There were no musicians credited on the original album sleeve, but Rodriguez & Mike Theodore have filled in the gaps... Sugarman' was listed at number 34 in "The 100 Greatest Drug Songs Ever!" published in the December 2002 issue of Mojo. 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. 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. 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.

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"? 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 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".

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!

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. 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. 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 I definitely recommend the "Cold Fact" CD. It is the one that I have on tape and seems to me to be timeless and perfect for a Western market that is adamant about finding the next "cool" retro-something-or-other. "Cold Fact" delights you with his forms of blues, soul and vibe. Sweet guitars mix with a horn section and topped off with Rodriguez's sweet-sweet voice. Buy it!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.