Cracked.com sends me email links to their website where I just read the following;
Famous Documentaries That Were Shockingly Full of Crap
The Film:
Searching for Sugar Man is the tale of two South African music fans going on a quest to find a mysterious American singer called Rodriguez,
who had become huge in their country but whose whereabouts were
unknown. The story is that this musical genius had released two
little-heard albums in the early '70s and then vanished (rumors swirled
that he had long ago committed suicide onstage). He remained unknown
until a sudden surge in popularity when his songs about poverty and
urban decay made him an icon in apartheid-era South Africa. So the guy
was a star, but nobody knew where he was or even if he was still alive.
Spoilers: The documentary discovers Rodriguez toiling in anonymity in
his native Detroit, having no idea of his superstar status abroad.
Thanks to the documentary, Rodriguez became the ultimate
artist-you-probably-haven't-heard for hipsters everywhere, and he was even invited to play at some festivals.
The Fallacy:
The documentary tells us that Rodriguez is a guy who put out two
extremely obscure albums in the '70s, had zero success, quit music, and
became a regular Joe. That makes for a great story -- the idea that the
guy threw the albums out there and dropped off the map, unaware that his
work had become huge on the other side of the globe years later. Well,
we don't know about you, but we haven't met any regular Joes who spent
years touring Australia with bands like Men at Work and Midnight Oil.
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.
It's true that Rodriguez's work didn't catch on the U.S. before the
film, and that he wasn't aware of his popularity in South Africa, but to
paint him as a criminally ignored genius is absurd. He enjoyed a
sterling career lasting over a decade before his 15 minutes were up and
he was forced back into the real world, making his story about as
remarkable as any '80s hair metal band (that is, if Blackie Lawless
inexplicably became the poster boy for the Egyptian revolution, which --
can we make that happen?). That might explain why he seemed so
underwhelmed when he met up with the filmmakers.
Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_20585_6-famous-documentaries-that-were-shockingly-full-crap_p2.html#ixzz2c4WhxeS3
Now I'm not saying everything, or ANYTHING, Cracked.com says is true, after all, they are a humor website not a university fact finding braintrust but I've heard this same thing before in an interview with the producers of the documentary Searching For Sugarman. The writer of this article is right; if Rodriguez did have hit records and have successful tours in other countries then he's no more of an enigma than any other band that had regional success but that we've never heard of.
The story of Searching For Sugarman does illustrate one undeniable truth: IF IT'S TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE IT PROBABLY IS (not true, that is).
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