Any Rodriguez fans out there?

[donnashuggy]

You just have to see Sugar Man (it is showing on foxtel)

Best thing I have seen in years.

[freakiness]

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@donnashuggy wrote:

You just have to see Sugar Man (it is showing on foxtel)

Best thing I have seen in years.

---

I hadn't heard any for a long time until about 2 years ago. DId one of his kids re-release some of his music?

[donnashuggy]

freaki, you just have to see the documentary

He was larger than Elvis in South Africa, did a concert there in the late 90's

His daughters were featured in the documentary, one of his daughters responded on a website that was set up to search for him.

It's spine chilling

[donnashuggy]

Here is a trailer

[freakiness]

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@donnashuggy wrote:

freaki, you just have to see the documentary

He was larger than Elvis in South Africa, did a concert there in the late 90's

His daughters were featured in the documentary, one of his daughters responded on a website that was set up to search for him.

It's spine chilling

---

Yes, I think that's what I saw a feature about. Not the whole documentary but a story about making it with some of the music.  

[acacia_pycnantha]

Rodriguez were very popular here in the mid '70's. I even bought their record "Cold Fact". still have it somewhere. 🙂

[viewmont1071]

I saw him at Tanelorn in the early 80's 1981 I think...

He stumbled onto stage and just like the early performances in the "doco" he half faced the audience and mumbled into the

microphone.

His vocal performance was at best dissapointing

A part of the crowd booed him off the stage when he was finished.

He played sometime after The Church and before Midnight Oil.

I enjoyed the doco... but after researching understand that some of the "facts' were a lttle tenuousm (ie the portrayal of his music as a binding factor in the downfall of apartheid).... still a feel good tale though

especially the reconnection with his SA fans.

I have all of Rodriguez's vinyl

[viewmont1071]

http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/6016/searching_for_sugarman_and_other_fact-challenged_docume...

“To paint his as a criminally ignored genius is absurd,” the Cracked article reads. “He enjoyed a sterling career lasting over a decade.”

While Rodriguez wasn't aware of his South African stardom until after Apartheid imploded--and South African fans living in their largely isolated renegade nation knew little about their idol--Cracked has this right. Rodriguez had a reasonably successful career touring Australia in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Sugarman does willfully neglect that part of his story and, frankly, few of us in the local media have been willing to shine a light on that shortcoming. No one wants to tell kids that Santa Claus is just their parents, I guess.

However, in fairness, Sugarman wasn't wrong portraying Rodriguez as a day laborer working in Detroit and largely unknown in his home country until he was rediscovered by South African fans post-Nelson Mandela. Those things are true.

http://www.cracked.com/article_20585_6-famous-documentaries-that-were-shockingly-full-**bleep**_p2.h...

Yep, Rodriguez was a huge sensation in Australia in the late '70s and early '80s, with his singles shooting up the charts for over a year. One of the fans from the documentary is a record shop owner and a massive Rodriguez nut -- surely he'd heard of his 1981 live in Australia album? Maybe he listened to it and figured the huge crowd cheering for the guy at the beginning was in some tiny Detroit cafe. Also, the name of the album is Rodriguez Alive, so maybe he should have taken it as a clue.

[lakeland27]

 they were good albums, made me want to move into a ghetto.. i changed my mind though . a  song  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr9peut6brI

[viewmont1071]

Nice choice LL

The lyrics of my fave below....

 The Establishment Blues :

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.



The pope digs population, freedom from taxation

Teeny Bops are up tight, drinking at a stoplight

Miniskirt is flirting I can't stop so I'm hurting

Spinster sells her hopeless chest.



Adultery plays the kitchen, bigot cops non-fiction

The little man gets shafted, sons and monies drafted

Living by a time piece, new war in the far east.

Can you pass the Rorschach test?



It's a hassle is an educated guess.

Well, frankly I couldn't care less.