Ben Holloway Professor Lydia Hamessley Seminar on American Folk Music May 9, 2014 Searching for Sugarman: An examination

of the life of a lost folk icon He has been called a poet, a prophet, a drifter, a visionary, and one of the best folk musicians of his era. Lyrically, his songs have been compared to those of Bob Dylan, and in some cases producers regard him as an even better and more profound writer than Dylan. Steve Rowland, a famous record producer and actor states, hes my most memorable artist, Ive produced a lot of great ones, but hes my most memorable hes like a wise man, a prophet, hes way beyond just being a musical artist( Bendjelloul, Searching for Sugarman, 12:09). Clarence Avant, founder of Sussex Records, CEO of Motown Records, and Godfather of Black Music claims that of the artists he had ever worked with, which is a list that includes Michael Jackson, Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder, and Janet Jackson, that this man was in his top 5 and that Bob Dylan was mild compared to this guy (Bendjelloul, Searching for Sugarman, 37:01). This artists music would go on to not only become the music of a generation in South Africa, but to inspire all future generations of music in South Africa. It became the soundtrack of our lives (Bendjelloul, Searching for Sugarman,19:39) according to Steve Segerman and became the anthem for the revolution against Apartheid. Yet despite all of this success, before 1997 this artist has sold 6 records according to Clarence Avant and was completely unknown in the US. He was thought to have committed suicide on stage during a performance in the 1970s and it would take more than 20 years before someone went looking for him. The 2012 documentary Searching for Sugarman, chronicles the search for and eventual discovery of the enigmatic artist known as Sixto Rodriguez. This essay will examine the life of Rodriguez as well as seek to understand the cultural significance that his music has had. It will begin with a brief outline of the history of Rodriguez, how his music became so popular, and his eventual rediscovery. It will then focus on the significance of his music, most notably in South Africa, and reflect on his place in folk music history. Rodriguez had always been a little bit of an enigma. Born in Detroit in 1942, he grew up in the poverty-stricken city during the 1970s. The producers on his first two albums, Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore said they We thought he was like the inner city poet. You know, putting his poems to music of what he saw. And it was definitely a very gritty look at what he saw on the streets of Detroit. The only writer that I had heard of at that time period was maybe Bob Dylan, that was writing that well (Bendjelloul, Searching for Sugarman 9:00) They also explain how mysterious of a character he was. Dennis Coffey explains how he would rarely meet them in a house or building and preferred to simply meet on various street corners throughout the city. To some people that were acquainted with him, the simply though he was homeless. Local bar owner Dan DiMaggio He was this wandering spirit around the city I thought he was just not much more than a homeless person, a drifterit looked like he would go from shelter to shelter (Bendjelloul, Searching for Sugarman, 7:30) In 1967 he recorded and released his first single Ill slip away with Impact Records and followed up with albums Cold Fact and Coming from Reality being released by Sussex records in 1970 and 1971 respectively. His albums were met with positive response from the industry and Billboard even gave Cold Fact a 4 star review, yet despite this the records sold extremely poorly. After his 2nd album failed to gain traction in

the US, Rodriguez was dropped from the record label. He would be later called upon to do a small tour in Australia in the early 1980s, but after the failure of his first two albums, his musical career was essentially over. To this day it is still unclear as to why Rodriguezs music did not become popular in the US as he was widely regarded by many top producers as being an extraordinary unique musical and lyrical talent. As stated earlier, he received high praise from both Steve Rowland and Clarence Avant, two prestigious record producers, and his music was well received by the music industry. When 1971's Coming from Reality met a similar fate as its predecessor, the artist left the music business to enroll at Wayne St University, in between working construction to support his family. Although Sixto Rodriguezs musical career was coming to an end in the US, it was just beginning in the small country of South Africa. It is unknown how the first copy of Cold Fact made it to South Africa, but the documentary, Searching for Sugarman, believes that it was an American student who brought the record over during a vacation to visit friends. The album was a hit; however, when the friends tried to go and buy the record themselves, they werent able to find it in stores, which spurred the album to become bootlegged, but after the albums gained mainstream popularity they were officially released by three record companies (Bendjelloul, Searching for Sugarman). Starting in the mid 1970s, Rodriguez began to gain popularity in South African and would eventually become one of the most popular artists in the country. As Steve Segerman, Record store owner and Rodriguez scholar states: The album was exceptionally popular, to many of us South Africans; he was the Soundtrack to our lives. In the mid 1970s if you walked into a random white liberal middle class household that had a turntable and a pile of pop records and if you flipped through the records you would always see, Abbey Road by the Beatles, Bridge over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkle, and you would always seen Cold Fact by Rodriguez. To us, it was one of the most famous records of all time (Bendjelloul, Searching for Sugarman 19:30). As Rodriguez continued to gain popularity, people began to realize how little they knew about one of the most famous artists in their country. His albums offered no information about him and the only picture they had of him, was the image of him on the cover of Cold Fact, sitting crosslegged with a hat and sunglasses on. Additionally, Rodriguez often goes by a number of different names, which makes him even harder to trace. On the front sleeve of his album, his name simply says Rodriguez; however, if one examines the vinyl record the artists name is printed as Sixto Rodriguez. Then if you look at the tracks, six of the tracks are credited to Jesus Rodriguez and four are credited to sixth prince. To further add to the mystery there were a number of rumors to his alleged suicide such Rodriguez had committed suicide during a performance, had shot himself on stage, and had overdosed on drugs. It would take the curiosity and passion of record storeowner Steve Segerman and music journalist Craig Bartholomew to begin to unravel the mystery of Rodriguez. When the album Coming from Reality was released in 1996, Steve Segerman was asked to help write the liner notes for the album. In one of his paragraphs he writes, If ever there is an air of intrigue and mystery around a pop artist it is around the artist known as RodriguezThere were no concrete cold facts about the artist known as Rodriguez. It is not known if he is even alive or dead. Any musicologist detectives out there? (Liner Notes). These liner notes would

attract the attention of musicologist Craig Bartholomew and the two began working in tandem to see if they could find Rodriguez. They began with the only source of information they had on Rodriguez, the lyrics to his songs to look for clues as to his whereabouts. Unfortunately this proved to be difficult to do. In Rodriguezs song Cant Get Away he writes lines such as Born in the troubled city, In Rock and Roll, USA In the shadow of the tallest building Going unaided toward the west coast Stopped in the sleepy town In a hotel room in Amsterdam On a wild and windy August night For Segerman and Bartholomew, all of these lyrics pointed them to different geographic locations, and although Bartholomew would eventually visit all of these locales, they yielded no further information about Rodriguez. At this point they also created a website about the lost artist known as Rodriguez and hoped that someone would respond with information as to his whereabouts, but this also proved to be a failed endeavor. Bartholomew next attempted to trace the flow of royalties from the sale of Rodriguezs records. He was able to identify the three record labels that had released a number of Rodriguezs records; however, he had difficulties Normally you follow the money, thats how you get to the bottom of anything, but where do dead mens money go? I was astounded that no one knew anything about him it would be one thing if they said we send the money to X place or Y, but they kept on being very vague. In fact when I put some pressure on somebody I did get an address and I called, and I cant remember if I spoke to someone or left a message, but when I called the next day, the number had been changed (33:00). Bartholomew knew about the popularity of the records, and with Robbie Mann, owner of RPM records, estimating that at least half a million copies of the record had been sold, Bartholomew continued to attempt to trace the money. Tracing royalties back to a US record label, Sussex Records, which was owned by Motown producing legend, Clarence Avant. Unfortunately Avant ended up being a dead end and Bartholomew and Segerman were left without any leads. They would be close to giving up on the search until one day Craig Bartholomew happened to be listening to the Rodriguez song Inner City Blues which features a line Met a girl from Dearborn, early six o'clock this morn A cold fact (album). Bartholomew had never thought of Dearborn as a location, but after looking it up he realized that it was in Michigan. After more research he found that Rodriguez recorded his first two albums in the Detroit area and reached out to the producers of the albums Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore. He shocked them with the news that Rodriguez had been selling millions of dollar worth of records in South Africa and then wanted to know how Rodriguez had died; however when he asked Mike Theodore about Rodriguezs death, Theodore stated, What do you mean dead, hes not dead. Sixto is alive and kicking. The principal artist known as Sixto Rodriguez is alive and kicking and living in Detroit 43:20. Before I continue to more information and Rodriguez and his present-day endeavors, Id like to stop for a moment and spend more time examining Rodriguezs music and attempt to understand how it had gone unnoticed for so long in the US and why it became so popular in South Africa. Regarding the first question, there are no concrete answers as to why Rodriguez did not become popular in the US. As stated earlier he was highly regarded amongst record producers, yet was completely unable to garner interest from the public. As Steve Rowland states

This guys deserves recognition, nobody in America had even heard of him, nobody was even interested in listening to him, how can that be? 15:50). An article by Billboard posits a few theories as to why Rodriguezs music did not catch on. They range from not being played by underground radio and thus not meeting its intended public, insufficient marketing by Buddah, with whom Sussex had a promotion and distribution deal, and that too much emphasis on other artists such as Bill Withers inhibited Rodriguezs ability to become popular. There is also a theory that due to continued racial tensions post civil rights movement that many were unwilling to listen to an artist who went by the name Rodriguez, which could have also limited opportunities for his music to spread. Clearly what did not resonate with the US about Rodriguez struck a chord with the entire country of South Africa. Not only did Cold Fact and Coming from Reality become immensely popular, they became the anthem for the revolution against apartheid in South Africa during the 1970s. Ron Eyermans Music in Movement: Cultural Politics and Old and New Social Movements, examines the impact of music on social movements finds that common music triggers formation of collective identity, collective memory and collective action. Eyerman states that: Music and other forms of cultural expression can articulate as well as fuse a group, offering a sense of group belonging and collectivity as well as strength in trying situations, such as confronting violent resistance and repressive authority. Through song, a collective, such as a movement, can objectify itself and its history, making itself visible to others, as well as creating and establishing a sense of continuity. At the same time, such cultural expressions, texts and other material artifacts permit the presentation of the collectives view of events free from the censorship of the dominant culture. (Eyerman 447). Eyerman uses this concept and applies to songs such as We Shall Overcome and explains how specific meaning was interpreted within the lyrics of the song as well as the emotional connection that listeners felt to the song. This is similar to what many South Africans felt about Rodriguezs music, more specifically songs like I Wonder. Famous South African musician Willem Mller comments on the political significance of Rodriguez and states: I remember I was in high school and we had this song lyrics I wonder how many times youve had sex and at that time South Africa was very conservative. It was the height of Apartheid. And there wasnt television, thats how conservative it was, because television was communisteverything was restricted, everything was censored, and here is this guy singing this song he became something of a rebel icon (Bendjelloul, Searching for Sugarman, 18:17). Because of the extreme censorship in South Africa there was very limited access to television and other forms of popular media songs, especially ones containing taboo lyrics. For Rodriguez to write a song, which so blatantly discussed sex and future sexual partners, this was shocking to many South Africans and in many cases I believed it awakened a rebellious spirit within many. Willem Mller states that the lyrics to I Wonder were significant in how they allowed thoughts of rebellion and anti-establishment to form in the minds of unhappy South Africans. The government would eventually censor many of Rodriguezs songs, but the continued availability

of records, combined with the lyrics to the songs ended up informing the people of rebellion as well as uniting them under the collective identity of being rebellious. Another highly influential song to the protests against Apartheid in South Africa was Establishment Blues. The first verse to the song is as follows: The mayor hides the crime rate council woman hesitates Public gets irate but forget the vote date Weatherman complaining, predicted sun, it's raining Everyone's protesting, boyfriend keeps suggesting you're not like all of the rest. Garbage ain't collected, women ain't protected Politicians using people, they've been abusing The mafia's getting bigger, like pollution in the river And you tell me that this is where it's at. Woke up this moming with an ache in my head Splashed on my clothes as I spilled out of bed Opened the window to listen to the news But all I heard was the Establishment's Blues. Gun sales are soaring, housewives find life boring Divorce the only answer smoking causes cancer This system's gonna fall soon, to an angry young tune And that's a concrete cold fact. (Rodriguez, Cold Fact) These songs lyrics are self-explanatory in how they describe the failings of the establishment as well as a call to the people that the government is going to fall due to anger and unrest on the part of the people. As Steve Segerman discusses regarding Cold Fact, The message it had was be anti-establishment, we didnt know the word anti-establishment was until it cropped up on a Rodriguez song and we found out its ok to protest against your society, to be angry at your society (Bendjelloul, Searching for Sugarman 20:30). In South Africa during the Apartheid era, many different means were used to attempt and prevent Apartheid from ending and the songs had lyrics that were able to open the minds of the South Africans, and in the words of Craig Bartholomew, set us [South Africans] free as oppressed peoples. Every revolution needs an Anthem, and in South Africa, Cold Fact was the album that gave people the permission to free their minds (Bendjelloul, Searching for Sugarman 21:00). It is evident that from a sociological and lyrical perspective as well as from the opinions of a famous musicians, Rodriguez scholar and record shop owner, and musicologist all of whom have lived during the Apartheid era, that Rodriguezs music had a monumental influence on motivating the public to take action against their government and against Apartheid. In addition to being the music to back a revolution, Rodriguezs music also inspired future generations of music in South Africa, most notably the Volvry Movement.

The Volvry Movement was a musical countercultural movement, which took place in the 1980s and consisted of a group of young South African musicians such as Johannes Kerkorrel, Bernoldus Niemand, Willem Mller, and Koos Kombuis. These musicians came together to express their fury and discontent with the social, political and cultural condition of the Afrikaner nation. Influenced by Rodriguez, this music was anti-establishment, anti-apartheid rock. It became the Afrikaners own rock revolution and laid the psychological ground for Afrikaners to feel both proud of themselves and be anti-government. Rodriguezs music was so influential on the development of this movement and their music for a number of reasons. First was just the timing of the introduction of his music to a receptive group of young Afrikaners. As Barbara Nussbaum states in her xxx article: You couldnt have designed a better audience for Rodriguez than the Afrikaans youth during the seventies and eighties says Dr Morne Mostert, of Stellenbosch University Business School. The English community of South Africa used the Afrikaans community as a convenient scapegoat, blaming us for apartheid. We had no one to blame. Young Afrikaners were seeking an escape from the uncomfortable psychological pressure where so many of us that felt that we were not part of this system. So the anti-establishment consciousness Rodriguez expressed, helped us find an alternative way to live with ourselves. Another reason Rodriguez was so influential to the Volvry movement were because of the relatability of his songs to the South African youths as a whole. Rodriguez songs like Establishment Blues provided critical political commentary, but expressed powerlessness and frustration. The anger in Rodriguez lyrics resonated deeply with Afrikaners both because of the particular socio historical circumstances and psychological and cultural wounds that entrapped them. South African Singer/Songwriter Oran Cohen states in South Africa some of us could take in the dissonance of his songs because we were corrupt and dissonant. His music is so honest and brutal. Not only was Rodrigeuzs music influential in . A few lines of analysis. From the moment Rodriguez was discovered, things started to happen very quickly. Bartholomew wrote an article titled In search of Rodriguez: From hooker bars to opera houses and considered the case closed. He had been searching for a dead man and found him to be alive; however, this would end up only being the beginning of the story. Bartholomews article made it to the US where one of Rodriguezs daughters saw the article and subsequently the website that had been made by Bartholomew and Segerman a few years earlier. She posted, Rodriguez is my father! I'm serious. He recently received an article from a journalist there who told him of the following. I went on line to try to find out more info and was shocked to see he has his own site. Truly amazing. Do you really what to know about my father? Sometimes the fantasy is better left alive. It is as unbelievable to me as it is to you. - Friday, September 12, 1997. Segerman and Eva song connected over the phone and the night after their conversation, Steve Segerman received a call at 1am from none other than Sixto Rodrigeuz. After speaking with him and explaining to him how popular he had become in South Africa, Rodriguez agreed to visit South Africa and put on a performance of his old music and on March 2nd he traveled to South Africa and on March 6th and 7th, he gave his first performances in nearly two decades in front of a sold out crowd in South Africa. As he walked out on stage and the opening riff to I Wonder began playing, the

crowed cheered continuously for ten minutes until they quieted down enough to let him start his first song.

I think to go from being the outcast, to being who he really was, because it was as though as it was him. That was who he was. A musician on stage, playing for his fans. 1:11:37 I thought that I would see him being bewildered at all those people staring up at him, I saw the opposite. I saw this absolute tranquility, absolute serenity on his face. Its like he had arrived at that place he had tried to find his whole life. Home is acceptance. Here is a guy who lived on the other side of the world and it was almost like he had found his home.1:12:00 He was quite content to go and sweep up peoples laws or do manual labor, he stayed. He lives a very very modest life. There is definitely no excess. There is no glamour. He took all that torment, all that agony, all that confuscion, and he transformed it inot something beautiful.

He had this kind of magical quality that all genuine artist and poets have. To elevate things to get above the mundane, the prosaic, all the bullshit, all the mediocrity thats everywhere(52:40)

Bendjelloul, Searching for Sugarman