Come all you pretty women1
with your hair a-hanging down
Open up your windows ’cause
the Candyman’s in town2
Come on, boys, and gamble
Roll those laughing bones3
Seven come eleven, boys4
I’ll take your money home
Chorus:
Look out
Look out
The Candyman
Here he come
and he’s gone again
Pretty lady ain’t
got no friend
till the Candyman
come ’round again
I come in from Memphis
where I learned to talk the jive5
When I get back to Memphis
be one less man alive
Good mornin,’ Mr. Benson6
I see you’re doin’ well
If I had me a shotgun
I’d blow you straight to hell7
(Chorus)
Come on, boys, and wager
if you have got the mind
If you got a dollar, boys
Hand me my old guitar8
Pass the whiskey ’round
Want you to tell everybody you meet
the Candyman’s in town
(Chorus)
Words by Robert Hunter
Music by Jerry Garcia
A typical folk song opening, and in fact, a genre of folk songs is called “Come-all-ye’s.”
American slang for a drug dealer. Also for a man who has a way with women.
The Mississippi John Hurt version of the “Candy Man Blues” has these words:
He likes a stick of candy just nine inch long
He sells as fast as a hog can chew his corn
It’s the candyman
Early dice, discovered in archaeological digs, were made of a variety of materials, including bone, ivory, jet, and, most commonly, antler.
In the dice game of craps, a “come” bet is identical to a “pass line” bet, with one exception: A come bet may be made on every throw of the dice once the shooter has established a point. A come bet is made by placing the amount of chips you wish to wager in the designated come area of the craps layout. After you have placed a come bet, the very next roll of the dice becomes the come-out roll for that wager. Thus, if the shooter rolls a seven, you will win even though pass line betters will lose. If an eleven is rolled, you will win while the line bets will not be affected. (www.crapshangout.com)
Also the title of a 1939 Charlie Christian tune.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines jive as
talk or conversation; spec. talk that is misleading, untrue, empty, or pretentious; hence, anything false, worthless, or unpleasant.
Partridge says
n. and v. (A form of) dance: orig. devotees of the form, late 1940s, then ge.; ob. With change of fashion, by late 1950s. . . . probably of Negro origin (perhaps synon with jazz). . . . To talk: a talk: jazz fanatics’: since ca. 1948.
And in his appendix, in an entry titled “Jive and Swing”:
This slang reached Britain from the U.S. in 1945; still in July 1947 was it very little known except among the hepcats or addicts of jive and swing. . . . All of it is American, most of it ephemeral. . . . [“Jive”] may mean “tricks,” whence jive as a “tricky” form of playing.
Slang dictionaries agree that the origin of the word is unknown.
This is a character from the song “Midnight Special”: “Sheriff Benson will arrest you” if you go to Houston, the song warns. The sheriff in the song may have a historical basis in an actual sheriff, T. A. Binford, county sheriff of Harris County, Texas, from December 1918 to January 1, 1937. Indeed, Leadbelly sang “Binford,” not “Benson,” in his version of “Midnight Special.” Binford was involved in the infamous 1917 “mutiny” in Houston, as a colleague of Lee Sparks, who was city detective at the time of the incident.
In James Lee Burke’s excellent novel Lost Get-Back Boogie, a character retorts: “Well, thanks, Mr. Benson,” which is an indication that the word is a synonym for “the man.” In this sense, it is a similar appellation to Mr. Charlie, referred to in the song of the same title.
Robert Hunter, on this line:
Then there’s the line in “Candyman” that always gets the big cheers: “If I had a shotgun, I’d blow you straight to hell.” The first time I ran into that phenomenon was when I went to the movie Rollerball and saw the 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. (Jackson: Goin’ Down the Road) 97
The opening line of the folk song “F.D.R.’s Back Again”: “Just hand me my old Martin”—referring to a Martin guitar.
Studio recording: American Beauty (November 1970).
“Candyman” debuted on April 3, 1970, at the Field House, University of Cincinnati, in Cincinnati. It remained in the repertoire.