The Sugarman

I know I say it everyday, but on Friday I had my best day in Cape Town thus far. Who out there has seen the new, hot documentary Searching for Sugarman??? Option 1: You have! YEAHHH! How good? OMG I know unbelievable! Literally mind-boggliing. Option 2: You haven’t! STOP READING THIS BLOG AND GO SEE IT NOW! NOW! MOVE FASTER! GO!

Ok so because I am oddly bold and have no shame and a deep rooted infactuation with music, which of course I knew about before this trip but I really didn’t know just how deep it was, ANYWAY back on topic! Ok so I decided after seeing the movie and being full of inspiration, confusion, and overwhelmed by the insane story, but mostly full of admiration for Stephen “Sugar” Segerman, the record shop owner who found him and introduced him to the America and myself, to pull a classic Brenna and just go for it. So I sent the following email to Stephen:

Hi Sugar-

I am sure I am not the first to get in touch with you after seeing Searching for Sugarman and be moved by the incredible and unbelievable story about Rodriguez and your dedicated search for him. My name is Brenna Goldstein and I am here in Cape Town for a few months studying on an American exchange program and have decided to do an independent study on Music in Cape Town. I am so inspired by your passion for Rodriguez, because that is so how I can see myself reacting if I was in your situation of being in love with an artist and not knowing his life story. Music is my biggest passion and although I do not play an instrument or know anything besides listening to the combination of lyrics put to music, I am determined to learn all I can about the music scene here. I would love to hear some of your thoughts on music in Cape Town and personal story about your love for music. I am around for the next month everyday so please feel free to contact me if you have any time to talk. I can come down to the shop later this week or next.

Thanks so much for your time and for not giving up on your search, you have forever enlightened thousands on a brilliant artist and man.

Brenna Goldstein

this is the room of all rooms.
(I spy...all the best albums of all time)

He responded within 24 hours with his phone number and home address inviting me to come over and chat whenever was convienient. On Thursday I called him and made a plan for Gaby and I to come by the next day. Off we went, freaking out with nervousness over what to ask him and how to make sure we every second of his life story in the hour or so we had at his house.

Well we had nothing to be nervous about, he is incredible. So humble, so causal, so inspirational. He sat us down in the room. Basically a haven of music and comfort that I though only existed in dreams and hippies music, smoke rooms of 1975. Not knowing where to start we just began chatting about ourselves and he was fascinated by us! Like had sooooo many questions about our program, what kind of music we liked and lots of jewish talk. Within the first 10 minutes I asked my most burning question about my most memorable line in the movie that in the 70’s in South Africa the most popular albums were, in order, 1. Abbey Road- The Beatles (don’t read my blog if you didn’t know that), 2. Bridge over Troubled Waters (Simon and Garf) and 3. Cold Facts (Sixto Rodriguez). How could Rodriguez been above everyone else of that era?!?!? The who? The stones? Dylan? Floyd? CSN? I just don’t get it!!!!! He responded with the most perfect line, “It’s the best album in the world. My favorite. I listen to it everyday”. His love for his favorite singer resonates so deeply with me I cannot put words to it. This movie and story stuck out to me so much because I just cannot imagine loving a CD and artist, especially one with as good a voice as Rod (as Stephen calls him), and not being able to know anything about him. Hometown, college, age, family, upbringing, whereabouts, etc. I imagine it would kill me and I would have no choice but to do what Stephen did and devote my life to learning all I could about him/ her/ them.

We talked with Stephen for the next 2 hours, having incredible conversations, drinking coffee, listening to his favorite jazz piece and admiring this room covered in the best albums of all time and most beautifully unorganized array of pictures, books and cds. I honeslty wish the entire thing was video taped so I could rewatch and relive it everyday. Some of his best lines include his comparison of Rodriguez and Nelson Mandela, as two men who only want peace and love and suffered for exactly 27 years, in different ways of course but still same amount of years, and came out of their “prisonment”, Mandela’s literally and Rod’s more financially based, still only wanting peace and love and being unphased by the recognition and continuing to strive for and feel passionate about what they originally intended to achieve. I asked him about people comparing Dylan, as he is a huge fan and has a massive collage of him in the hall, and Rodriguez and he said it’s a honor of course, one clearly has a better voice, but there is no way to compare them because Rod wrote 23 songs and Dylan has endless albums of lyrically genious songs. They are both political lyricists and he says that best album for best album, Cold Facts vs. Blood on the Tracks in his opinion, there is no way to choose.

Stephen was full of stories and passion for music that is eternally admirable. After our talk he took us to the record shop, which he described as the room we were sitting in on steroids and he was right. It is the perfect, messy, unorganized, Hendrix poster filled record shop with everything from the Best of Loggins and Messina to N*Sync music video DVDs- just a few of the purchases I made. 

It was a remarkable day and one I will NEVER forget. Rodriguez plans to tour in NY in the spring and I plan to see Stephen there. There are rumours of them getting an Oscar, which they rightfully deserve, so if anyone reading this blog has any pull in that please do that because it would just be one more recognition of how insane and incredible Stephen’s life story is. But I honestly doubt it would phase him, being that Carlos Santana recently emailed him to record with Rod, Neil Young sat in the theater at Sundance- where the movie was first shown as the opener- and he heard through the grapevine that Dylan saw and loved the movie. He is in such awe of the reception of this movie and its recognition and just so humbly grateful that people are interested in hearing the story. 

Gaby and I with the man himself. Stephen 'Sugar' Segerman. 

all photos courtesy of Gaby Gignoux-Wolfsohn