I've been reading a lot lately about Sixto Rodriguez, the seventy year old singer songwriter who had two albums in the 70s, got dropped from his label, worked the next thirty years in construction in Detroit while becoming a music superstar and legend in Apartheid era South Africa. Only after a fan produced a documentary called Searching For Sugarman about him did he finally learn of his popularity half way around the world.
Rodriguez has been described as "the Latino Dylan" which honestly doesn't sound too appealing since Dylan is an unquestionably great songwriter but his singing isn't what made him great and adding a Latino accent to Dylan's voice just doesn't sound like it would be all that great. So I went to Youtube to hear for myself because his is such a great story and to my surprise I really like the way Rodriguez sings. I understand the Dylan comparison since his lyrics are thoughtful, intelligent and have social commentary and his voice has that poet's cadence that Dylan shares but really his voice sounds more like Donovan's. To my ears he seems to have more of an English accent than a Spanish one.
Listen for yourself. Here's a clip of Rodrigues playing live in 2009 when he was 67 years old. He sure doesn't look 67 to me. Talk about better late than never...
What a great story . . . and discovered half way around the world . . . he's still doing it at 67, yeah? BRAVO FOR HIM!
ReplyDeleteI dig music men like that! The older the better . . . I'm not into BOY BANDS . . . I dig MAN BANDS!
Ooh, Yeah!
No, he's still doing it at 70! He's 67 in the clip.
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