Searching for Sugar Man
A search finds a search
Whilst I love skiing, these days I prefer cross country to downhill. Cross country skiing is more peaceful, energetic and a better workout, for me anyway.
On a recent trip to Wanaka NZ, my wife Chris and I had several great days on the only XC ski area in NZ, the Snowfarm. It’s a wonderful way to spend the day.
We decided to have one day only at the Alpine resort over the valley, Cardrona. The skiing here is great, although somewhat expensive these days - $169NZ for an adult ski pass.
Apart from the crowds, one bugbear is the loud and intrusive music that blares out at the chairlifts. The music at the cafes, however, is somewhat more benign, perhaps setting the tone for drinking coffee rather than “shredding” the slopes.
At Captain’s Basin, the music choice was ecletic. One tune struck me as I ambled back to my skis.
Sugar man, won't you hurry?
'Cause I'm tired of these scenes
For a blue coin, won't you bring back
All those colors to my dreams?
Silver magic ships you carry
Jumpers, coke, sweet Mary Jane
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
I paused several times as I tried to make out the words. The melody was hypnotic, yet I declined my internal monologue’s insistence that I go back into the cafe to inquire from the staff what the song was.
A couple of days later I was driving to pick up our dog Lucy from the kennels in Geraldine (NZ) after the ski trip. I was taken by an urge to find this song, so I scoured Spotify, (in a lay by, I wasn’t driving!) What was it? Sugar girl? Sugar sugar, you are my candy girl (the Archies), no definitely not that one, though it reminded me of my primary school days.
Eventually, I found it: Rodriguez, Sugar Man, part of the album Cold Fact.
Later that day I scoured the internet and found the documentary entitled “Searching for Sugar Man”.
My wife Chris and I watched together. It is a beautifully made piece of cinematography. It is a story of a man , Sixto Rodriguez, virtually unknown in his home country of USA, but a huge hit in South Africa. He was unaware of it, until contacted by some South Africans who didn’t even know if he was alive. Watch the movie if you don’t know the story, so I’ll leave that here.
A couple of weeks later a young South African woman came to fix my windscreen. She had just been in New Zealand a couple of months. She was from close to Cape Town.
I couldn’t help but ask her about Rodriguez, and the opening scene in the movie when the man is singing along to Sugar Man, driving along the stunningly beautiful Cape Town coastal road. She lit up at the point, telling me that she played her Mum’s cassette tape of Cold Fact on auto-loop.
After chatting for a while, and she packed up to leave, she looked me right in the eyes and said “it was really nice to meet you” in a sincere way that quite floored me.
So, just pausing for a moment on the balcony at the cafe in Cardrona opened a whole new world of experience for me, a place, people and musician I had never heard of two weeks previously; truly a blessing.
Postscript. If you like patterns and strange coincidences, we were skiing at Roundhill ski area the day after picking up Lucy, and they played “Sugar Sugar” by the Archies at the Von Braun cafe.
Oh, and also, Rodriguez died on August 8th 2023, which is one year to the day on which I discovered him on my car journey to pick up Lucy from the kennels.