Rodriguez

Born in 1942 and schooled in the Detroit folk scene, Sixto Rodriguez was a hard-bitten street poet. His experiences as a child of immigrants – in a tough, tough city racked by terrible riots – led him to a caustic, brutal lyrical approach: as he sings on Hate Street Dialogue, “I’ve tasted hate street’s hanging tree”.

His debut album Cold Fact (originally recorded in 1970) was not what America wanted to hear back then, though and coupled with Rodriguez’s self-sabotaging qualities – he was too withdrawn and far too political – the album sold very little on its original release.

Rodriguez ostensibly then gave music away and worked instead as a labourer.

And that was it until the album found its audience on the other side of the world: in South Africa and Australia, where Rodriguez became a superstar, and the album slowly became a cult hit. In apartheid-era South Africa, army conscripts swapped cassette copies as if they were a pamphlet of revolution.

Rodriguez was eventually found by a journalist in 1996, working on a Detroit building site, and unaware that he now owned a fortune in Rand.

He went on his first South African tour in the late 1990s, playing sold-out shows in the country’s biggest arenas to thousands of fans. He went on to perform a string of shows in Australia.

In 2012, the Oscar-winning Searching for Sugar Man saw two South African fans track Rodriguez down to see what had become of him. The release of the documentary, which depicted the story of Rodriguez discovering his fame overseas, saw his career enjoy another resurgence, and he began touring and recording once again.

The film prompted the two albums Rodriguez recorded in the early 1970s – Cold Fact and Coming From Reality – to become successful worldwide four decades after their original release. Rodriguez subsequently played festivals, including Coachella and Glastonbury.

Rodriguez died on 8 August 2023, aged 81.