I jest. Although I rarely darken its doorway, I have ventured in once or twice, but I think this is my first topic here.The story is no longer new, and hey, who knows, maybe some of you know it now, which would be nice. But I only just found out what a fully unusual story it was myself, despite having known bits of it, and I wondered if you all knew it too, or if you'd get a nice surprise from it. If you know the story, then just skip down to the lyrics.
The story is here because the lyrics of a song I was listening to off one of my favourite albums sorta made me think of danlo, (and one or two others), so I wanted to post them. Looking for a soft copy of the song to copy and paste, I found out the details of this little story.
The story starts, I guess, back in 1969, when an aspiring musician/songwriter named Sixto Rodriguez, the 6th child of poor Mexican immigrant parents living in Detroit, released his debut album, Cold Fact.
The album was pretty much an instant failure. Despite that, he scraped up the support/whatever to release a second album a couple of years later, recorded in London of all places, Coming From Reality. That was just as much of a failure.
The record label went bust, the new owners deleted the masters with indecent haste, and that was pretty much the last anybody in the Northern Hemisphere heard of a young 2nd generation Mexican named Rodriguez.
At just about the same time that the masters were being deleted in 1971, some record company exec in repressive, conservative apartheid-South Africa decided to release Cold Fact to the local market.
It never recieved any airtime except on pirate stations, it was never marketed, and yet, merely by word of mouth, it found a treasured and well-known place in the hearts of disaffected young whites, especially among the South African conscript troops of the Angolan border conflict, (which lasted 20 years), where it's impact has since been likened to that of Hendrix and The Doors on American conscripts of the time.
It enjoyed popularity in Australia and New Zealand too, and the artist toured Australia briefly in 79/81 and released an Australia-only compilation album, before hanging up his guitar, and disappearing entirely from the scene.
But in South Africa, people who had listened to Cold fact in their youth and loved it were sharing it with their children, and it was a staple of many a collection. Part of it's mystique of course was that nobody knew who this guy was, where he was, or what he was doing. Lurid rumours abounded, the most popular, (which I heard many times myself) was that he'd committed suicide onstage after a performance.
The music, especially the lyrics, continued to have such an effect on people that in 1991 the South African company who held the record decided to have it re-released on CD. It sold around 60,000 copies in the next few years, and the interest was such that they tracked down an old copy of the second album, remastered it, and released it under a new title After The Fact, to try and capitalise on the success of the re-released 1st album.
It sold well, although not as well as the first continued to, but it was the next part of this story. A dedicated fan and journalist who'd helped the company track down a copy of the 2nd album to remaster, finally decided to try and find out something about who this artist had been.
He started out with the record company, who had no idea who or where the artist was. (Who knows what they were doing with the royalties...) Then, he tried to track down anybody he could who was mentioned on the original album sleeve. Eventually, he managed to contact one guy who'd been involved in the album. From him, he learned that the person he was looking for was indeed alive, (although he wasn't the person he thought he was...for some reason the songs and music were credited to a Jesus Rodriguez, (the artists brother) on the sleeve.) Now armed with the knowledge that the artist's name was actually Sixto Rodriguez, and that he was apparently alive, but without anything more substantial, the fan, (a guy called Segerman), put up a website called "The Great Rodriguez Hunt".
A year and many dead-end leads later, a post was made on the site's forum, by a woman calling herself Eva Rodriguez, asking if they really wanted to know about her father. The answer of course was yes.
It turned out that Sixto Rodriguez (then in his late 50's) was alive and well, and working on a construction site in his home city of Detroit, after spending time as a social worker, getting a degree in philosophy, and failing in a few political campaign attempts, including two runs at mayor of Detroit.
His only memento of his musical career was an old reel-to-reel copy of Cold Fact. He had absolutely no idea that his album had gone platinum in a country he almost certainly never thought of, and that for nearly 30 years, he'd been considered a music icon by the young (and not so young).
Segerman eventually got to speak to him, discussed the possibilities of a tour with promoters, and a year later, in 1998, Rodriguez played 6 (instantly sold-out) concerts across South Africa. His first public performance in nearly 20 years.
The guy had never given an official performance in his own country, and here he was, half-way round the world, playing for thousands of fans he never even knew he had.
Imagine what a trip that must have been.
Here's a quote from the review of the first concert:
The second:K.Couzyn wrote:One of, if not the best concerts ever in Cape Town. Everyone, knew every word. No, you don't understand. Every! Word! At one point, the man faltered on a verse and the crowd calmly kept on singing, lifting him back onto the melody like a nurturing mother on the day of her baby's first steps. What made the whole scene specially touching was the transparency of his true amazement. Imagine going to an obscure country that you've never seen before, just to find there are thousands of people who still adore you, for songs you sang in your youth.
B.Currin wrote:From the simplistic, yet instantly recognisable bass guitar intro of I Wonder, to the last fading echoes of Thanks For Your Time, this was a show that enthralled everyone...
...Rodriguez has not released new material in over 25 years, he has no chart-topping singles, yet he opens to a standing ovation - and everybody sings along to all the songs.
...Reuben Samuels started a slow drum beat and when Graeme Currie introduced that classic bass line (de-de de-de de-dum) the crowd went wild in instant recognition and when The Man slipped quietly onto the stage, the Velodrome stood up in adoration for this long-lost legend...after the song, Rodriguez just stood and stared at the audience in awe.
The third:
Anyway, that's pretty much the end of the story. He's been back a couple of times, his "redicovery" has landed him concerts in Sweden and the UK, I have no idea how known he now is in the US, but you can get Cold Fact from Amazon now I see.P.Feldman wrote:I don't know who was more awestruck, the performer or his capacity audience. He couldn't stop grinning. The minute he stepped onstage, in a smart dress-suit and clutching his guitar, the arena exploded. And as he casually strummed the opening bars to I Wonder, the crowd rose to their feet in sheer adoration.
Personally, I think his stuff is great, and as always, it's the lyrics that mainly get my attention, but his delivery is fantastic too. If you get the chance, give it a listen, and as a British journalist wrote,
If you think it sucks, well,...decide for yourself if the gods of rock and roll made a serious mistake back in 1969, and Rodriguez is what we imagined him to be: an authentic American icon.
serves you right for paying attention to anything I say about music. But it's a great story don't you think? Imagine how he felt...Anyway, after all that, here's the lyrics of the song that prompted all this: It's better to the music though.
--ATHIS IS NOT A SONG IT'S AN OUTBURST: OR THE ESTABLISHMENT BLUES
The mayor hides the crime rate
council woman hesitates
Public gets irate but forget the vote date
Weatherman complaining, predicted sun, it's raining
Everyone's protesting, boyfriend keeps suggesting
you're not like all of the rest.
Garbage ain't collected, women ain't protected
Politicians using, people they've been abusing
The mafia's getting bigger, like pollution in the river
And you tell me that this is where it's at?
Woke up this morning with an ache in my head
Splashed on my clothes as I spilled out of bed
Opened the window to listen to the news
But all I heard was the Establishment's Blues.
Gun sales are soaring, housewives find life boring
Divorce the only answer, smoking causes cancer
This system's gonna fall soon, to an angry young tune
And that's a concrete cold fact.
The pope digs population, freedom from taxation
Teeny Bops are uptight, drinking at a stoplight
Miniskirt is flirting I can't stop so I'm hurting
Spinster sells her hopeless chest.
Adultery plays the kitchen, bigot cops non-fiction
The little man gets shafted, sons and monies drafted
Living by a time piece, new war in the far east.
Can you pass the Rorschach test?
It's a hassle is an educated guess.
Well, frankly I couldn't care less.
* 
Everybody. 
