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"...I Think Of You..."
From the early to late Sixties, Motown’s R&B and Soul had put the Motor City of Detroit on the musical map big time. Emerging singer-songwriters flocked there and cut their teeth in bars and cafes, soaked up the campus and street politics and hoped to get noticed or even a record-deal. Amongst these hopefuls was Folk-Soul hero Sixto Rodriguez (pronounced Sees Toe) - born in Detroit, Michigan in 1942 to recently emigrated Mexican parents.
The career resurrection miracle of Rodriguez and his two forgotten American albums – the debut "Cold Fact" from March 1970 on Sussex SXBS 7000 followed the next year by "Coming From Reality" in November 1971 on Sussex SXBS 7012 – are the subject of the fabulous movie/documentary "Searching For Sugar Man" – a project that has received more universal positive reviews than you can shake a stick at (see separate review). Here we want to concentrate on the music – specifically that second album and some tracks from an aborted third. To the details...
UK released 30 August 2019 - "Coming From Reality" by RODRIGUEZ on Universal/Sussex 00602577896354 (Barcode 602577896354) is a CD Reissue and Remaster with Three Bonus Tracks (originally done by Light In The Attic Records of the USA in 'Expanded Edition' form in May 2009) that plays out as follows (50:15 minutes):
1. Climb Up On My Music [Side 1]
2. A Most Disgusting Song
3. I Think Of You
4. Heikki's Suburbia Bus Tour
5. Silver Words
6. Sandrevan Lullaby - Lifestyles [Side 2]
7. To Whom It May Concern
8. It Started Out So Nice
9. Halfway Up The Stairs
10. Cause
Tracks 1 to 10 are his second and last studio album of the period "Coming From Reality" – released November 1971 in the USA on Sussex Records SXBS-7012 and December 1971 in the UK on A&M Records AMLS 68073 – both in a die-cut gatefold sleeve. Produced by STEVE ROWLAND and recorded at Lansdowne Studios in London – it didn't chart in either country.
BONUS TRACKS:
11. Can't Get Away
12. Street Boy
13. I'll Slip Away
MUSICIANS were:
SIXTO RODRIGUEZ – Lead Vocals and Acoustic Guitar
CHRIS SPEDDING – Lead Electric Guitar
PHIL DENNYS – Keyboards
GARY TAYLOR – Bass
ANDREW STEELE – Drums
JIMMY HOROWITZ – Violin on "Sandrevan Lullaby -Lifestyles"
Strings and Additional Musicians - Unknown
NOTE: Producer Steve Rowland, Keyboardist Phil Dennys and Bassist Gary Taylor were all in a band called The Family Dogg. Andrew Steele had been with The Herd and would join Stealers Wheel.
What you have here is technically a reissue of a reissue. One of America's finest reissue labels 'Light In The Attic' Records championed the two Rodriguez albums by releasing them back in August 2008 and May 2009 – both CDs coming in lavish digipak book packaging. "Cold Fact" was Light in The Attic LITA 036 (Barcode 826853003629) while "Coming From Reality" was on LITA 038 (Barcode 826853003827). Light In The Attic also issued VINYL variants too. Fans of Rodriguez and the film "Searching For Sugar Man" have been purchasing those American releases ever since.
But after years of clambering, Universal Music (or UM as its often abbreviated to) licensed those reissues and on 30 August 2019, we finally got British reissues housed this time in a jewel case and pitched at mid-price with a 16-page lyric booklet but minus the liner notes. There is also an August 2019 UK VINYL LP variant for "Coming From Reality" on Universal/Sussex 00602577077388 (Barcode 602577077388). The liner notes advise that the same 2009 LITA Remaster is used and it features the same three Bonus Tracks from his aborted third album "Can't Get Away" - a trio that shows just how well his songwriting had progressed. To the music...
The extraordinarily strong cut "To Whom It Concerns" b/w the equally impressive "I Think Of You" was issued as a lone Stateside 45-single in June 1972 on Sussex SUX 234 and promptly got lost in a sea of seven-inch singles. What's worse is that despite a British recorded and pressed LP by A&M Records – the Blighty side of A&M didn't give the LP a 45-single push at all - which seems odd given the strength of both those sides. The LP was at least issued in other territories during 1972 (Rhodesia, Australia and as far away as Japan) - hardly surprising given the huge popularity of "Cold Fact" in South Africa where Rodriguez became a superstar. The English LP even sported the same die-cut image gatefold sleeve that the US Sussex Records had – but no one seemed to notice.
It opens with "Climb Up On My Music" where Sixto urges the listener to dive into his melodies and avoid calamities such as Christmas, Midnight and swans that turn into geese. Strummed acoustic guitars and his nasal voice feel like a Jose Feliciano album that's buzzing - electric guitar flicking notes out of your left speaker. Immediately I feel that "Coming From Reality" the album is a huge progression musically over the (admittedly) much more popular debut "Cold Fact". But better comes in "A Most Disgusting Song" - one they used to real effect in the movie. A stream-of-consciousness set of lyrics spoken-word and float out of your speakers like Dylan getting all Soulful. Odd bod characters like Jimmy "Bad Luck" Butts, Mr. Flood, Tiny Tim and Uncle Tom smooze around a party where everyone is drinking detergents that cannot (alas) remove the hurt.
But then genuine magic slinks out of your speakers in the form of the utterly gorgeous "I Think Of You" - an acoustic ballad akin to Labi Siffre or Gilbert O'Sullivan in his better moments - lovely string arrangements lifting up the lyrics about love melting like snowflakes in the sun (with thoughts of you). Surely this would have been maybe a Duncan Browne "Journey" moment in 1972 for him – but A&M definitely missed a trick there. We rock-out with the guitar-riffage of the excellent "Heikki's Suburbia Bus Tour" – a sort of angry Bill Withers vibe where picture-taking tourists rub shoulders with itchy trigger-finger natives in someone else's war. Side 1 ends with another acoustic ballad – the short but of so sweet "Silver Words?" – cello notes floating over lyrics about a woman he likes (and it's not just because he's smoking something other than Gauloises).
There is a fair amount of hiss at the start of "Sandrevan Lullaby – Lifestyles" that opens Side 2 with a gorgeous 'Musical Theme'. I'm reminded of Clifford T. Ward string quartet sadness or Al Stewart getting historical as Rodriguez goes into a fabulous set of lyrics. Judges with meter maid hearts order supermarket justice starts – night rains stabbing at his window – clouds that pierce the illusion...very cool stuff and again beautifully layered string arrangements. You can hear why Sussex tried the easy-on-the-ear jaunt in "To Whom It May Concern" as the A-side of a single, but for me it's one of the occasions on the album where the strings feel intrusive and not helpful. "Concern..." is good, but had they lead with "I Think Of You" – things might have been so different.
The home run features another Spanish Acoustic strum - "It Started Out So Nice" – a long string of poetic images that play out a failed union - where even the ocean laughed. An electric keyboard run opens "Halfway Up The Stairs" – a very bop-moment on an otherwise mellow LP. Far better is the epic "Cause" – our man talking to Jesus at the sewer as the Pope assures Sixto that it's none of the deity's Goddamn business. There is very apparent hiss again, but it doesn't take away too much from your enjoyment as he wallops you with lyrics like "...I make sixteen solid half-hour friendships every evening..." or "...they told me everybody's got to pay their dues...and I explained that I had overpaid them..." What an end to a great album – epic strings and strummed acoustic guitar making him sound like a South American Bob Dylan hitting a sweet spot.
Of the three Bonus cuts, "Street Boy" has Sixto sounding like Nick Drake with a Tabla backing band – but the gem is "I'll Slip Away" – as good as a melody as anything on the two albums that preceded it. A nice touch is that UM have printed the lyrics to the three extras too in the final pages of the booklet.
Thank God someone rescued this music and his albums – Sugar Man finally home and happy – his silver magic ships back in our lives. "...I won't be down anymore" - Rodriguez sang in "Sandrevan Lullaby - Lifestyles". Amen brother...
PS: 30 August 2019 has also seen "Cold Fact" reissued in the UK on both CD and LP - Universal/Sussex 00602577896255 (Barcode 602577896255) for the CD and Universal/Sussex 00602577077371 (Barcode 602577077371) for the "Cold Fact" LP.
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