American Beauty 50, Episode 5: Candyman

Summary

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GOOD OL' GRATEFUL DEADCAST

American Beauty 50, Episode 5: "Candyman"
Original Air Date: November 5, 2020
Hosts: Rich Mahan & Jesse Jarnow
Notable Guests: Bob Weir, David Crosby, Ned Lagin, Howard Wales, Michael Brewer, David Lemieux, Gary Lambert, Amir Barlev, Mike Johnson, Brian Kehew

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Episode Overview

This episode celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead's iconic album American Beauty with an in-depth exploration of "Candyman," the final track on side one of the album. Drawing on interviews with band members, collaborators, historians, and contemporaries, it traces the song's roots in American folk tradition, examines its studio genesis, and unpacks its legacy. The episode includes audio rarities, track breakdowns, and memorable recollections—all reflecting on how "Candyman" became one of the Dead's most enduring and enigmatic songs.

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Main Topics & Discussion Points

1. The Mythic Roots and Meaning of "Candyman"

[03:42 – 10:26]

• American Folk Tradition:
  • "Candyman" draws from deep American folklore, with roots in New Orleans music, urban/rural blues, and recurring "Candyman" characters already present in several earlier songs.
  • Examples played include Rosetta Howard’s "The Candyman" (1938), Reverend Gary Davis, Roy Orbison’s pop take, and, most notably, Mississippi John Hurt’s "Candyman Blues" (1928).
  • Jerry Garcia notes:
    “There’s three or four Candyman tunes in the tradition. It’s like our Casey Jones song, like our Stegalee song, you know what I mean?” – Garcia (07:06)
• Ambiguous Character:
  • The "Candyman" is interpreted as both alluring and menacing—a hybrid figure combining gambling, seduction, and threat.
  • "It’s this very almost soothing, lulling, seductive song. And it’s also got this undercurrent of menace and implied violence…” – Gary Lambert (05:00)
• Possible Drug References:
  • The "candyman" is defined in 1971’s Underground Dictionary as a “seller of drugs,” but Robert Hunter and Garcia’s lyrics mostly remove literal drug references, instead winking at the tradition.

2. Songwriting, Early Performances, and the 1970 "Woodshedding"

[10:47 – 20:31]

• First Performances & Development:
  • The first Grateful Dead performance: April 3, 1970.
  • Early versions were featured in acoustic sets and sounded loose, gradually maturing through community practice, including harmonies.
  • Iconic London Roundhouse footage from May 1970 shows the intensity of group rehearsal—Phil Lesh leading “cracking the whip,” Weir/Phil/Jerry negotiating harmonies.
  • “It showed how hard these guys worked.” – David Lemieux (13:30)
  • Amir Barlev likens their harmony process to learning from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, though as David Crosby puts it,
    “We didn’t teach them jack shit. We just sang really good in front of them and… they were listening, you know, they’re smart guys man.” (15:40)
• Vocal Harmonies:
  • CSNY’s influence was inspirational, not didactic—Dead crafted their own harmonious blend through trial and error.
  • The band’s internal dynamics and Jerry’s “allowing everybody’s idiosyncrasies to become an asset” are highlighted. (17:00)

3. The Studio Genesis—Building the Final Track

[20:32 – 41:40]

• Recording Sessions and Outtakes:
  • Candyman went through multiple takes before the final version was chosen; outtakes, demos, and practice tapes were analyzed.
  • Track-by-track breakdowns revealed differences in intros, alternative takes, and evolving arrangements—distinctive guitar intro, vocal evolution.
  • The song’s final studio form is “almost symphonic,” filled with lush layering: pedal steel (Garcia), Ned Lagin on piano, Howard Wales on organ, and three-part harmonies.
• The Musicians’ Community Around Wally Heider’s Studio:
  • Ned Lagin and Howard Wales’ contributions are detailed—both were musical adventurers whose work on American Beauty expanded the Dead's palette.
  • Ned Lagin’s memory:
    “There was three studios there... exposure to the community of musicians who were cross-pollinating and playing and sharing ideas.” (26:05)

4. Jerry Garcia’s Pedal Steel Journey

[41:41 – 52:26]

• Session Work and Technique:
  • Garcia’s primitive but magical pedal steel playing is discussed by band members and collaborators, including anecdotes about learning and cross-studio collaborations at Heider’s.
  • David Crosby, who recruited Garcia to play on “Teach Your Children,” offers insight into Garcia’s melodic sensibility:
    • “There was no distance between the tips of his fingers and the front of his mind. No distance at all. It was a complete transfer from the mind to the tips of the fingers.” (51:00)
• Wally Heider’s—A Crossroads:
  • “You never knew who was going to be there. It was kind of an open house. People would go from studio to studio... it was real open.” – Mike Brewer (43:11)

5. Character Archetypes and Legacy of "Candyman"

[66:26 – 70:16]

• Folk Tradition & Villainy:
  • The motif of Mr. Benson draws from folk music—making the antagonist a “faceless enemy”—as analyzed by musicologists and by folk song examples (e.g., Harry Belafonte’s "Midnight Special").
  • Candyman continues the Dead’s fascination with songs sung from the perspective of flawed or “bad” people, prompting reflection on the role of storytelling and empathy in music.
  • Amir Barlev observes:
    “Singing along to Loser or Jack Straw or any one of these songs is not actually embracing that kind of behavior. It’s talking about the multiplicity of different ways there are to be a human being which is deeply psychedelic.” (67:34)
• Audience Interpretation and Cheering:
  • The crowd’s embrace of certain Candyman lyrics, especially lines referencing violence, is discussed; lyricist Robert Hunter expressed mixed feelings about this resonance.
    • “I hope that people realize that the character in Candyman is a character and not me.” – Robert Hunter (65:56, via Blair Jackson interview)

6. The Continued Life of "Candyman" and its Cultural Offshoots

[70:16 – End]

• Influence in Popular Culture:
  • The “Candyman” archetype persists, showing up in pop hits (e.g., Sammy Davis Jr., Christina Aguilera), and even a late-80s rapper in the NWA orbit.
• Live Evolution & Reception:
  • Live versions loaded with new harmonies (Donna Jean Godchaux in the ‘70s), shifting solos, and growing fan affection—Candyman became a signature crowd-pleaser, hailed for both its musical and mythic substance.
  • “By 73, 74, that song is very different live than it was in the studio. Jerry’s solo in it, both in live versions of all eras and on the album, is one of the most ethereal things.” – Gary Lambert (63:04)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Folk Tradition of Candyman:
  “Hunter and I have rewritten folk music... Candyman is like a famous folk image, you know what I mean? It’s all over the place.”
  – Jerry Garcia (07:06)
• On Vocal Harmonies and CSNY Influence:
  “We didn’t teach them jack shit. We just sang really good in front of them and... they were listening, you know, they’re smart guys man.”
  – David Crosby (15:40)
• On the In-Studio Community at Wally Heider’s:
  “People would go from studio to studio... it was real open.”
  – Mike Brewer (43:11)
• On Jerry’s Unique Musicality:
  “There was no distance between the tips of his fingers and the front of his mind.”
  – David Crosby (51:00)
• On Candyman’s Dangerous Charisma:
  “It’s this very almost soothing, lulling, seductive song. And it’s also got this undercurrent of menace and implied violence…”
  – Gary Lambert (05:00)
• On Storytelling, Empathy, and Songs about Bad People:
  “Singing along to Loser or Jack Straw... is not actually embracing that kind of behavior. It’s talking about the multiplicity of different ways there are to be a human being which is deeply psychedelic.”
  – Amir Barlev (67:34)
• On Audience Reaction to Dark Lyrics:
  “I hope that people realize that the character in Candyman is a character and not me.”
  – Robert Hunter (65:56)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:42 — Bob Weir introduces "Candyman"’s role on American Beauty
• 07:06 — Garcia on rewriting folk tunes
• 13:20 — Rehearsal footage & harmony “woodshed” with the band
• 15:40 — David Crosby on CSNY’s influence
• 20:32 — Studio recording process and outtakes
• 26:05 — Ned Lagin on the cross-pollination at Wally Heider’s
• 41:41 — Jerry’s pedal steel work, session anecdotes
• 51:00 — David Crosby on Garcia’s mind-finger connection
• 60:00 — David Lemieux on Capitol Theatre 1971 show (bonus for American Beauty 50th)
• 65:56 — Robert Hunter’s reflection on audience reactions
• 67:34 — Amir Barlev on singing from a “bad” perspective
• 72:10 — Candyman solo from 1987, “underwater cathedral” effect

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Additional Highlights

• Instrumental Analysis: Breakdowns by Brian Kehew into the song’s original session tapes, including unused guitar parts, harmonies, and pedal steel work.
• Collaborators’ Stories: Ned Lagin, Howard Wales, and Michael Brewer recount the Dead’s openness, cross-genre creative scene, and Garcia’s constant musical quest.
• Cultural Touchstones: The song's lineage through blues, jazz, pop, folk, and its reinvention in live performance and pop culture.

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Tone and Style

The episode maintains a conversational, affectionate, and slightly nerdy tone—rich in archival references, musician anecdotes, and with a deep respect for both creative process and mythology.

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Summary prepared for those seeking a detailed guide to the "Candyman" episode of the GOOD OL' GRATEFUL DEADCAST.

Transcript

[Rich Mahan]

Announcing Dogfish Head Grateful Dead Juicy Pale Ale Collaborating for over a decade now, Dogfish Head and Grateful Dead have crafted a light bodied pale ale brewed with sustainable kerns of grains, granola and heaps of good karma for a refreshing brew that's music to your taste buds. Check out dogfish.com for more details and to find some Grateful Dead Juicy Pale Ale in your neck of the woods. Dogfish Headcraft Brewery is located in Milton, Delaware. Please drink responsibly the Good Old Grateful Dead Cast the Official Podcast of the Grateful Dead I'm Rich Mahan with Jesse Jarno exploring the music and legacy of the Grateful Dead for the committed and the curious. Welcome to the good old Grateful Dead Cast. This episode continues our celebration of the music on American Beauty with a deep dive into the final track on side one, Candyman. Our guest list for this episode might be the most inclusive yet and we can't wait to present such luminous voices as Bob Weir, Amir Barlev, Ned Lagin, Howard Wales, Michael Brewer, our resident Dead colleges David Lemieux and Gary Lambert and we're very pleased to announce the Dead cast debut of Mr. David Crosby. Stoked to have cross on the show, we'll also have a track by Track Breakdown with tape vaulters Mike Johnson and Brian Kehue. If you dig this podcast and you're new to us, welcome. We have a lot of other episodes for you to check out, so make sure to Visit [e-mail] deadcast where you'll find the 10 episodes from season one which contain episodes about the eight songs on Working Man's Dead and two amazingly wonderful bonus episodes you'll be sure to enjoy. Also, keep in mind we post companion materials for each episode on our website dead.netdeadcast and you can link from there to any and all of the podcasting platforms available. Please help this podcast by subscribing hitting that like button and if the Spirit moves you, leave us a review. Thank you very much. It is the 50th anniversary of American Beauty and the Grateful Dead have prepared a 3 CD set reissue of this classic album, which includes a pristine remastering of the album's 10 tracks on disc one, as well as an unreleased live show from February 18, 1971 at the Capitol Theater, which was mixed from the original 16 track reel to reel multitracks at Bob Weir's TRI Studios. Along with this impeccably remastered three disc set, we also offer you a new batch of Angels. Share Audio out now are not only the full band acoustic demos for American Beauty, but also the rest of the studio outtakes from the American Beauty recording sessions. Be sure to check out the Angels. Share American Beauty audio at your favorite streaming service or download provider and put Put yourself inside Wally Hiders in 1970, as the Boys lay down tracks on their studio masterpiece, quite a bit is revealed in this episode about one of the most enduring songs in the Grateful Dead catalog, Candyman. This song is rooted in the American folk tradition, and Garcia and Hunter crafted a timeless song that not only brought that tradition into focus, but also psychedelicized it. As only they could, the Grateful Dead brought it to life in a way that never failed to draw a massive reaction from the audience. Kick back and listen to the how, why and where with our own resident Candyman Jesse Jarno.

[Bob Weir]

The last song on the first side of American Beauty is the album's longest. The Dead were no stranger to studio tracks, too extended to fit on singles. But of course, Candyman wasn't what's become of the baby, though it was written barely a year later.

[Robert Hunter]

Come on pretty women with your hair.

[Bob Weir]

A hanging bell Candyman is mood, mood and more mood. It's all fairly subtle, but from an arrangement perspective, Candyman is one of the richest songs on American Beauty. At the core, of course, is amazing songwriting with deep roots. Tales from the Golden Road co host Gary Lambert Candyman one of those quintessential Garcia Hunter songs that is studying contradictions. It's this very almost soothing, lulling, seductive song. And it's also got this undercurrent of menace and implied violence and, you know.

[Mike Brewer]

A threat to blow a guy away with a shotgun.

[Bob Weir]

And yet it's also got that, that nice come on to it. You know that the Candyman is this sort of sinister and yet very appealing alluring character. And of course you've got your gambling motif, your ever popular gambling motif. It became a signature for Jerry Garcia. In later years, especially Deadheads would cheer when Garcia announced that the Candyman was in town, as if they were one in the same. Here's a little bit from September 18, 1987 on the 30 trips around the sun box set. Listen to the roar that fills Madison Square Garden when the song achieves title.

[Robert Hunter]

Come on in pretty women with your hair hanging down Open up your window Cause the candy man come on board.

[Bob Weir]

To explain the origin of Candyman, here's Deadcast Musicology correspondent Bob Ace Weird There's.

[David Lemieux]

A tradition, New Orleans music and urban and rural blues. The Candyman tradition. And there are a number of different Candyman the Candyman shows up a number of different Places.

[Bob Weir]

And here's Jerry Garcia speaking to Jim Ladd in 1981.

[David Lemieux]

And it's also part of me and Hunter's. Hunter and I have rewritten folk music. You know, that's been. Part of our process has been to rewrite famous folk songs. Like, so Candyman is like a famous folk image, you know what I mean? It's all over the place. There's three or four Candyman tunes in the tradition. And, well, it's like our Casey Jones song, like our Stegga Lee song, you know what I mean?

[Bob Weir]

There were many Candymen. Here's Rosetta Howard and the Harlem Ham Fats with their song the Candyman from 1938.

[Robert Hunter]

The Candyman he's got the candy stand he's got the. To be the candy man or the candyman yes, the candyman or the candyman yes, the candyman Everybody's talking, talking about.

[Bob Weir]

The candyman Candyman Blues came into circulation via the Reverend Gary Davis. This version is from 1957.

[David Lemieux]

Candyman, Candyman, Santa Claus like everything in.

[Mike Brewer]

The God of my world Getting my.

[Bob Weir]

Candyman home the Candyman even made the leap to pop music with the Fred Neal and Beverly Ross song recorded by Roy Orbison in 1961 and reaching number 25 on the charts. It even gave name to Roy Orbison's backing band, the Candymen.

[Robert Hunter]

Candyman hey there, fly Candyman I love your heart Honey loving your honey love raisin Candy man, come to me Let me be all your own Candy your candy Candyman.

[Bob Weir]

Almost certainly, Hunter and Garcia were leaning on the earliest known version of Candyman Blues, recorded by Mississippi John Hurd in 1928. Of all the Candyman antecedents, this one is the most familiar. Listen to the first lines. In case it's not totally obvious what a Candyman is, we refer to the Underground Dictionary published in 1971 by Eugene E. Landy, Ph.D. later employed and deemployed as private doctor to Brian Wilson. The Underground Dictionary defines Candyman noun as seller of drugs. C pusher. By 1970, it was obviously high time for a new candyman like Casey Jones. A year before, candyman was an old folk tradition updated for new use. Unlike Casey Jones, where Robert Hunter had introduced cocaine into the story of the doomed engineer, the Grateful Dad's version of Candyman more or less erases anything that might be construed as a drug reference. Besides winking at several decades of drug songs also called Candyman. Funny that Hunter. Here's Garcia again in 1981.

[David Lemieux]

We like to go in there and muddy the water by writing current versions of those tunes, and mostly because the characters are appealing. And that Candyman guy is a guy everybody knows that guy, you know. You know, like the Candyman guy is like any number of dope dealers, you know, or just characters that are around, you know.

[Bob Weir]

As a footnote, Garcia and Hunter weren't the only ones with the idea to muddy these particular waters. It wasn't the basis for their Candyman, but folk jazz songwriter Terry Collier put out a 1968 single called you Gotta Miss yous Candyman, using a similar strategy with references to different folk songs, including a few that might be familiar to Dead fans.

[Robert Hunter]

Said, you better listen, baby or you might miss Baby when I'm gone gone, gone Baby, when I'm gone.

[Rich Mahan]

Changes Are.

[Robert Hunter]

You gonna miss you Candy man.

[Gary Lambert]

The.

[Bob Weir]

First Grateful Dead version of Candyman on tape is April 3, 1970, on the last night of a tour that started on St. Patrick's Day. Near the end of that run, Robert Hunter's first tour, the band found themselves in Florida with a few days off, which would result in the writing of one of their most famous songs, a story we'll tell in much more detail in a future Dead cast. But at the first gig after that infamous songwriting session in Cincinnati, it wasn't that song they debuted, but Candyman. Here's what a very early Candyman sounded like a few weeks after that. April 18, 1970 the family dog in San Francisco. It was pretty loose at first. Mostly the band played it in the acoustic sets, but it showed up electric, too. It certainly wasn't fully formed just yet. Here's a little bit from Winterland. April 15, 1970, on the 30 trips around the sun box set.

[Robert Hunter]

Look out for the guy for the Candyman Mary come and it's gone again Pretty lady ain't got no prayer Till the candy man comes round again.

[Bob Weir]

One of the most fascinating teens in Amir Barlev's wonderful documentary Long Strange Trip shows the band rehearsing at the Roundhouse in London during their brief visit in May 1970. In it, we see and hear Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir rehearsing the Candyman harmonies and demonstrating a bit of their group dynamic.

[Robert Hunter]

Candyman comes round again.

[David Lemieux]

You're going on a tune a lot a bunch. Sing it out. Don't sing it loud, but sing it out.

[Bob Weir]

Grateful Dead archivist and legacy manager David Lemieux.

[Gary Lambert]

One thing that really struck me when I first heard it was the vocals on the on the American Beauty version of it. And it's interesting because the footage that we see From London in Long Strange Trip of the Them practicing the harmonies to it and Phil kind of cracking the whip and saying, oh, Bob, your part's here and Jerry's here and I'm here. Whatever it was, it showed how hard these guys worked.

[Bob Weir]

To discuss the footage. Here's Amir Barlev, director of Long Strange Trip, Happy Valley and other excellent documentaries.

[Amir Barlev]

You know the scene in Drugstore Cowboy when Matt Dillon is giving his drugs to William Burroughs and William Burroughs is sort of sorting through it and saying, nah, nah, Pretty good stuff. Ah, this. He pulls out one bottle and said, now this, this is the real goods. Well, that, that conversation. I thought about that moment in the movie when I had an early conversation with David Lemieux about the available archive. And David basically said, well, there's this, there's that, you know, there's a little bit of this, there's a pretty good that. But the real goods, you know, the stuff they're gonna want to inject in the Mainline is the May 1970 footage where the band takes their first trip to Europe. We got it, it was film reels. We got it transferred and I saw right away that indeed it was the straight dope. And it's beautifully shot. One of the cinematographers is a young Dick Pope. Dick Pope later went on to shoot lots of big budget features, but this is back when he was working for the BBC. And it's shot in a very classical documentary fashion. And it's something the Grateful Dead didn't really go for any other time to have a proper documentary crew. Just observing them in cinema verite style. The cream of the crop is this roundhouse practice session where they're working on harmonies for Candyman. Probably other people can tell you better than I can the story of how they learned from CSNY how to do, you know, multi part harmonies.

[Bob Weir]

As it happens, we have David Crosby here to explain.

[David Crosby]

What happened is they heard us doing it and they said, well, that's not where we were headed, but that's kind of really good. And people like it. And we can do that. It won't sound like them, but we can do that. And it'll be fun. It'll be our version. And so they tried it and they liked it. We didn't teach them jack shit. We just sang really good in front of them and they. And they were listening, you know, they're smart guys, man.

[Bob Weir]

More from Croz in a few moments.

[Amir Barlev]

But you're really watching in this 1970 footage. You're watching it unfold, watching them try to learn how to do multi part harmonies. And particularly watching the dynamic between Phil, who's very classically trained, and Jerry, who has this kind of, you know, older brother, There is a little bit of the Spinal Tap to it. You know, there's a scene in Spinal Tap where they're doing multi part harmonies at Elvis's grave, and they're not quite getting it, you know, so if I'm.

[Robert Hunter]

Going since my baby left me, you.

[Amir Barlev]

Know, that's a little bit of what's happening with Weir and Lesh. And Lesh is really kind of coming down on Weir about not getting it exactly right. And it's amazing to watch these guys work through it and then they do get it right. And then they go for sandwiches. They call for sandwiches from Sam Cutler.

[David Crosby]

I just.

[Amir Barlev]

I like the dynamics of it. It's really interesting to see how Jerry deals with the other guys in the band, how he kind of softens Phil's somewhat aggressive tack and how he also, you know, is encouraging of young Weir, you know, and it gets to the whole genius of Garcia and putting together this motley assortment of musicians. A rhythm guitar player who's heavily dyslexic, you know, and has a very odd sense of tempo. Phil, you know, a bass player who has never played the bass, you know, and the kind of. The person at the center of it is Jerry, who's allowing everybody's idiosyncrasies to become an asset to the band.

[David Lemieux]

No, hold that. Hold that D against. No, it's not. That's not why it's hard. It's hard to hold the D against that slide.

[Mike Brewer]

Yeah, well, hold it. Don't hold it against the slide.

[David Lemieux]

Hold against his G. It's really weird if you don't slide at the same velocity.

[Bob Weir]

The band played Candyman virtually every night across the spring and early summer of 1970, almost always in their acoustic sets. A few times, they actually played it multiple times in a single night. When they had both early and late shows, it was the newest, hottest, dead tune. By the time they bailed on the Medicine Ball Caravan tour in the beginning of August and went into Pacific High to demo their new album, Candyman was sounding a lot more confident. This is from the new batch of the Angel Share American Beauty.

[Robert Hunter]

Come on, you pretty women with your hair hanging pants Open up your window Cause the candy man's in town.

[Bob Weir]

And those harmonies were sounding a lot better, too. Let's just listen to the whole outro from the demo. Clearly pretty woodsheded by now.

[Robert Hunter]

Look out, look out. The candid man here he coming. He's come on again. Candy man comes around again.

[Mike Brewer]

Look to up.

[Robert Hunter]

Look out for Candy Man. Here he come. And it's gone again.

[David Lemieux]

Hooked up on the last part.

[Mike Brewer]

There's a radio in here.

[Bob Weir]

Sorry about the radio, Phil. How else are we going to pick up the signal from here? Also included on the Angel Share is another version of Candyman. Here's Rhino archivist Mike Johnson and engineer Brian Kehue to explain Candyman.

[David Crosby]

The alternate version that's on the official multi track. That's an alternate version that lives on the multi track that was turned in.

[Amir Barlev]

I mean, it's an outtake and it's an alternate version, but it wasn't on a reel of its own. It was actually on the production multi track master.

[Brian Kehue]

In other words, from the same session. They had, let's say, a number of takes. They cut out two of them and moved them to the master tape. And so there are two candy men, if you want to call it that. Candy people.

[David Crosby]

So that's kind of interesting.

[Bob Weir]

Why did they do that? Was it a candidate?

[Amir Barlev]

Somebody had to make a decision which one was better.

[Brian Kehue]

I smiled when I heard it thinking, here's these guys in San Francisco in 1970 putting down this new song. And they could never imagine that, you know, some eight years later they'll be playing it at the pyramids in Egypt.

[Bob Weir]

One big difference in the versions is how they start.

[Gary Lambert]

Did he say six.

[Robert Hunter]

Sam? Come all you pretty women with your hair a hangin down.

[Bob Weir]

The song's distinctive guitar intro is now finished, replacing the simple guitar strum they'd used previously at the Fillmore West. In mid August, it stayed like that. But during the last week of the month, the band made a special appearance on the local public television station, kqed. Viewers at home were invited to arrange their radios and television in a certain configuration in order to experience the music in quadrophonic sound. One of the Dead's new tricks that night was Candyman's new introduction. It would be Everthus. A few episodes back, Bob Weir made an observation about American Beauty engineer Stephen Barnard, and it's worth repeating here he.

[David Lemieux]

Got the vocals sounding right in your headphones, which makes it a lot easier to sing.

[Bob Weir]

With that in mind, listen to how the alternative take ends.

[Robert Hunter]

Oh, look out, look out, the candy man here it comes the man, he's gone again. Look out, look out, look candy man, here he come and it's gone. You better look out, look out Count. Look out of the candy man here he come, here go again. Look out, the candy man Here he come and look out Here look out, look out can Here he come and it's gone again look out, look out of the Candy man we only need.

[Mike Brewer]

To do about four.

[Bob Weir]

The vocals on American Beauty are slightly more reined in, but as you'll notice, there's a bit more going on.

[Robert Hunter]

Candy rainbows again.

[Bob Weir]

Candyman is a rich song. The final take is almost symphonic, with piano and organ ambiently weaving between pedal steel, acoustic guitars and harmonies. Along with the Grateful Dead, it features the additional piano playing of Ned Lagin, an organ by Howard Wales. Both were musicians with wide ranging interests who virtually never played anything else that sounded like their contributions to American Beauty. Ned Legend came from the east coast in the spring. The Dead had played at mit, where they met Ned, then an undergrad, a psychedelicized electronic composer and serious jazz pianist. They hit it off immediately. By the end of their visit, they'd encouraged Ned to get himself to California.

[David Lemieux]

It was after Working Man's Dead and it was during American Beauty. When I arrived in California in The summer of 70, I flew obviously in by plane and then I took a bus into San Francisco and I can't remember if it was Phil or Jerry. They told me to meet them at Whiteheider Studio on the corner of Hyde and Turk. I have it emblazoned in my mind. I was so worried that I'd get lost that I. To this day I remember Hyde and Turk. When I got in there, Jerry was the only one there and he said, oh, it's good old grateful Ned. And then he said, you can play on our album. It was very exciting, not only because of the Grateful Dead, but there was three studios there. And during the course of American Beauty, the Jefferson Airplane Starship were in another studio and Crosby was in the studio once or twice, jamming and playing. And then Santana was there. So it was already the beginning of what I saw as this exposure to the community of musicians who were cross pollinating and playing and sharing ideas.

[Bob Weir]

Ned spent the late summer of 1970 hanging out and playing with the Dead, refining his piano part on Candyman to something simple. It would begin a remarkable half decade partnership as Legion's musical world entwined with the Dead's. They would go on to create Legion Seastones together. There's a brand new version of that out now. Check spiritcats.com for details. Ned also has a recent album called Cat Dreams, which takes his music in a different and fun direction. Maybe a little more approachable with hints of jazz and country. Less noisy, you might dig it. We'll Have a lot more soon. On a very special good old grateful Ned Cast. Playing organ was Howard Wales, who would also appear on Broke down, palace and Truckin. After many other adventures in music, he'd come west from Milwaukee with his band, AB Sky.

[Mike Brewer]

I thought it was either the best or one of the best albums they did. The Dead were not a. They weren't really looking for a hit. They had that one song, you know, but they didn't really. It was. They were the people, man, that was always on the road. They were incredible. What a road band.

[Bob Weir]

By the end of the song, Ned Lagin, Howard Wales, and the Grateful Dead are all weaving together.

[Robert Hunter]

Hand me my old guitar Pass the wheel let's get around Won't you tell everybody you meet?

[Bob Weir]

New Yorker staff writer Nick. I just love the way that his.

[Amir Barlev]

Guitar sounds in that song. That jelly sound.

[Bob Weir]

I mean, there must be a Leslie speaker going there. Here's engineer Brian Kehue. To break down the tracks.

[Brian Kehue]

One of the things revealed on the tape is that there's a longer introduction. Bill starts playing the drums to get a rhythm together before they begin playing. And then Jerry joins in on top. So during the mix, they muted the tracks until Jerry begins the song. And then they bring everyone else in just a bit later. Here's the original beginning, as it is on the tape for the Candyman Sessions. Let's listen to Bill's drum track first. There's just one drum track on this song. Starts out with the kick drum microphone. Then we have the overhead microphone.

[David Lemieux]

And.

[Brian Kehue]

Another overhead that picks up some of the snare drum parts and a snare drum microphone. It's all very basic sounds, just traditional drum recording. And here's everything combined together. The drum track as you hear it on the record, and then Phil's bass. Like a few songs before, we've had where there are two bass tracks made from one performance. The first part is a very bright sound, very clear sound. Second track is a warm, low, almost dull tone. But the ultimate goal was to combine both of those into a sound with good, rich warmth and clarity on the top. Then the main electric guitar, Jerry's part, played live along with the drums in the room. Very distinctive stuff. And then Bobby doing a steady acoustic rhythm guitar. One of the benefits of going through these original tapes is to hear what was left behind. This is the actual angel share portion we talk about. Here's the original guitar track. You heard that electric guitar playing all the way through the song, and it is on the record. But since they were playing live in the room together, Jerry actually did a solo, but it was not used. It was replaced later on. Here's the original solo that he put down. Even nicer is to let the tracks play out till the full end of the take. You can hear some more guitar work at the end of the song.

[Mike Brewer]

Sa.

[Brian Kehue]

Then we have a piano part recorded on two tracks. You'll hear one side first, and then the second side is added for true stereo. And of course, we need vocals. So on top of the completed rhythm track, they put on Jerry's lead vocal.

[Robert Hunter]

Come all you pretty women with your hair a hanging down Open up your window Cause the candy man's in town.

[Brian Kehue]

Once the lead vocal was finished, they began to combine a few backing vocals.

[Robert Hunter]

Look out, look at the candy man Here it come and it's gone again Pretty lady ain't got no friend Till the candyman comes around the game.

[Brian Kehue]

At the same time, a second harmony was being recorded. And you can hear the results of that last track blending in on the microphone because these harmonies are being sung at the same time.

[Robert Hunter]

Look out, look out the candy man Here he come and he's gone again Pretty lady ain't got no friend Till the candyman comes around to Kim.

[Brian Kehue]

And in keeping with their newfound exploration of vocal harmonies, we have another harmony added by Bob to complete a trio of backing vocals.

[Robert Hunter]

Look out, look out the candy man Here he come and he's gone again Pretty lady ain't got no friend in love Candy man come around again.

[David Lemieux]

It.

[Brian Kehue]

May not be noticeable just listening back to the tape, but they obviously spent a lot of time organizing and structuring and recording these backing vocals. It creates a really beautiful layered sound when you hear these backing voices all together.

[Robert Hunter]

Look out, look out the candy man Here he come and he's come on again Pretty lady ain't got no friend Till the candy man comes around the Gay.

[Brian Kehue]

Of course, we hear the finished result on the record itself, but here's an example of the lead vocal combined with those great backing vocals.

[Robert Hunter]

Look out, look out the candy man Here he come and he's gone again Pretty lady ain't got no friend Till the candyman comes around again.

[Brian Kehue]

It'S an exceptional bit of work and maybe will become your ringtone for 2021, but it may not even be the highlight of this great record. The highlight to me is the pedal steel guitar solo. Jerry had become quite proficient on it in a few short years. Although it's a very difficult instrument to master, he's actually added some complexity to it, which adds a lot of interest. One Part is he's playing it through the rotating speaker system called the Leslie speaker. And in front of that he's actually added a wah wah pedal like Hendrickson Cream used to use. It makes for quite an interesting sound with some added studio chamber reverb to it. It's an incredibly haunting and effective.

[Mike Brewer]

Sa.

[Robert Hunter]

Sam.

[Brian Kehue]

Another little secret hidden in the tracks is that Jerry actually played this part all the way through the song. It seems certain that he was intending it only for the solo, so maybe just noodling around with the song as he played it, just in case. But we can hear some of that now. That was never used in the original mix. And that will be our last look into the tracks of Candyman.

[Robert Hunter]

If I had me a shotgun I'd blow you stretch your hair look out, look out the pain Here he come and he.

[Bob Weir]

Thank you, Brian Kehue. Surprisingly, one thing Brian didn't find on the multi track master was Howard Wales Hammond organ part. It's hard to say exactly what happened or where it is, but one plausible reason is that the band had maybe already mixed the song down to two track when they decided they wanted to add an organ to the song's finale and recorded Wales playing along with the already mixed recording onto a separate tape. One of the mysteries of the ancients. For the solo, the band employed the hottest session player in town to add some pedal steel, who was of course, Jerry Garcia. American Beauty Co producer Stephen Barnard was house engineer at Wally Heider's Hyde Street Studio in San Francisco.

[David Lemieux]

He just brought such magic to the sessions and his primitive steel playing just always had the right. You know, he was still learning. He was just woodshedding. That's all he would do is sit in his room. I think that's what Mountain Girl said, that he was always playing that thing, always playing it, you know, always. And that's why he wanted to sit in with everybody. That's why he sat. Brewer and Shipley. I worked. That's one thing I did before I did these others. I worked on Tarchio with Nick Gravinates and Jerry did a shot he played on oh, Mommy, I ain't no Commie. That's Jerry. Some people say that he played on one toke. He did not. That was a guitar player that played that.

[Bob Weir]

Oh, Mommy was recorded on April 21, 1970, just after the Abandoned sessions at Pacific High and a weekend at the Fillmore west and about a week before the Dead themselves arrived at Haiders for the proper American Beauty sessions.

[Robert Hunter]

Oh, Mommy, I ain't no coming I just do what I can to live.

[Bob Weir]

The good all America way Here's Mike Brewer of Brewer and Shipley.

[Mike Brewer]

I first met Jerry at a club called the Matrix in San Francisco. The band was called the Warlocks. And I also saw the Jefferson Airplane. Before Grace Slick had joined the band at the Matrix, I already knew Paul Kantner. And David Freiberg was a friend of mine. Back in the folk days, he was in a folk duo. I drove him from Denver to San Francisco the first time I was ever there. That's how I ended up meeting Paul Kantner. And also Yormi Kaukonen and various other people. Met Jerry at the Matrix. And over the years would run into him here and there. When Tom Shipley and I started working at Wally Hiders, we recorded five albums there. So we spent a lot of time at Wally Hiders. And when we would do a show in San Francisco, Jerry would come to our shows. He was almost always at the studio. Back in those days, there was three studios. Studio A was basically the Jefferson Airplanes studio. Because part of their original deal with RCA was unlimited studio time. So it was like going to the office for them every day. They were always in there. And if they weren't recording, it was offshoots like Papa John Creech or Hot Tuna. And dad, of course, recorded there. And Jerry did some of his solo stuff there. Bruin Shipley did a lot of. A lot of recording there. Crosby, Stills and Nash. Sometimes it was just Graham and David. You never knew who was going to be there. It was kind of an open house. People were. It was real open. Yeah. People would go from studio to studio and we'd stick our heads in to see what people were up to and listen to their music and whatever. But we were working on our Tarchio album, which had one Toko with a line on it. And we'd written a song called oh, Mommy, I Ain't no Commie. We named Richard Nixon by name personally in that song. It was kind of a country song. So we thought it needed pedal steel guitar. Well, Jerry had just started playing pedal steel. So we found him in the studio and said, Jerry, what do you think about playing on a song of ours? He said, sure. So he pulled his pedal steel up and set it up. And we got a sound check and one or two takes and he put it down. And there it was, and there it still is. And a connected story with that is Tom and I ended up being interviewed by Armed Forces Radio. And this is, of course, during the height of the Vietnam War. The woman interviewing us didn't have a clue who Brewer and Shipley were or know anything about our music. But when it would come time to play a song, she was saying, now, let's hear something from Bruin Shipley. She didn't even hear it. She didn't put it in. Somebody else down the line would insert the songs. So it ended up going to Vietnam on Armed Forces Radio One, Choke over the Line and oh, Mommy, I Ain't no Commie got a whole lot of whole lot of airplay in Vietnam. I have met many veterans over the years who have told me that they listened to us a lot and couldn't believe they were listening to one Toe over the Line and oh, Mommy, I ain't no commie. Naming Richard Nixon Pretty funny. Pretty funny.

[Robert Hunter]

Says right there in the Constitution, it's really a okay to have a revolution with the leaders and that you made. Just don't make the grave.

[Bob Weir]

The band on Tarchio also included bassist John Kahn and drummer Bill Vitt. Garcia had been playing with the rhythm section since the spring, joining them at the Matrix nearly every Monday when the Dead were in town for a jam session led by Howard Wales. They would record their own album at Heiders in November called Hooteroll.

[Mike Brewer]

Hooteroll basically was something that was spent. No spent on anything in terms of rehearsals. And all that stuff got to the studio just real right there. Here. Guys did what we're gonna do and we're gonna jam this thing. I wrote most of the songs, you know, about 85% of them. We knew each other, you know, but we never really recorded at that point, you know, so that was. It was good. It worked out great.

[Bob Weir]

We'll have more visits from Howard Wales on future Deadcasts. Bob Weir also remembers the traffic in Heider's hallways.

[David Lemieux]

Wally Heider was hopping at the time that studio had us. I think David Crosby was in there. Crosby, Stills Nash had just been through there. Jefferson Airplane or Starship or probably Hot Tuna were in there. It was hard to get anything done because we were. Everybody was just hanging like a bunch of crows on the fence.

[Bob Weir]

Jerry Garcia was constantly making music. His newest partner in the summer of 1970 was David Crosby. Welcome to the Dead cast CROs.

[David Crosby]

I like Jerry playing with just about everybody. I love him with Grizz, I love him with the Dead. I loved him with his own band. I loved him with me. I loved him. Every combination of every chemistry I ever saw him in. I loved it.

[Bob Weir]

After Garcia started playing pedal steel in the spring of 1969, it was Crosby who was Responsible for Jerry's first released session work as a pedal steel player, Crosby Still's Nash and Young's Teach youh children, recorded in October 1969. Jerry had been playing live with the New Riders of the Purple Sage and had done one studio session on pedal steel with the Cloud Brothers, which remained unreleased until 2015. So how did Crosby hear that Jerry had taken up pedal steel?

[David Crosby]

He told me ghost strings are the source. He told me that he was. That he was learning how to do it. And I said, oh, man, that'll be terrific. It's a moving tone instrument. It's like a sitar. It's a fantastic tool. I said I thought that it would be the guitar of the future because it's a moving tone instrument, you know, which makes it capable of going a lot further than most instruments. Now, because you can bend a guitar, it's a moving tone instrument, too. But pedal steel with a bunch of tone modifiers is probably the most complex way to do it of all and probably the most difficult. But I think maybe in the long run, it'll be the most capable and really only used in country music pretty much solely. People started messing around with it, putting tone modifiers on it. Sneaky Pete was the first guy I heard do it. But once you. Once you take that instrument and start applying different kind of tone modifiers to it, well, there's really no limit to what you can get it to do. He showed me the instrument at his place and showed me that he was fooling around with it, but I was just betting on him. He was so melodic in his soul, you know, that he really couldn't help it. You know, even as a new player, he just couldn't help it. The melody just poured out of him, you know, in all directions all the time.

[Robert Hunter]

You who are on the road must have a code that you can live by.

[Bob Weir]

You can hear more about the Teach youh Children session in our episode about Black Peter on the last season of the Good Old Grateful Bedcast. When we spoke with Teach youh Children songwriter Graham Nash, the thing about cheering.

[David Crosby]

Man was that he didn't play licks. Everybody else that learned the guitar learned those blues scales, the pentatonic scale. Everybody plays it. And they all got entranced with playing scales fast. Jerry didn't. Jerry didn't. What he played was melodies right off the top of his head. He didn't play guitar legs. You never hear him go, because everybody else did it already. He didn't do that. He did what was coming off the top of his head. It's as if his hands grew right out of his forehead. The guy didn't have any distance between the tips of his fingers and the front of his mind. No distance at all. It was a complete transfer from the mind to the tips of the fingers. And he didn't think when he was playing very much, unless he wanted to. Unless he needed to do it for structure or because there was a time thing that he had to remember or something when he was just playing, when he was just goofing off with me, he wasn't thinking, wouldn't think at all. It's just a straight connect from somewhere in his brain that created melody to the tips of his fingers. And he did it all the time with any instrument he picked up. We would talk and play music together at the same time all the time. If we were talking, we'd probably have a guitar each. And we be noodling while we talk or talking while we noodle.

[Bob Weir]

One topic of interest was science fiction, which informed Paul Kantner's Blows against the Empire, recorded just before American Beauty at Wally Heiders, with participation for both Crosby and Garcia on the track Starship and have youe Seen the Stars tonight?

[Robert Hunter]

Have you seen the stars tonight? Would you like to go up for a stroll? And King keep me company. Do you know we could go. We are free.

[David Crosby]

We talked about it. I wish to God I'd known then about Ian Banks, who's my favorite science fiction author. Now it's the Guy with the Culture series. I think Jerry would have absolutely loved it. But we talked about people like Heinlein and Van Vogt and all kinds of standard parts of the science fiction, you know, thing. It's funny how many hippies really liked science fiction because anything was possible and you could, you know, have big dreams.

[Bob Weir]

Over the course of 1970, in the studios at Heiders, Crosby and Garcia would intersect more and more, culminating in their most famous collaboration, Crosby's debut solo album, if I Could Only Remember My Name. We'll have to wait for the second part of our interview with David to get into that fully. Coming up in a few more episodes. Cross intersected with the Dead's world in many ways. One person from the Dead scene that he met early on was Augustus Owsley Stanley iii, AKA the Bear.

[David Crosby]

Why isn't the Bear? Stories always start with laughter. Okay, yeah, here's how I met the bear. I'm in Los Angeles airport, lax, and this guy, kind of looking a little strange comes up to me and says, you Crosby? And I looked at him and I said, well, maybe. And he said, I'm Augusta Stanley Housley. And I said, great, who's that? And then I realized what the last name had been. And I said, holy shit. And he said, you want some? And I said, fuck, yes, I want some. And he gave me some of his first. Remember when he. Before he got the tabbing machine, when he made the little blue barrels called Blue Cheer? It was before he got the tabbing machine. They were little blue barrels and they were called Blue Cheer. And they were very good and they worked. Then he got the tapping machine and he made Purple Haze and White Lightning. Remember those batches? Right? Sure. I'm sure you did. I had many interactions with him. I remember running into him at Monterey at the Monterey Pop Festival. He had a light tan leather jacket on and both pockets were full of Purple Haze. And he was just handing it out. He was just saying, you'd put your hand out and he'd drop one in there and you'd pop it. And what I don't understand is how those other guys played on that shit. Hendricks played on that shit. I don't know how the fuck you do that. I tried playing on acid, man. The guitar was three feet thick, the strings were rubber, and I was playing a really great tune. And the other guys in the band were playing another different, really great tune. It was really weird. I do not recommend it at all. But he managed it. I don't know how the fuck he did it.

[Bob Weir]

One historical note I'll insert here because I'm positive Bayer would insist the special LSD that Owsley made for the Monterey pop festival in 1967 was called Monterey Purple, not Purple Haze. Jimi Hendrix's song Purple Haze actually predated it very slightly. Released in the UK in the spring of 67 and in the United States that June, the same weekend as Monterey Pop, actually. Easy enough to confuse.

[David Crosby]

I wish we'd been smarter. We were doing 125 mics or sometimes more, and that's actually more than you need to do. Paul and Grace did a really smart thing, man. They, you know the little tiny Altoid cans, the ones that are only about this big? They would take one of those and they put two or three tabs in there and they'd shake it. It's a little metal can. They shake it. Then they'd open it, put a finger in, scoop the dust off of the lid and snort that. And it was like microdosing before anybody knew what microdosing was. And it absolutely worked fucking great because it went in right now because you snorted it. It went into your mucous membranes and went into your bloodstream right now. So you didn't have the, oh shit, it's not taking in effect. I'll take some more. You didn't make that mistake because it took effect right now and you could titrate, you could gauge your high because you were not waiting a half hour for it to take effect. You knew right now how much you'd taken and you'd taken it a little bit at a time and it worked really great. Paul and Grace invented it. They invented microdosing. I don't know anybody else that was doing anything like that.

[Bob Weir]

Another person David Crosby crossed paths with through the Dead's World was Ned Lagin. CROSB would go on to contribute to Ned Seastone's project, recorded between 1970 and 1975, and perform with the live version of the group.

[David Crosby]

Ned was a wonderfully strange musician, very determined to push the envelope, which of course is what caught Phil's attention and Jerry's. He was trying to do stuff with electronic music and they approved of that. They wanted to push the barriers back as much as he did. So he was hanging out and he was doing something experimental and I thought that was really fun. We did fool around some. I don't think I contributed that much, but I think Jerry and Phil did lots.

[Bob Weir]

David contributed more than he takes credit for, appearing on both Ned Seastone's album and some of the circulating live recordings of the era. We'll have more from David down the line, but you can also scratch your cross itch with his own limited run podcast with Steve Silberman, Freak Flag Flying that came out last year from our pals at Osiris, eventually becoming a local member of the Bay Area music scene. Ned Legion contributed much to the Dead over the next half decade. While American Beauty was the first time he joined them on record, he became a live contributor as well. When the Dead played at the Capitol Theatre in Portchester in February 1971, Ned Lagin joined them on Clavichord for nearly the entire show, which is now featured as the bonus disc on the new three disc expanded edition of American Beauty, remixed from the original tapes by Jeffrey Norman. When they hit Candyman, Ned doesn't exactly reprise his part because he's playing an entirely different keyboard. The February 18, 1971 show is a pivotal gig in Dead history, no matter how you slice it. The band debuted five new originals, including Warfrat, Greatest Story Ever Told, Bertha Loser and Playing in the band, Dr. Stanley Krippner and the Capitol crowd undertook experiments in dream telepathy, sending images back to sleeping subjects at the Maimonides Dream Laboratory in Brooklyn. And it also turned out to be Mickey Hart's last appearance with the Grateful Dead for more than three years. It's been a legendary Dead tape for decades, but Deadheads have never heard it like this. Archivist David Lemieux.

[Gary Lambert]

What we've all been hearing going back to 1988 have been the two track live recordings. They're not PA tapes, they sound amazing. But the Grateful Dead have always held the multi tracks, the 16 track analog tapes of all six nights. That's what this is produced from. Just as three from the vault from 2:19 the next night and Working Man's Dead, of course, had 2:21 the third night, which still leaves the fourth, fifth and sixth night for future endeavors. What we learned in listening to these Maltese Mickey comes and goes during this show. He plays on most of it and there's a few songs that he plays so exceptionally well, it's hard to believe that literally as he walked off stage, he didn't come back. He was like hours later, he was gone for the next four years. And he plays so incredibly well and such important parts to so many of the songs. And then there are some of the songs where it almost felt like a.

[Bob Weir]

Show where.

[Gary Lambert]

Like a loose amalgamation of friends where you could get up and play or not. Kind of like an acid test, you know, where you could play or not. And that's kind of the feeling I get when listening to this because Jeffrey would be mixing and he'd send a note to Dave Glasser, the mastering engineer on this and myself, and he'd say, hey, Mickey's not playing on this. Which I never noticed. Only because you're listening to the whole song and you're maybe thinking, well, he's clearly there. I'm just. He might be doing something light handed, but sometimes he's not doing anything. Sometimes he's doing the most minor percussion thing, but it's incredibly important. So we made sure that Mickey is certainly prominent in the mix, as he should be on the songs he plays on, which is interesting. And we also get to hear a lot of Ned playing keyboards on here. Interesting. Again, he comes and goes. And that's why I kind of have this analogy of an acid test where you could play or not. And that's what happens with Ned. Some songs he's there and some he's not. And we, we cranked up his mic and he's just not There sometimes it's interesting.

[Bob Weir]

Lost amidst all the other news, it was also the last version of Candyman that the Dead would play for over a year and a half. Dead Cast Musicology correspondent Bob Weir remembers one other Candyman song, though.

[Robert Hunter]

Who can take a sunrise Sprinkle it with dew Sprinkle it with dew Cover it with chocolate and a miracle to the candyman the candy man oh, the candyman can the candyman can the candyman.

[David Lemieux]

Can go he mixes it with love.

[Robert Hunter]

And makes the world taste good.

[David Lemieux]

And then Sammy Davis Jr. Did a tune called Candyman. And it was. I hate to say it, but it seemed to me awfully trite and just shallow. I think I'm probably giving a kind description to it compared to what Jerry or Hunter would have given to it.

[Bob Weir]

Written for the musical film adaptation Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and released in the summer of 1971, it became an even bigger hit the next year When Sammy Davis Jr. Released his cover of it. And in the fall of 72, perhaps spurred by hearing it one too many times in Elevators, they brought back their own version. Archivist David Lemieux in 1973.

[Gary Lambert]

74 it wasn't played that often, so when you do see it on a set list, you're like, oh, that's still around. I forgot about that. And it's played incredibly well. And by 73, 74, that song is very different live than it was in the studio. Jerry's solo in it, both in live versions of all eras and on the album, it is one of the most. And it's very straightforward, I think, but it's one of the most ethereal things.

[Bob Weir]

That was from Winterland, February 24, 1974, released on Dave's Picks 13 itself, the last version for several years.

[Gary Lambert]

Donna's harmonies when they came back in 76 were magnificent. Magnificent. I cannot get over how great she sounded in 76 when they came back.

[Robert Hunter]

Pretty late. City a no friend till the candid man comes around again.

[Bob Weir]

It was in that era too that Deadheads began to cheer for Jerry Garcia as the Candyman. Both of Those came from June 11, 1976 at the Boston Music Hall. On the June 1976 box set. There was another line that started to get cheers a lot too in the post hiatus years. Here it is on the Dead set version recorded October 29, 1980 at Radio City Music hall in New York.

[Robert Hunter]

Good morning. Just a few face I see you doing well. If I had me a shotgun, you know I blow you straight to hell.

[Bob Weir]

Robert Hunter. Hunter observed that Cheering, too. And it worried him a bit. He told Blair Jackson in 1988, the first time I ran into that phenomenon was when I went to the movie Rollerball and saw that people were cheering. The violence that was happening, I couldn't believe it. I hope that people realize that the character in Candyman is a character and not me. But besides the Candyman, there's another character, Robert Hunter, pulled from folk music. Mr. Benson, if you ever go to.

[Robert Hunter]

Houston, then you better walk or ride. You better not stagger and you better not fight. Cause Sheriff Benson will arrest you. He'll carry you on down. And if the jury finds it, kid.

[Bob Weir]

That was Harry Belafonte doing Midnight Special, released in 1962 with a barely legal Bob Dylan on harmonica. There likely wasn't literally a Sheriff Benson. The musicologist Mac McCormick believes that Sheriff Benson probably originates with an infamous Houston sheriff, T.A. binfer. The name probably shifted through versions by many different singers, most notably Leadbelly, who sometimes sang of Benson Crocker. Whether there was a real life Mr. Benson or not, the resonance clearly carried into the Dead's Candyman. Like Mr. Charlie a few years later, adding Mr. Made him the perfect faceless enemy. For a deep take on the cheering and Candyman, here's Long Strange Trip director Amir Barlev.

[Amir Barlev]

It's one of the Grateful Dead songs that are about bad people. And it's fascinating to me that, you know, as a psychedelic ritual, we all would gather and heartily belt out these lyrics, which are about shooting people with shotguns and taking advantage of women and, you know, behavior that nobody condones. But part of the psychedelic ritual, whether you are high or not, is trying to occupy perspectives that are anathema to your perspective. The classic song that does that is War Frat Jack Straw is another one. Loser. You know, I was thinking Loser is Candyman a few years later. You know, he's got a lot of gusto and bravado, and he's sure he's gonna win and he's aces and now and Candyman and now and lose are the same guy as, like, sounding a note of desperation, but he's still trying to. Trying to win. You know, if you really think about the words to Candyman, it's pussy grabbing stuff. Candyman's an asshole, you know, And I think that's one of the great things about Dead is that we were encouraged to try to see things from perspectives that are not our own. You know, that's. That's why I included the Frankenstein thing in Long Strange Trip is that Jerry wanted to make something that terrified him a friend. And you know, similarly, in singing along and celebrating songs like Candyman, we're not saying, you know, I'll blow you straight to hell. We're not celebrating violence. We're just exercising our brains and putting the limitations of our own perspective through kind of, you know, calisthenics. What better way to do calisthenics than pretend to be and try to think what it would be like to be a bad person? You know, I don't. I shouldn't even say bad person, but a guy who, you know, who's consumed with taking advantage of women and winning at games and probably cheating at games and shooting some. Some poor Mr. Benson guy. We don't know what he did. But I lament the fact that, you know, you might not be able to write a song like Candyman anymore. Maybe the last time we did that was. Was when hip hop was at its height. In a way. Candyman's kind of a hip hop song. And you know, people say, oh God, hip hop, it's just about, you know, violence and you know, materialism or something like that. No, it's also kind of play acting at different roles in the same way that, you know, singing along to Loser or Jack Straw or any one of these songs is not actually embracing that kind of behavior. It's talking about the multiplicity of different ways there are to be a human being which is deeply psychedelic.

[Bob Weir]

Which isn't to say there weren't real Candyman types lurking in the world around the Grateful Dead. In some ways though, the Candyman comes on like a slightly more consensual version of the Rolling Stones infamous Midnight Rambler. Still not a nice guy, but he's not gonna come inside unless invited. The Candyman's life in popular music has continued onwards. In the late 80s there was a rapper named Candyman, part of the NWA crew. One of the more recent Candymen is Christina Aguileras, a Grammy nominated single in 2008.

[Robert Hunter]

I met him out for dinner on.

[Brian Kehue]

A Friday night he really had me.

[David Crosby]

Walkin up an appetite he had tattoos.

[Robert Hunter]

Up and down his own.

[David Crosby]

There's nothing more than.

[Bob Weir]

Anyway, as archivist David Lemieux was saying about the Deads version, the first time.

[Gary Lambert]

I heard it live would have been dead set because that was one of the first records I got. And I was like, oh, that song I love from American I. I'd heard. I'd heard Candyman on a friend's cassette. I didn't have the album yet and I remember hearing. I was like, oh this is different, but it's still exactly the same. And he had this solo that was very different from the album version, but it was still ethereal. Whatever filter he's playing through, whatever effects, it makes this straightforward guitar sound unlike anything we've ever heard before. And more often than not, Jerry nailed that solo perfectly.

[Bob Weir]

We'll sign off with the Candyman Solo from October 3, 1987 at Shoreline in Mountain View, California on View from the Vault 3. This features what our friend Mr. Completely calls the underwater cathedral effect. See you next time.

[Rich Mahan]

I love the quote from Jerry where he talked about taking folk song traditions and crafting new tunes with them. Candyman is one of those songs that gets into your subconscious, and I think that part of the reason it draws such a big reaction when it gets performed is it triggers that connection it has made with us, which gets compounded exponentially in a concert setting where we're surrounded by like minds. Powerful stuff. Thanks very much for tuning in. Visit us [e-mail] deadcast spread the love and light and share this podcast with your neighbor. See you next episode. Executive producers for the good old Grateful Dead cast Mark Pincus and Doran Tyson. Produced for Rhino Entertainment by Rich Mahan Productions and Jesse Jarno. Special thanks to David Lemieux. All rights reserved.