An orange circle was added to the CD cover, containing the words "featuring the hits: I Wonder, Sugar Man, Inner City Blues". Since I have the Rodriguez album 'Cold Fact', I introduced it to some friends and co-workers and everyone liked it and thought it's very unique! They've been surprized that he's totally unknown here, and that he'd never made it in Germany. COME GET IT I GOT IT Rodriguez's strange and beguiling 'Sugarman' is an out-and-out paean to a broad smorgasbord of controlled substances and the ache experienced whilst, ahem, waiting for the man. It is imbued with such a post-Vietnam atmosphere of lost innocence that it brings new heights to a certain brand of Californian wistful alienation. Rodriguez, what a dude you were/are!

Photography By – Clarence Avant, Dennis Coffey, John Samson (2), Mike Theodore, Rayma Rawa, Regan Rodriguez, Sixto Rodriguez, Tim Forster*

Side guide

The album was re-released in South Africa in the mid-90s with new catalogue numbers: MMTC 1846 (cassette) and MMTCD 1846 (CD). Etched onto the centre of the CD is this inscription: "KVCD 5109, Made in UK". An exhausted teacher whose name I can't recall -- but who I can now sympathize with -- must've taken one look at my file, noticed that I had recently been placed in a gifted program, and figured out that I could likely be somewhat self-guided if kept entertained. There were no musicians credited on the original album sleeve, but Rodriguez & Mike Theodore have filled in the gaps... It was in one of those city edges (Northern Phoenix), that I spent the final couple months of my 2nd grade year. Coming into a new school at that point would've been a disorienting experience for any seven-year-old, and I was no different.

This song was not actually written by Rodriguez, but sure sounds like it could have been. It was written by Gary Harvey, Mike Theodore ('Cold Fact' producer) and Dennis Coffey (guitarist on 'Cold Fact'). "Hate Street" actually refers to the famous "Haight/Ashbury" area of San Francisco, the famous Hippie hang-out during the late '60s "Summer Of Love". For many, this album is one magnificent trip, lost in the haze of hippiness, and indeed the album is laced with narcotic references, but as far as talent goes, Cold Fact is a remarkable album perfect for idealists and dreamers. The obsessive Summer of 1997. Unusual; I had never heard it before. Incredible; Dylanesque yet more of a soulful/fusion vibe to the sound. Eloquent, groundbreaking lyrics. I was interested to read that Jane S. Piddy was listed as Like Janis on Cold Fact. On the albums in Australia, Jane S. Piddy is the ninth song on the album, with timing listed as 2.38, and Like Janis is the last song on the album with a timing of 3.05. This is on both the LP and the CD. I always wondered why the spoken words, "Thanks for you time...etc" came before the last three songs, I thought it would have made more sense to include these words at the end of the album. Thanks, now I know that this was the way it was supposed to be. However, it is the album as a whole, it’s poetic lyrics and the bohemian fueled mystery surrounding it that makes it so appealing to several generations, even years after the artist signed off with the words

It's easy to look at my chosen setting for this one and perceive negativity. It's probably also tempting to assume a falsified romanticism that might come from someone who has -- admittedly -- spent a majority of their life in small towns, suburbs, and the edges of cities. She gave me a copy of a book called The Nitty Gritty Rather Pretty City. It wasn't a novel, but an elementary school 'reader' -- designed to provide a somewhat cohesive, year-long language arts curriculum to a range of young readers. To its credit, it was not only well-designed enough to hold the attention of a kid with documented-but-undiagnosed issues in that area, but also enough to be remembered by that same person thirty-some years later. Sometime in the late '80s, RPM in South Africa released a limited edition CD with catalogue number ICSXBS7000. Not sure if any cassettes were released.

top 10 albums of all-time. This album has been a friend through many ups and downs in my life and I always felt that "at least Rodriguez understands". In August 2008, Cold Fact was re-issued on CD in the USA for the first time! Sugarman.org was involved in providing information for this release.

Statistics

With this 2002 re-issue I was asked for my input, and Terry Fairweather from PT Music and Bill Robb from Robb Graphics allowed me the freedom to fix all the mistakes, as well as including one of my personal concert photographs from the 2001 tour. 'Cold Fact' album producer, Mike Theodore, provided some valuable info, as did Gary Harvey, co-composer of 2 songs on the album. Nils van der Linden let us use a shortened version of the biography he wrote for the special Rodriguez 60th birthday edition of the Digest ( read Nils' sleeve notes). And Rodriguez, the original Sugar Man, supplied a quote or 2 and a signature. The album can be described as a mixture of Folk, Blues and a bit of Funk. Kinda like if the voice and music of James Taylor had a baby with a bit of Van Morrison, just a slice of Dylanesque lyrics and a pint of George Harrison guitar from the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Album. The original full title was 'Sugar Man On Prentis'. Prentis is a street in Detroit and the guy referenced in the song was known as Volkswagen Frank. Nas Francois Bredenkamp was very surprised and pleased to receive my mail and promised to send me a copy of their album. Unfortunately his band doesn't exist anymore!

Published in 1979, the book definitely bore the marks of its time -- namely a sanitized, white-washed picture of urban America -- but it planted a lasting image in my mind of the collective character that a city can possess. I finished the reader in short time, and was then given a copy of its second volume to round out the last few weeks of the year. In this song Rodriguez sings about being set free by "the pig and hose". Could this mean a policeman ("pigs" was hippy slang for cops) and a piece of hose-pipe? Altogether now: "silver magic ships, jumpers, coke, sweet mary-jane". And a bag of doughnuts to the first person who can tell us what exactly is a "silver magic ship"?Sugarman' was listed at number 34 in "The 100 Greatest Drug Songs Ever!" published in the December 2002 issue of Mojo. Jane S. Piddy" was written as ‘Jane’s Pity’ on the original promo release of ‘Cold Fact’, so it’s not a big leap to ‘Janis Pity’. Possibly a sort-of tribute to Janis Joplin? Rodriguez has denied this, but listen to the words and hear the similarity to Joplin’s lifestyle. The song is filled with phrases like "now you sit there thinking, feeling insecure..." and "...don't bother to buy insurance, coz you've already died...". Great imagery and biting prose which could be applied to any excessive lifestyle. The absolute form of expression through notes. I am a deep believer in the idea that a music album is nothing more than a complete idea that conveys a certain mood, thought, feeling, and sometimes location. And in my opinion, this album is one of the best examples of this approach. And this has several reasons. Cold Fact was awarded a platinum disc in South Africa on the 9th March 1998, for in excess of 50 000 units of the CD sold. The actual figure is probably far higher.