It’s also true that Rodriguez’s international discovery began long before the film was made. As a result of her interest, however, Cowsill’s current musical partner and husband, ace New Orleans drummer Russ Broussard, was part of the post-comeback tours Rodriguez did with a backing band. Rodriguez’s “I Think Of You” was the A-side of Cowsill’s single “The Next Time That I See You,” but it didn’t end up charting well. His songs were getting covered as early as 1977, the first artist to do so being Susan Cowsill, the former child star (and future member of Continental Drifters) who was then beginning a solo career. He may have been obscure, but Rodriguez wasn’t completely ignored over the years.
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What the film missedīut as many viewers have pointed out, the movie got one thing wrong. Brilliant songwriting was no longer enough to guarantee an audience, just ask Nick Drake (if you could), Judee Sill or Arthur Lee, whose masterpieces were also flying under the radar. In a climate of wall-to-wall brilliance, listeners were likely to greet a street poet like Rodriguez with a “been there, done that” kind of shrug. Rockers had Who’s Next and The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers to take in, and the songwriting world was about to be shaken up by a not-so-young upstart named David Bowie.
Rodriguez comes to South Africa for a triumphant show, which provides the emotional climax of Bendjelloul’s movie Searching For Sugar Man.įor black music, this was the year of two game-changers: Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On and Sly And The Family Stone’s There’s A Riot Going On. He is, of course, not dead, just living quietly in the Detroit area, where he’s probably the only resident without a cell phone or an internet connection. Then the late Swedish director Malik Bendjelloul comes along and documents the efforts of two Cape Town fans to track Rodriguez down.
Rumors spread that he’d died in some spectacular way, and a few fans set out to discover the truth… A rediscovery Yet nobody knows who or where Rodriguez is. Even anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko apparently owned copies, and you can’t ask for a better endorsement than that. Thousands of copies get bootlegged and the music touches a chord, not least because the anti-racist sentiments of some lyrics translate well to the anti-apartheid movement. The Detroit-based singer-songwriter releases two albums on the LA-based label Sussex Records in 19, respectively, which then somehow find their way to South Africa as imports long after the US versions have been deleted. Thanks to the 2012 award-winning documentary Searching For Sugar Man, the story of Rodriguez is now a familiar one. That is why the story of Sixto Rodriguez is so inspiring. What is unusual is when those albums get rediscovered, making the artist an international star some four decades after the fact. It’s not unusual when that artist disappears after those albums flop. To paraphrase Tom Jones, it’s not unusual for anyone to make a great album – even two great albums – that don’t sell.
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