History Music / Rodriguez

The enigmatic Sixto Diaz Rodriguez (July 10, 1942 -- August 9, 2023), commonly referred to as simply Rodriguez, was a Detroit-based FolkRock SingerSongwriter who cut his teeth performing in various clubs and bars, building up a repertoire with haunting, acoustic-based songs with sharp lyrics of cynical social commentary. Thanks to friends and session players Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore, Rodriguez eventually found his way to Clarence Avant, who made him the first signee of Sussex Records. Rodriguez recorded an album’s worth of material on an acoustic guitar, and was generously overdubbed with various psychedelic effects, strings, and other instruments. The result was ''Cold Fact.''

For the next couple decades, he toured once in a while, even taking his family on tour with him, until Sixto Diaz Rodriguez finally slipped away from reality on August 9th, 2023.

The enigmatic Sixto Diaz Rodriguez (born July 10, 1942), commonly referred to as simply Rodriguez, is a Detroit-based FolkRock SingerSongwriter who cut his teeth performing in various clubs and bars, building up a repertoire with haunting, acoustic-based songs with sharp lyrics of cynical social commentary. Thanks to friends and session players Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore, Rodriguez eventually found his way to Clarence Avant, who made him the first signee of Sussex Records. Rodriguez recorded an album’s worth of material on an acoustic guitar, and was generously overdubbed with various psychedelic effects, strings, and other instruments. The result was ''Cold Fact.''

The legend of Rodriguez continues to spread to this day, and he still tours once in a while, even taking his family on tour with him.

* DrugsAreBad: The song "Street Boy" only implies this, but based on the life of the titular 'street boy,' it's pretty obvious what he's doing out there.
-->''Your sister says that every week'' \\

It turned out that, in the [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra rough political climate]] of UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica, many people there had [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff embraced]] Rodriguez as an anti-establishment icon, considering him in the same esteem as people like Music/BobDylan and Music/ElvisPresley. The UsefulNotes/AcademyAward winning documentary, ''Film/SearchingForSugarMan'', details the effort of some South African fans to find out what truly happened to Sixto Rodriguez, as he was long thought [[AteHisGun dead by suicide.]] As fate would have it, one of Rodriguez' three daughters stumbled upon a fan site those same fans put up in 1997, and she contacted them with the news that her father was, in fact, very much alive, which was a delightful surprise. One thing led to another, and a concert tour of six shows was booked in South Africa, and was a huge success, leaving Rodriguez awestruck to find that [[EarnYourHappyEnding he had left a huge legacy after all]].

Maybe today, yeah… I’ll slip away.”''

!!! Discography
# ''Cold Fact'' (1970)
# ''Coming From Reality'' (1971)
# ''Rodriguez Alive'' (1981, live album, exclusive to Australia)
# ''Live Fact'' (1998, live album, exclusive to South Africa)
# ''Searching for Sugar Man (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)'' (2012, doubles as a GreatestHitsAlbum)
# ''Rodriguez Rocks: Live In Australia'' (2016, live album, exclusive to Australia)

!!"Sugar Man, won’t you hurry? Because I’m tired of these scenes…"

->''[[TheStinger "Thanks]] [[ElvisLives for]] [[CultClassic keeping]] [[LivingLegend me alive!"]]''

It turned out that, in the [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra rough political climate]] of UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica, many people there had [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff embraced]] Rodriguez as an anti-establishment icon, considering him in the same esteem as people like Music/BobDylan and Music/ElvisPresley. The UsefulNotes/AcademyAward winning documentary, ''Film/SearchingForSugarMan'', details the effort of some South African fans to find out what truly happened to Sixto Rodriguez, as he was long thought [[AteHisGun dead by suicide.]] As fate would have it, one of Rodriguez' three daughters stumbled upon a fan site those same fans put up in 1997, and she contacted them with the news that her father was, in fact, very much alive, which was a delightful surprise. One thing led to another, and a concert tour of six shows was booked in South Africa, and was a huge success, leaving Rodriguez awestruck to find that [[EarnYourHappyEnding he left a huge legacy after all.]]

->''"'And I’ll forget about the girl who said no,''
->''And I’ll tell who I want where to go,''
->''And I’ll forget about your lies and deceit,''
->''And your attempts to be so discreet,''
->''Maybe today, yeah… I’ll slip away.”''

-->—''"I’ll Slip Away"'', Rodriguez, 1967

... which pretty much made no commercial headway. A follow-up album, ''Coming From Reality,'' met a similar fate, and Rodriguez was dropped from the label. To make matters worse, it has since been alleged that Avant may have cheated Rodriguez out of royalties. At that point, he decided to hang up his guitar and start doing construction work to support his family, and even applying to go to university. To Rodriguez’ surprise, though, he was asked to do some concerts in Australia near the end of the 70s, coinciding with the rerelease of the album, and briefly enjoyed a resurgence of attention there, but it was soon back to Detroit to be a provider once more. But that was nothing compared to what came in 1998.

It turned out that, in the [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra rough political climate]] of UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica, many people there had [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff embraced]] Rodriguez as an anti-establishment icon, considering him in the same esteem as people like Music/BobDylan and Music/ElvisPresley. The UsefulNotes/AcademyAward winning documentary, ''Film/SearchingForSugarMan'', details the effort of some South African fans to find out what truly happened to Sixto Rodriguez, as he was long thought [[AteHisGun dead by suicide.]] As fate would have it, one of Rodriguez' three daughters stumbled upon a fan site those same fans put up in 1997, and she contacted them with the news that her father was, in fact, very much alive, which was a delightful surprise. One thing lead to another, and a concert tour of six shows was booked in South Africa, and was a huge success, leaving Rodriguez awestruck to find that [[EarnYourHappyEnding he left a huge legacy after all.]]

* DeadArtistsAreBetter: And that's before they found out he was ''alive.''

* EarnYourHappyEnding: Did he ever. And just to put the icing on the cake, he did earn royalties from the documentary soundtrack.

* HumbleHero: Absolutely. He declined to attend the 85th Academy Awards because he did not want to overshadow ''Searching For Sugar Man’s'' nomination for Best Documentary Feature.

It turned out that, in the [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra rough political climate]] of UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica, many people there had [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff embraced]] Rodriguez as an anti-establishment icon, considering him in the same esteem as people like Music/BobDylan and Music/ElvisPresley. The UsefulNotes/AcademyAward winning documentary, ''Film/SearchingForSugarMan'', details the effort of some South African fans to find out what truly happened to Sixto Rodriguez, as he was long thought [[AteHisGun dead by suicide.]] The discovery that he was alive was a delightful surprise, and Rodriguez himself was awestruck to find that he left a huge legacy after all. A concert tour was booked and was a huge success, and the legend of Rodriguez continues to spread to this day.

!!”Sugar Man, won’t you hurry? Because I’m tired of these scenes…”

* AlbumTitleDrop: From “This Is Not A Song, It’s An Outburst: Or, The Establishment Blues”:
-->''”This system's gonna fall soon, to an angry young tune, and that's a concrete cold fact."''
** And he drops it again in “Inner City Blues.”

* CrapsackWorld: As he tells it in his music. Especially “Cause.”

** Talks about playing in "faggot bars" in "A Most Disgusting Song.”

* ProtestSong: Quite a lot of them.

* SomethingBlues: "This Is Not a Song, It's an Outburst: Or, the Establishment Blues.”
* SpokenWordInMusic: “A Most Disgusting Song.”

It turned out that, in the rough political climate of UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica, many people there had [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff embraced]] Rodriguez as an anti-establishment icon, considering him in the same esteem as people like Music/BobDylan and Music/ElvisPresley. The UsefulNotes/AcademyAward winning documentary, ''Film/SearchingForSugarMan'', details the effort of some South African fans to find out what truly happened to Sixto Rodriguez, as he was long thought [[AteHisGun dead by suicide.]] The discovery that he was alive was a delightful surprise, and Rodriguez himself was awestruck to find that he left a huge legacy after all. A concert tour was booked and was a huge success, and the legend of Rodriguez continues to spread to this day.

.....which pretty much made no commercial headway. A follow-up album, ''Coming From Reality,'' met a similar fate, and Rodriguez was dropped from the label. To make matters worse, it has since been alleged that Avant may have cheated Rodriguez out of royalties. At that point, he decided to hang up his guitar and start doing construction work to support his family, and even applying to go to university. To Rodriguez’ surprise, though, he was asked to do some concerts in Australia near the end of the 70s, coinciding with the rerelease of the album, and briefly enjoyed a resurgence of attention there, but it was soon back to Detroit to be a provider once more. But that was nothing compared to what came in 1998.

It turned out that, in the rough political climate of South Africa, many people there had [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff embraced]] Rodriguez as an anti-establishment icon, considering him in the same esteem as people like Music/BobDylan and Music/ElvisPresley. The UsefulNotes/AcademyAward winning documentary, ''Film/SearchingForSugarMan'', details the effort of some South African fans to find out what truly happened to Sixto Rodriguez, as he was long thought [[AteHisGun dead by suicide.]] The discovery that he was alive was a delightful surprise, and Rodriguez himself was awestruck to find that he left a huge legacy after all. A concert tour was booked and was a huge success, and the legend of Rodriguez continues to spread to this day.

It turned out that, in the rough political climate of South Africa, many people there had embraced Rodriguez as an anti-establishment icon, considering him in the same esteem as people like Music/BobDylan and Music/ElvisPresley. The UsefulNotes/AcademyAward winning documentary, ''Film/SearchingForSugarMan'', details the effort of some South African fans to find out what truly happened to Sixto Rodriguez, as he was long thought [[AteHisGun dead by suicide.]] The discovery that he was alive was a delightful surprise, and Rodriguez himself was awestruck to find that he left a huge legacy after all. A concert tour was booked and was a huge success, and the legend of Rodriguez continues to spread to this day.

->''[[TheStinger "Thanks]] [[ElvisLives for]] [[CultClassic keeping]] [[LivingLegend me]] [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments alive!"]]''

----

The enigmatic Sixto Rodriguez (born July 10, 1942), commonly referred to as simply Rodriguez, is a Detroit-based FolkRock SingerSongwriter who cut his teeth performing in various clubs and bars, building up a repertoire with haunting, acoustic-based songs with sharp lyrics of cynical social commentary. Thanks to friends and session players Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore, Rodriguez eventually found his way to Clarence Avant, who made him the first signee of Sussex Records. Rodriguez recorded an album’s worth of material on an acoustic guitar, and was generously overdubbed with various psychedelic effects, strings, and other instruments. The result was ''Cold Fact.''

The enigmatic Sixto Rodriguez, commonly referred to as simply Rodriguez, is a Detroit-based FolkRock SingerSongwriter who cut his teeth performing in various clubs and bars, building up a repertoire with haunting, acoustic-based songs with sharp lyrics of cynical social commentary. Thanks to friends and session players Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore, Rodriguez eventually found his way to Clarence Avant, who made him the first signee of Sussex Records. Rodriguez recorded an album’s worth of material on an acoustic guitar, and was generously overdubbed with various psychedelic effects, strings, and other instruments. The result was ''Cold Fact.''

The enigmatic Sixto Rodriguez, commonly referred to as simply '''Rodriguez,''' is a Detroit-based FolkRock SingerSongwriter who cut his teeth performing in various clubs and bars, building up a repertoire with haunting, acoustic-based songs with sharp lyrics of cynical social commentary. Thanks to friends and session players Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore, Rodriguez eventually found his way to Clarence Avant, who made him the first signee of Sussex Records. Rodriguez recorded an album’s worth of material on an acoustic guitar, and was generously overdubbed with various psychedelic effects, strings, and other instruments. The result was ''Cold Fact.''

* CoolShades

* PrecisionFStrike: Talks about playing in "faggot bars" in "A Most Disgusting Song.”

It turned out that, in the rough political climate of South Africa, many people there had embraced Rodriguez as an anti-establishment icon, considering him in the same esteem as people like Music/BobDylan and Music/ElvisPresley. The documentary ''Film/SearchingForSugarMan'' details the effort of some South African fans to find out what truly happened to Sixto Rodriguez, as he was long thought [[AteHisGun dead by suicide.]] The discovery that he was alive was a delightful surprise, and Rodriguez himself was awestruck to find that he left a huge legacy after all. A concert tour was booked and was a huge success, and the legend of Rodriguez continues to spread to this day.

* ArtistDisillusionment: Can’t really blame the guy.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff

-->''”This system's gonna fall soon, to an angry young tune, and that's a concrete cold fact.