A friend of mine (Pete S.) from New Zealand introduced me to this incredible musician from Detroit in the 1970’s – Sixto Rodriguez. He made a couple albums, but was not successful in U.S. and ended up going back to work as a laborer. However his music somehow got to South Africa during the Apartheid era and became an anthem for the people of South Africa rising up against apartheid. Sixto never knew it. He was a famous icon at that time, while he anguished in the city.
There is a movie (documentary out now called ” Sugar Man” – which was one of his songs. It is fantastic – I urge you all to see it. So these fans in South Africa were told he was dead ( even some stories that said he committed suicide). But there were some that did not buy it – and years later searched for Sixto and found him in Detroit. Sixto had no clue of his impact. They persuaded him to come to Johannesburg and do a concert. It was fantastic – and led to him getting unpaid royalties for his music.
So I wrote this song – putting myself on that plane – and trying give a glimpse of how he might have felt on the way there. I am so glad glad I found out about Sixto – and I truly believe he must have felt he was indeed flying to a miracle. These are my lyrics ( I included some of his song titles within the lyrics) . Thanks Pete for finding this for me !! 🙂
~ Jim Kenyon
LYRICS
Verse 1
In a plane rising above a dark and cold Lake Erie tonight
Watching city lights dimming, and disappear from sight
Got this old guitar on my lap and a worn-out suitcase
uncertainty in my head, questions written across my face
People wait in South Africa, to hear songs I have sung
holding to lyrics I once wrote, way back when I was young
I still see factories smoking, through fallin’ Detroit snow
makes it hard believing what they say, that now I ought to know
Pre-Chorus
How can strangers know my words by heart
When I thought those records fell apart?
Chorus
I been working day by day, just trying to make ends meet
seems my dreams were walking, on somebody else’s streets
but now Sugar man’s halfway up the stairs, as I slip away
To where they climb up on my music, they want to hear me play
I’m flying to a miracle, a hidden story that I never knew
Somewhere, somehow tonight, my music made it through
beyond these clouds tonight, I fly to get my rightful due
to see my words come to life , I wonder, is it really true
Verse 2
Some thought I was lost or died, so many years ago
that I vanished like a ghost, nobody would ever know
I’ve been right here all along, choking in Detroit’s smoke
Among thoughts that crucify your mind, like a rich man’s hoax
But while I swung a hammer, and worked dirty city streets
freedom’s found in my music, by people I thought I’d never meet
Their voices rose like thunder, as their tears fell with the rain
lost souls coming from reality, rising up, again, again, and again
Chorus
I been working day by day, just trying to make ends meet
seems my dreams were walking, on somebody else’s streets
but now Sugar man’s halfway up the stairs, as I slip away
To where they climb up on my music, they want to hear me play
I’m flying to a miracle, a hidden story that I never knew
Somewhere, somehow, tonight, my music made it through
beyond these clouds tonight, I fly to get my rightful due
to see my words come to life , I wonder, is it really true
mmmmmmmmmmmm….. I wonder, can this be really true
oooooooooooooh, is this really true, oooooooooooooh
Outro
Now I’m a thousand feet above the Western Cape, as sunrise breaks the sea
Can’t wait to meet all the people who found a part of me I couldn’t see
Like a light in the attic, uncovers those treasures hidden in the dark
I’m flying to a miracle, guided by my own forgotten spark
I’m flying to a miracle, where a lost dream left its mark
mmmmmmmmmm….. I’m flying to a miracle, toward the pieces of my heart
SugarMan.org 