Cold Fact [VINYL]

Product Information

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"? Copies of Cold Fact and At His Best are readily available through any good music store in Australia. Copies of his albums are available on vinyl through second hand dealers. Cold Fact and At His Best are the most common, although it is possible to find Coming From Reality. Photography By – Clarence Avant, Dennis Coffey, John Samson (2), Mike Theodore, Rayma Rawa, Regan Rodriguez, Sixto Rodriguez, Tim Forster*

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. The recent re-issue of the timeless classic 'Cold Fact' by Rodriguez is a dream-come-true for me. Let me explain; I first heard this album in the early 70s and it crept into my heart and soul and is still one of mySummer of 1997. Unusual; I had never heard it before. Incredible; Dylanesque yet more of a soulful/fusion vibe to the sound. Eloquent, groundbreaking lyrics. The quote: "pig and hose to bust our game" from the song "Hate Street Dialogue", refers to the continual harassment of the hippy-subculture by the San Francisco police department on the Haight-Ashbury youth in 1967. "Pig" was the referrel to the POLICE, and "hose" was in reference to the length of "garden-hose" used to beat the citizens into submission [usually in the confines of the police station]. The title was changed in spelling from"Haight Street", to "Hate Street" to further emphasize that feeling of alienation, by both sides of the establishment, at that time. It turned out that my Dad also wrote the lyrics from the song "Gommorah". He really was amazed that I could find the stuff we talked about two years ago and as I forwarded the links to him, so he could surf through by himself! Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. 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.

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. NasBlue Goose Music through RCA in Australia released Cold Fact in May 1978 with cat. number BGM 002. It was re-issued in 1986 by BMG Arista (Ariola) with the same number. 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. 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.

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. An orange circle was added to the CD cover, containing the words "featuring the hits: I Wonder, Sugar Man, Inner City Blues". Sugarman' was listed at number 34 in "The 100 Greatest Drug Songs Ever!" published in the December 2002 issue of Mojo.

In the same way that Sesame Street did, this text -- which organized itself into 'streets' rather than chapters -- presented the stories of the people, places, occupations, businesses, routines, and landmarks that make a city a living, breathing organism. The main takeaway was that there was both an independence and an interconnectedness to each component of it. There were no musicians credited on the original album sleeve, but Rodriguez & Mike Theodore have filled in the gaps... 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. 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.