Rodriguez

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Aside from the fact that he looked like my father did in the early 70s, my recent discovery of Rodriguez has made me reconsider what I thought I knew about music. A masterful lyricist, reclaiming fame in the recent film “Searching for Sugar Man” (2012)

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“… Born in Detroit in 1942, Sixto Diaz Rodriguez originated from a working-class background and dropped out of high school at the age of 16. Dividing his time between hanging around the university campus and playing assorted unconventional clubs and bars, he was introduced to Impact’s Harry Balk, which led to the recording of his first single “I’ll Slip Away” in 1967. When Balktook off for a career as a creative director at Motown, session players and ardent Rodriguez supporters Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore put him under the attention of Clarence Avant. About to set up his Sussex label, the latter was genuinely impressed with the artist’s take on Detroit street life and supplied Theo-Coff Productions with sufficient means to cut an album’s worth of material. Naturally, Theodore and Coffey took up keyboard and guitar duties, in addition to employing second wave Motown Funk Brothers for a rhythm section. Recording Rodriguezseparately, they afterwards matched his voice and acoustic guitar to a sonic palette of various orchestrations and psychedelic effects. Being Sussex’ first release, the resulting Cold Fact was a stone-cold folk-rock classic with an otherworldly feel to it…”

– by Quint Kik (from all music.com)

 

 

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