Due to a Bank Holiday and the desire to get away from a laptop, I’ve had a bit of a film binge. In the last few days I’ve watched the OKish Brothers Grimm, the very average The Expendables, and the above average Bad Teacher.
But the one that stuck out was finally watching Searching for Sugar Man.
It was written about at the time of release in 2012, as it’s a documentary with an unusual and interesting subject. Back in 1970-1971, a singer/songwriter named Rodriguez recorded a couple of albums which were praised by everyone involved, yet his career vanished without a trace in the U.S.
But after a bootleg copy landed in South Africa via a tourist, it became hugely popular in that country – influencing musicians, and even contributing in some ways to the changes that country has seen since.
But whatever happened to Rodriguez? Stories are told of him committing suicide on stage with a gun or by self-immolation…
Spoiler Alert:
What actually happened to him was he went back to work. He didn’t know of his foreign success, and the revenue it generated has pretty much been written off after this time. Rodriguez worked in house demolition and restoration, had a family, and made ends meet for many years. Eventually, having been contacted and brought to South Africa, he’s played sold out shows, but even now lives a modest lifestyle having given those proceeds apparently to friends and family…
What really struck me is that journalists ask him how he feels to know that a phone call or similar back in the 70’s and 80’s could have radically changed his life, and he responds enigmatically. It’s as if he’s focused on what he can do, not what might have been.
It’s a good lesson for any artist. Don’t bank on success, and don’t think of what might have been. His daughters describe how he threw himself totally into work and did the best job he could, whilst his employer commented on how he still had the creative artist in him whatever he did.
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