Damn, I love his music
this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
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Rodriguez what an awesome human being...just watched this interview with him.
"And what about all the those years of back breaking labor, was that hard on you? ... well physically it was hard but there is no shame in hard work...There is no shame in being poor. Poor doesn't mean dirty. Poor doesn't mean stupid and poor doesn't mean, mean"
Classic tail of an great artist who got fucked by the music industry...
Did he get fucked or just didn't take off in the states initially?
Much of success is about luck, just because you're good and work hard doesn't ever mean youll "make it".
Lucky of the bootleg copies, otherwise many of us probably wouldnt have got to hear him. Great artist!
No, he got right fucked. I’ll second the documentary *Searching for the Sugarman.”
It’s really good and I don’t want to spoil too much if you want to watch it, but I could give you the Cliff notes if you want.
Based on my memory, like a lot of musicians in the "good old days", the record label cut him out of everything and actively hid royalties from him. The documentary "Searching for Sugar Man" goes into more details. As i recall they find the producer but can't find the money. Great Doc check it out. Also found this " One of the dramatic highlights of the film is when the interviewer confronts Clarence Avant, the label’s owner. “What happened to all of the royalties?” the interviewer asks. Avant becomes visibly agitated and is unable to offer a satisfactory answer to the question. "
I've seen the film when it came out and was listening to Rodriguez before it came out, but my memory must be failing me, as I thought he only sold like 10 albums in the US and hence no royalties, but how he got famous was bootlegged tapes and records in South Africa.
I think that also happened...and maybe the royalties issue wasn't as black and white as I thought.
What Likely Happened to the Royalties for “Sugar Man”?
It's a tuff biz. I don't think you were wrong, luck has a lot to do with it and the bootlegging certainly helped.