Weekly > Reviews
Rodriguez - Cold Fact
Every once in a blue moon you get a musical story coming out that is both unbelievable, full of human drama and with a massive air of mystery behind it, I have such a story for you now and pleasingly it also comes backed up with one of the greatest albums you’ve probably never heard.
Rodriguez, that’s what i’m talking about, a singer-songwriter of Mexican descent who recorded two albums in the late 60’s / early 70’s, no I hadn’t heard of him either don’t worry. Ok if I said Sugar Man would that help, it’s vague but again you are thinking no. Right final clue, David Holmes mix compilation Come Get It, I Got It and his reworking of Sugar Man on the Free Association album…I guess that might have rung a few bells for some of you.
The enigma that is Rodriguez, recorded Cold Fact, his debut album in 1969 and released it in 1970, he then followed it up in 1972 with Coming From Reality. Both albums bombed at the time, partly due to his eccentric nature, such as playing at a music industry showcase with his back to the audience for the entire gig, partly due to financial problems at the label. Aside from a very short tour of Australia in 1979 and 1981 he then disappeared off the scene completely and became something of a myth maker.
I say that because unbeknown to him he had developed a huge following in South Africa and to some degree in Australia, his political views, tales of drug problems, love gone wrong and societies ills seemed to hit the spot with members of the armed forces in those areas, if you had spoken to any of those fans of his that have continued to grow to this day in numbers, they would likely have told you that he had died of a drugs overdose, burned to death on stage or was imprisoned for murdering his girlfriend.
The truth of course is much simpler, feeling there was no market for his music and without appreciation for his talents he turned his back on music, raised a family and lived in Detroit. Only from 2002 onwards and David Holmes chance finding of his album and subsequent use of the superb track Sugar Man have things started to stir for him. He’s completed a South African tour where he played sold out shows at 5,000 capacity venues and finally now Light In The Attic are releasing this wonderful album on CD in the UK.
- Rodriguez
- Cold Fact (1970)
- Category: Album
- Label: Light In The Attic Records
- Reviewed by: Kev
- Published on: 22 Sep 2008
- Photography by: Hal Wilson
- Comments: 0
- Beat Surrender Rating:
Weblinks
Add to favourites...and what an album. Sugar Man is the stone wall classic opener, but Crucify Your Mind and This Is Not A Song are up their with anything Bob Dylan has done for me, Dylan himself would have been proud of the line “The systems gonna fall soon to angry young tune”. Hate Street Dialogue is a really soulful song, Forget It is one of many that lays his emotions out raw as he sings “Thanks for your time, then you can thank me for mine” as well as “No reason why you should stay here and lie to me, don’t say anymore, walk out the door, i’ll get along fine, you’ll see”.
Those lyrics above are a startling and poetic example of what this album is about, raw soul, emotive folk with a psychedelic twist, weird and wonderful musicianship that even looking back now seems so far ahead of it’s time. It’s a shame it’s taken this long for me and the rest of the world to catch up with this brilliant musician, we’re here now though at least and can at last enjoy one of the worlds best kept secrets.
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