccuracies. Here's a letter I wrote him then. Never got a
response.

Best
gary
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October 10, 2007

Mr. Scott Pelley
60 Minutes
524 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019

Dear Mr. Pelley:

I hope this letter finds you well. As a longtime 60 minutes viewer I rely on the show for information and sometimes perspective on the topics covered. I, like many viewers, have placed extensive trust in the 60 minutes staff to do the proper research to offer us the opportunity to form an opinion of various issues.

In your recent interview and story on Bruce Springsteen you asked Roy Bittan and Steven Van Zandt about their reaction when Bruce let the band go in 1991 to play with other musicians. These were the two people in the band to which this question did not even apply. Steven had left the band 6 years earlier to pursue a solo career and Roy was never let go. He was the only member of the E Street Band to remain in the new group of musicians Bruce put together. While this is basic information that any Bruce fan will know, I certainly do not expect that every reporter has prior knowledge on every subject he or she covers. However, within one minute of a Google search or simply looking on the cd credits of the release just after he excused the band, you would have had all of the pertinent information.

While this mistake is not going to change public opinion or world events, it does make me wonder that if basic facts, which would take five minutes to verify, are not checked than how seriously can I take your reports on subjects I am not familiar with.

Sincerely,

Gary Alan

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Was nothing learned from Mike Daisey / 'The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs'?

Chris Schetter

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The movie was fantastic. Don't tell me the "facts". Romney lied his ass off while Obama laid out facts. Obama got trounced.

Tom Elmer

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Bob,

I absolutely agree with you on the this piece - Brilliant!

Paul Anka




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