'Sugar Man' Rodriguez, South Africa's Leonard Cohen, is Dead at Age 81

He was our Myth before we knew he was alive. He became our Living Legend. Now he's our Dead Poet.

Rodriguez a.k.a. Sugar Man is dead, age 81.

“Rodriguez was the most popular folk singer in my country of South Africa. Whichever bar you walked into, drunk people would sing his songs as anthems. He is part of our culture.” - posted by me on a website in 2012.

When I was young, in Eighties and Nineties South Africa, everyone believed that Rodriguez was dead. The only dispute was over how he’d killed himself. Here’s Dave Matthews telling the same story.

His only two albums were created before I was born. Parents, Uncles and Aunts shared his music to us.

During Apartheid, it was remarkable that Whites, Coloureds and Indians sang his songs. We thought he was bigger than Leonard Cohen and Cat Stevens. He was who we sang at braais and when we were drunk. He was our myth.

BUT HE WASN’T DEAD

In 1997, two music fanatics tracked him down and surprised our world - he was was an alcoholic, robbed of his royalties and employed as a low-income construction worker in crumbling Detroit. He was a humble man who never knew his fame but was soon touring in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Sweden.

His own country got to know about him in 2013 when the documentary, 'Searching for Sugar Man’, won Oscar, BAFTA and Sundance awards.

Leonard Cohen had ‘Who by Fire’, Cat Steven’s ‘Peace Train’, and Bob Dylan ‘The Times They Are A-Changing'. Rodriguez had the following which I hope you love as much as I do…

CRUCIFY YOUR MIND

“Was it a huntsman or a player
That made you pay the cost
That now assumes relaxed positions
And prostitutes your loss?
Were you tortured by your own thirst
In those pleasures that you seek
That made you Tom the curious
That makes you James the weak?

And you claim you got something going
Something you call unique
But I've seen your self-pity showing
As the tears rolled down your cheeks

Soon you know I'll leave you
And I'll never look behind
'Cos I was born for the purpose
That crucifies your mind…”

I WONDER

“I wonder how many times you've been had
And I wonder how many plans have gone bad
I wonder how many times you had sex
I wonder do you know who'll be next?
I wonder, I wonder, wonder I do.

I wonder about the love you can't find
And I wonder about the loneliness that's mine
I wonder how much going have you got
And I wonder about your friends that are not
I wonder, I wonder, wonder I do.

I wonder about the tears in children's eyes
And I wonder about the soldier that dies
I wonder will this hatred ever end?
I wonder and worry, my friend
I wonder, I wonder, wonder don't you?”

SUGAR MAN

“Sugar Man
Met a false friend
On a lonely, dusty road
Lost my heart
When I found it
It had turned to dead, black coal

Silver magic ships, you carry
Jumpers, coke, sweet Mary Jane

Sugar Man
You're the answer
That makes my questions disappear.”

I’m melancholic so I’m going to listen to Rodriguez covers by Paolo Ntuni, Just Jinjer and more…