365 Days of Song Recommendations: Sep 20

You Goin’ Miss Your Candyman—Terry Callier

I was on a production today at Oakland’s Brown Sugar Kitchen, and the chef started talking about how her sound system was the best purchase she ever made. The restaurant was closed, and it was just us and a few other crew members, so naturally I asked her to give it a spin. And that she did, at the highest volume we could all tolerate.

Soft, tinny guitar strums, a layer of bass, and some hand-slapping drums, and then boom. Terry Callier’s soulful voice kicks in, and we’re off.

I know you, rider
Baby, you might miss me when I’m gone,
I say, baby, when I’m gone
Better think on it, rider
Baby, you might miss me when I’m gone, gone, gone
I tell you when I’m gone now
I do declare you’re gonna miss your candyman, yeah
Keepin’ you safe and warm
Yeah, keepin’ you out of harm

Tapping our feet in unison, impossible to keep still to the building sway. A song built on jazz, funk beats, and pure passion, You Goin’ Miss Your Candyman has a mid-to-late ’60s vibe, lengthy jam stretches periodically broken up by horn interludes. The song’s late crescendo brings Richie Havens to mind, that brilliant performance that opened Woodstock ‘69—it’s in the drums, the vocal freneticism, the sonic urgency.

Hearing this song, on a legit sound system, in the heart of Oakland in a soul kitchen is exactly how everyone should hear it for the first time and the fiftieth time.

Now well, I’m goin away, baby
Yeah, I won’t be back till fall
Child, I won’t be back
Until late next fall now
Well I’m pushin’ out, baby
Yeah I won’t be back till fall
If I can find myself a good lovin women
I might not ever come back at all
I might not ever come back at all
Well the way I love my baby
I know she’s gonna love me some
Yeah, my baby gonna love me some
The way I love my baby
I know she’s gonna love me some
Oh when she folds her lovin’ arm around me
Lord, it’s just like a circle goin’ round the sun
In all the whole world it ain’t but one
Just like a circle goin’ round the sun
Just like a circle goin’ round the sun
Just like a circle goes round the sun
Wheelin’ like a circle goin’ around the sun
Dealin’ like a circle round the sun
Reelin’ like a circle goin’ round the sun
Feelin’ like a circle goin’ round the sun
Around the sun, round the sun
Round the sun, round the sun
Well, around the sun
Now I know you, rider
Baby you might miss me when I’m gone,
Yeah, now baby, when I’m gone
You better think on it, rider
Baby you might miss me when I’m gone,
When I’m gone, oh mama when I’m gone
I do declare you’re gonna miss your candyman
Well from keepin’ you safe and warm
Yeah, baby, keepin’ you out of harm
Now where you gonna go when it start to storm
Where you gonna go when it start to storm
Where you gonna go when it start to storm
Start to storm, start to storm
Start to storm, start to storm
Start to storm, start to storm
Start to storm, start to storm
Woouhouhououh, woouhouhououh…
I know you, rider
Baby, you might miss me when I’m gone
When I’m gone, said when I’m gone now
I know you, rider
Baby you might miss me when I’m gone
When I’m gone, baby, when I’m gone
Now I know you, rider
Girl, you’re gonna miss me
Baby when I’m gone, yeah
I said when I’m gone
Baby when I’m gone
Baby when I’m gone

“You Goin’ Miss Your Candyman” is the 263rd song on the #365Songs playlist: