Back in 1969 an unknown singer-songwriter called Rodriguez was discovered performing in a dive bar in Detroit and was immediately offered a deal to record two albums. His music bore more than a passing resemblance to that of Bob Dylan, but his first album ‘Cold Fact’ received critical acclaim but only zero sales, and when the second one did exactly the same, the Record Company fired him and that was the end of his musical career. Or was it?
For some unexplained reason a few copies managed to find their way to South Africa, which in the early ’80s was suffering from the rigid censorship of its heavy handed apartheid government. They had even banned television in the entire country on the grounds that it was ‘just full of communist propaganda.’ So mainly through bootlegged copies suddenly Rodriguez’s music about freedom became an anti-establishment inspiration to all the youth who were desperate for political change. His success spread like wildfire, and before long he was bigger in South Africa than Elvis. However because all news in and out of the country was so strictly censored, the locals had no idea that Rodriquez was actually a flop in his own country, and likewise Rodriquez never ever knew he was a superstar in another continent.
As the South Africans could find nothing out about their new hero other than the few sparse facts on the albums cover, Rodriguez’s existence/life was rife with outlandish rumours many of which focused on how depressed he was on stage one night that he actually killed himself in front of the whole audience.
Fast forward to 1996 and a devoted fan ‘Sugar’ Segerman was asked to write the notes for the re-issue of Rodriguez’s second album on DVD in South Africa and he included a plea for any information on the late musician’s life. This attracted the notice of journalist Craig Bartholomew-Strydom and he took this up as a challenge and started digging as hard as he could.
For some time he couldn’t get beyond the wild stories but to his great surprise he eventually found Rodriguez alive and well and still living in the same house in Detroit where he had been for the past 40 years. Now having given up making music and he is actually happily working as a full time demolition contractor. He was as shocked about being ‘found’ as the South Africans were about discovering he wasnt dead. The sheer delight on his face, and that of his three grown up daughters, and the thousands of fans who packed out Stadiums when he went to play in South Africa at last was totally delightful.
This unraveling of this rather wonderful tale of mystery came to the notice of Swedish documentarian Malik Bendjelloul who was in Cape Town scouting for stories to film for his TV programme. After coming across Sugar Segerman, he was soon hooked on finding out more about the Rodriquez phenomena little knowing it would end up with this rather heartwarming and improbable tale and a full length movie. Full credit to Bendejelloul for the way that he told the tale carefully in chronological order slowly building up to the suspense to this very happy ending. For a newbie filmmaker, his camerawork and the editing really quite superb and made it a whole visual delight too.Despite the insightful and rather intense lyrics of his songs, Rodriguez turned out to be a man of few words and it was left to his articulate daughters to express his thoughts. There was no hint of regret of what he missed out on, and no wistful mention at all of the fortune he never received (and on which all the Record Companies to a man denied they had made a cent). He was simply happy to know that his music had found an audience at last.
Its a extraordinary remarkable story about an exceptional talented musician who turned out to be really nice man too. Both the movie and the music ( that I am listening too as I write) are an absolute treat and totally unmissable.
For some time he couldn’t get beyond the wild stories but to his great surprise he eventually found Rodriguez alive and well and still living in the same house in Detroit where he had been for the past 40 years. Now having given up making music and he is actually happily working as a full time demolition contractor. He was as shocked about being ‘found’ as the South Africans were about discovering he wasnt dead. The sheer delight on his face, and that of his three grown up daughters, and the thousands of fans who packed out Stadiums when he went to play in South Africa at last was totally delightful.
