This is a #TBT blog post that sadly is so appropriate today. That’s because on Tuesday, Sixto Rodriguez passed away at the age of 81.
You may be a dyed-in-the-wool rock music aficionado but chances are you’ve not run across this guy. He is the center of one of the most amazing stories in rock history – a mostly untold Detroit saga that combines persistence, disappointment, coincidence, good and bad luck, inspiration, and ultimately, redemption.
As you’ll read below, I blogged about my encounter with this marvel exactly a decade ago. As you’ll learn, Rodriguez was an artist that fell through the cracks of the music and radio industries. I hope you take the time to discover this trek that began more than 50 years ago on the streets of Detroit.
And oh by the way, his music is truly powerful. On the one hand, it may sound a bit dated to 21st century ears. But these songs get in your head, and they stay with you.
Sixto Rodriguez, may you rest in peace. What a long strange trip it must have been. – FJ
May 2013
For me, the journey of music discovery took a wonderful and unpredictable turn last weekend at a packed Masonic Temple Theater in Detroit featuring a local star that you may have never heard of. Sixto Rodriguez, who described himself on stage as an “ordinary legend,” finally captured his deserved super star status – at the age of what he calls a “solid 70.”
You don’t know about Rodriguez?
If you didn’t see Searching For Sugarman, you missed something special – an Oscar-winning documentary film about a Detroit born musician who tried and failed to make his mark back in the early ‘70s. After two disappointing albums, his career of writing and performing powerful songs about life and protest essentially came to an end.
Except in South Africa where with a little luck and a lot of serendipity, he became a star in the ’70s, inspiring its people to rise up and question their country, their politics, and their apartheid society. His song, “I Wonder,” became an anthem for introspection, realization, and protest. Sadly for Rodriguez, he had no idea he was selling hundreds of thousands of albums across the globe as he worked as a laborer in Southwest Detroit having thrown in the towel on his music career.
So rent the film. And perhaps you’ll have a chance to see the enigmatic Rodriguez on an upcoming tour over the next year or so. His voice isn’t what it was, but there is something even deeper and more authentic in his recent performances as “an overnight sensation.” Here is the trailer:
The radio industry’s failure to discover the album Cold Fact four decades ago made me wonder just how many great stars we miss. As I watched the film, I racked my brain to recall if I’d ever heard of Rodriguez during that time. I wasn’t working in radio yet, but was deep into the music of that era. I just cannot remember any inkling that I’d ever heard him on WABX, the progressive rock station of that time.
So for radio programmers, this movie may have an even deeper impact, because it’s a reminder of the ones we missed, the ones we overlooked, and the ones that got away.
Back in my PD days, I actually kept two lists in my top right hand drawer – the songs I didn’t play that went on to become hits and those I took a a chance on that never made it. Programmers in that era had more control over what went out over the airwaves, but that didn’t make the job any easier. Picking songs and artists the audience would embrace, while taking enough chances on new bands to make it interesting, is an art. Judging the public taste is always precarious and very hit and miss.
In the case of Rodriguez, a listen to his only two albums is a trip back to another time and place when musicians from Dylan to the Beatles to Cat Stevens to Simon & Garfunkel did more than entertain. Rodriguez should have been on that team, or at least a few seats down the bench. To my ears, the music holds up well. And a mark of any great concert (or Broadway production) is whether you walk out of the show with at least a couple of those songs in your head. Rodriguez more than passed that test last weekend.
Amazingly, he’s not bitter – or doesn’t seem to be. Rodriguez is enjoying his new-found success, jokes with the audience, and offers some sage and wizened advice in between songs. And decades of obscurity never eradicated his rock star sensibilities. He belongs on stage. Better put, he’s always belonged on stage.
So why didn’t this guy make it the first time around? And how many artists are in the same boat as Rodriguez, flailing away in the shadows, selling a few CDs on the streets and in small clubs, but failing to crack through and rise to their potential?
I wonder.
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Y’know… there’s a bit of Sixto in every man or woman in radio who’s cracked a mic in market’s small and large.
Indeed there is, Jim.
Quite a story. 60 minutes aired a good piece about him several years ago
https://youtu.be/T8VvQcd3dMs
Thanks for sharing this, Lee.
Appreciate you sharing this, Lee. It’s a great story.
I would suggest he didn’t fall through the cracks of the music industry or at least the Record labels Fred. Somebody was making that money from his sales in South Africa (and also Australia where he toured in the late 70’s and early 80’s) and it wasn’t him.
Another reason why consumers didn’t feel much sympathy for labels with the inception of Napster.
RIP Rodriquez and Robbie Robertson
Totally get it, Mike, but here in the States he just couldn’t get traction. And when you listen to his music (IMO), it is very much in-line with the quality during that late 60’s/early 70’s period.
I wasn’t specifically looking for it, but Sugar Man did get an official spin this morning on Portugal’s RTP/RDP Antena 1–while a related podcast covered the passing of both Sixto Rodriguez and Robbie Robertson…
https://www.rtp.pt/play/p1432/e709736/pecas-musicais
I also didn’t search this out specifically, but here’s an appreciation from a South African site…
https://scrolla.africa/cold-fact-sugar-man-no-more
I happened to see episode 1 of season 2 of Colin From Accounts the other day, which concludes with “I Wonder.” The next chance I got I looked the track up, and was surprised by the many resources on the web about Rodriguez, including yours.
Having been born (1955) and grown up in Detroit, been through the sixties and seventies with race riots that touched my home, I wondered how I missed such a singer-songwriter and performer, particularly in such a musically clued-in city. Bob Seger wrote of the power, influence and musical knowledge of CKLW’s Rosalie Trombley in his “Rosalie” (with superb backing vocals by Marcy Levy, who went on to work with Eric Clapton), and it’s difficult to imagine how she and the underground media missed Rodriguez so completely.
One explanation is that, at the time, things were inverted from how they are now, when “think local” is the mantra. The idea then was to imbue yourself with influences from as far away as possible (e.g., Seger’s “Katmandu” and CSN’s “Marrakesh Express”). Especially if your local environment was Detroit.
Adding to the irony, the movie “Searching For Sugarman” is actually a documentary featuring a man named Segerman. Go figure.
Great observations, Chris. Thanks for connecting here.