An Evening with Sugar Man

I am sitting in my chair at Radio City Music Hall waiting with anticipation. The lights are dim and I can barely see the outline of the band’s equipment on stage. The dim light fades to black and the crowd starts to cheer. From the left side of the stage, I see three men slowly walking together.  I realize the headlining musician is the man in the middle and the men by his side are assisting him to the stage.

 The applause gets louder as the seventy one year old musician approaches the center of the stage. He glides on a pair of dark sunglasses and flips on a black top hat. We hear the announcer say, “Ladies and Gentlemaaan…Rodriguez!!!!!” and the applause becomes even louder.

When Rodriguez strums the first few notes and starts his song, it’s as if the seventy one year old man in front of us is in his twenties. Although much of his eye sight is lost due to glaucoma, his voice is strong, clear, and very personable. It’s as if he’s singing to a group of old friends that he hasn’t seen in a while.

On Thursday, October 11, 2013, I had the privilege of seeing Rodriguez in concert. Had it not been for the academy award winning documentary, “Searching for Sugar Man,” directed and written by Malik Bendjelloul and produced by Simon Chin, I would not have learned about the information presented below and the musician’s incredible story.

Rodriguez was working and living in Detroit, Michigan in the late 1960’s.  He found work associated with demolition; manual labor such as moving furniture and debris from vacant and pre renovated homes. Additionally, he was a song writer.

 At the age of 25, his incredible voice and song writing abilities were discovered in a smoky, Detroit club and he was offered an opportunity to go to Los Angeles to record an album. The producers expected his success to be larger than Bob Dylan’s and other high profile artists of the nineteen seventies. He was going to be rich and famous.

Unfortunately, the albums Rodriguez recorded in 1970 and 1971 sold few copies. The record company had no tolerance for low sales and profit margin and two weeks before Christmas of 1971, the record company dropped him from the label.

With his music career ended, Rodriguez returned to Detroit and continued to work as a laborer. He had to work multiple jobs to provide for his family. While life’s disappointments can make a person bitter and angry, Rodriguez did not give in to the negativity of his life’s circumstance.

In spite of the rejection from the industry, he never lost his love of music.  Rodriguez also instilled in his family an appreciation for creativity and knowledge. He demonstrated to his daughters that much could be learned from books, art, museums, and music; one did not need money to receive these benefits.

Rodriguez lived his life with much less money than if he had succeeded in the music industry. None the less, at his core, he remained hardworking and most importantly he remained a musician.

Years passed by and it wasn’t until Rodriguez was in his fifties that he learned of his success internationally. Although sales were low in the United States, his records had gone platinum overseas. While the exact figure is not known, it’s estimated that over a million copies may have been sold in South Africa. Rodriguez did not receive royalties from the record sales and was never made aware of his success.

Sitting in my seat at Radio City Music Hall, I felt so lucky to be experiencing Rodriguez’s music live. When the final song ended, I turned around to see a sold out crowd on their feet. The cheers continued. Rodriguez took a bow and left the stage with the assistance of his daughter. Forty years after his starting record label dropped him, he is finally receiving the national credit and recognition he deserves.   

The documentary “Searching for Sugar Man,” tells Rodriguez’s entire story. The film is brilliantly presented and also helped to re-ignite Rodriguez’s career. Now we all have the benefit and pleasure of enjoying his music.