IN 1979, SIXTO RODRIGUEZ was a construction worker in his home town of Detroit when he learned that "Cold Fact," the album he had released in 1970 with no success in the United States, had become ...

The blunt urban commentary and the unique sound of his debut, Cold Fact, struck a chord in Australia and New Zealand, to the degree that in 1979 and 1980, Rodriguez, who had built himself as a ...