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Rodriguez
The Cold Facts...
South African Tour 1998
On 6th March
1998, when Sixto Rodriguez walks out on to the stage at the Bellville
Velodrome for his first South African performance, a 25-year-old mystery
will end and a new story will begin. This will be "the answer that,
makes the questions disappear".
The mystery that will be solved is: what ever happened to Rodriguez, the
artist who recorded the cult album 'Cold Fact'
that has been so hugely popular in South Africa since 1971? There have
been so many rumours and urban legends all these years. Stories that he
was dead, blind and imprisoned have all proved to be false. The simple
truth is that nothing happened to Rodriguez. South Africans didn't know
where he was and he barely knew where South Africa was. He knew of Australia
and his fans there because he had successfully toured there in 1979 and
again in 1981. Since then he had continued his full and varied existence
in his hometown and birthplace, Detroit, Michigan. He had raised three
daughters, Eva, Sandra and Regan, received a BA Philosophy degree from
Wayne State University, travelled around America with a North America Indian
tribe and stood as a candidate for public office on numerous occasions,
including for the position of mayor of Detroit.
His four recorded albums,'Coming
From Reality (After The Fact)','Cold Fact','The
Best Of Rodriguez' and 'Rodriguez Alive',
continued to sell consistently and were eventually released on CD, with
the exception of the 'Alive' album. This was a recording made on his 1979
Australian tour which received a one-year-only limited vinyl release
in Australia and is therefore very scarce and collectable.
Besides
his continuing success in South Africa and Australasia, however, Rodriguez
is virtually unknown in the USA, England and Europe. It was the ex-South
Africans who left their homeland in the '70s and '80s who spread the word
about these albums in these areas. If'is hoped that even though Rodriguez
is now well into his 50s, the success of this South African tour will kick-start
his belated but deserved career in the USA and Europe. Tours to Australasia
and Canada are being considered, as is the possibility of some new recorded
material as well as a live CD from the South
African Tour.
The revival in Rodriguez's career happened as a result of
the South African release on CD of his debut album 'Coming From Reality
(After The Fact)'. The liner notes that accompanied this CD raised the
question of what had happened to Rodriguez and whether there were any "musicologist
detectives" out there who felt motivated enough to find out. Well,
there was one in Johannesburg and Craig Bartholomew immediately began his
one-year search that resulted in him locating and speaking to Rodriguez
in August 1997. At the same time, contact was made with Rodriguez's daughter
Eva through an Internet website
that had been established to try and find the missing artist. Soon Rodriguez
became very aware of South Africa and the large cult following that he
enjoyed there as well as the thousands of his CDs that were still being
sold there year after year. At this stage Rodriguez himself did not have
copies of his own albums; all he had was a copy of 'Cold Fact' on a reel-to-reel
tape!
In
October 1997, Rodriguez, who is a very private and reserved person, was
described by his daughter Eva as follows: "My father is in great health
physically and mentally. In my eyes, he is ageless, creative, strong, intellectual
and different. He has kept his hand and his mind on the music, living a
surprisingly average and somewhat alternative life. He has raised three
daughters, labored, got an education, ran for political office and pays
dues and debts like the rest of us."
News of his discovery and impending tour was received
with a sense of amazement and disbelief by his many fans in South Africa.
Nothing short of the news of a joint tour by Elvis Presley and Jim Morrison
could have aroused such a reaction. Well, Rodriguez is very much alive
and living in Detroit and now, 27 years after his music first appeared
in South Africa, he is performing in this country. We South Africans have
been privileged to witness many awe-inspiring and wondrous political, musical
and sporting events during the past few years. We have witnessed concerts
by some of the biggest names in contemporary music. However, this tour
must surely rate as one of the most unexpected and eagerly-anticipated
musical events ever in our history. It is with great pleasure we South
Africans welcome Sixto Rodriguez to our country.
- Stephen "Sugar" Segerman
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