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Talk about "A Message in a Bottle".
Last night one of my cats was sleeping atop a clock radio and she accidentally pressed the On button. The station "The Sound L.A." was playing Candyman from the 1970 album "American Beauty" by The Grateful Dead.
I had never paid much attention to the lyrics before, but a particular line caught my attention.
When I worked at Warner Bros. Records/Creative Services division in '76-'77
putting up with things like bad aluminum ladders that ripped my left shoulder when it collapsed under me six feet off the hard concrete floor on my first day on the job, other employees ripping off the record demo mailouts on the way to the post office out of sight of the manager, and the warehouseman's dog, "Raja" developing a severe case of diarrhea on the company floor, and the assistant in the cage (The Mezzanine Vault) where demos were kept hanging his copy of each month's Hustler Honey Centerfold on the cage like a release poster for all to see; didn't bother me, they also for some reason made a point of having "American Beauty" in sight, even though it was by then a six year old release.
In those days "Memphis" was also a location for Warner Bros. Records Creative Services, usually the Country Music releases were handled there, but in Burbank, Ca. the last name of the Creative Services manager whom I worked under was "Mr. Benson". See, "Warners Ponders Promo on Wheels" article within the following books page:
http://books.google.com/books?id=QB...ook_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAA
Looking further into this, The Grateful Dead had a habit of sniping at the record company.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Bros._Records#Warner.2FReprise_1963-67
Probable Cause: As the promotional arm of Warner/Reprise Records, the division was responsible for determining the push of (the "candy" for) their artists. When the album was considered to be a disappointment with no monetary potential, Creative Services often pulled back or cancelled the promotion of the album, EDIT: or the word came from higher up, The Home Office, etc., refusing to ship demos, posters, in short, the release campaign was cancelled, so perhaps "Candyman" is Jerry Garcia's swipe at record execs who failed to back up The Dead and other artists.
If so, "Candyman" is a characterization of the Warner/Reprise record execs, including "Mr. Benson" who had the album on display for some reason six years later.
Last night one of my cats was sleeping atop a clock radio and she accidentally pressed the On button. The station "The Sound L.A." was playing Candyman from the 1970 album "American Beauty" by The Grateful Dead.
I had never paid much attention to the lyrics before, but a particular line caught my attention.
When I worked at Warner Bros. Records/Creative Services division in '76-'77
putting up with things like bad aluminum ladders that ripped my left shoulder when it collapsed under me six feet off the hard concrete floor on my first day on the job, other employees ripping off the record demo mailouts on the way to the post office out of sight of the manager, and the warehouseman's dog, "Raja" developing a severe case of diarrhea on the company floor, and the assistant in the cage (The Mezzanine Vault) where demos were kept hanging his copy of each month's Hustler Honey Centerfold on the cage like a release poster for all to see; didn't bother me, they also for some reason made a point of having "American Beauty" in sight, even though it was by then a six year old release.
In those days "Memphis" was also a location for Warner Bros. Records Creative Services, usually the Country Music releases were handled there, but in Burbank, Ca. the last name of the Creative Services manager whom I worked under was "Mr. Benson". See, "Warners Ponders Promo on Wheels" article within the following books page:
http://books.google.com/books?id=QB...ook_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAA
Looking further into this, The Grateful Dead had a habit of sniping at the record company.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Bros._Records#Warner.2FReprise_1963-67
Probable Cause: As the promotional arm of Warner/Reprise Records, the division was responsible for determining the push of (the "candy" for) their artists. When the album was considered to be a disappointment with no monetary potential, Creative Services often pulled back or cancelled the promotion of the album, EDIT: or the word came from higher up, The Home Office, etc., refusing to ship demos, posters, in short, the release campaign was cancelled, so perhaps "Candyman" is Jerry Garcia's swipe at record execs who failed to back up The Dead and other artists.
If so, "Candyman" is a characterization of the Warner/Reprise record execs, including "Mr. Benson" who had the album on display for some reason six years later.
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