Watch the Grateful Dead rehearse ‘Candyman’ in 1970
The Grateful Dead were breaking new ground when they arrived at the Hollywood Music Festival in 1970. It was the band’s first trip outside of the United States to play for a foreign audience, and it came at a time when the Dead were transitioning away from their initial psychedelic phase. But just because the band were changing their sound didn’t mean that they were changing their dedication to hallucinogenics.
The Dead famously used LSD as a defence tactic. If you were a square, a suit, or even worse, a record company executive, you always had to keep an eye on whatever you were drinking if you were around the band. Even if you were a friend, the chances of getting dosed were extremely high. The British film crew that was supposed to capture the Dead on their first trip overseas learned that the hard way.
The documentary that was planned never ended up being made, largely because the camera crew couldn’t stay focused enough to capture anything resembling a coherent narrative. Bob Weir discovered some of the tapes from the festival while exploring the band’s archives in the docuseries Long Strange Trip, and now that footage has found its way online.
There are plenty of humourous attempts to get something on film: during what seems like a Jerry Garcia interview, the guitarist instead dispenses wisdom to some of the crew who don’t know how to handle being on psychedelics. Elsewhere, once the band begins playing their first song, ‘Casey Jones’, it’s possible to hear cameramen ask, “What’s going on?” as the band bust into their latest material.
Things were more calm and coherent when the crew followed the Dead into a recording studio, where they were practising for both the festival and their newest studio album, American Beauty. At the time of the Hollywood Music Festival, the Dead had recorded (but not yet released) Workingman’s Dead and were already preparing for their follow-up. The group would officially begin recording American Beauty at Wally Heider Studios in August of 1970, but the material for the album had been percolating for a while.
‘Candyman’ first debuted live in April of 1970, just one month before the Dead found themselves in England. It was a relatively new composition, but the band knew what they wanted from it: the same harmony blend that filled out classic cuts like ‘Uncle John’s Band’ from Workingman’s Dead. That blend took practice, some of which was captured by the film crew while the Dead workshopped the song.
The dynamic between Garcia, Weir, and Phil Lesh is fascinating to see behind the curtain. Garcia comes off as a bit of a perfectionist, busting Weir to get his note right and appearing slightly annoyed at him. Lesh admonishes Weir as well but is more supportive in trying to get him to land within the three-part harmony. However, during one of their successful tries, Garcia flashes a smile of unmistakable support.
To be fair, Weir’s vocal role in the song is arguably the most difficult. While Lesh’s high harmony requires some pipes, it’s up to Weir’s middle harmony to keep the group’s pitch from going haywire. On their final notes, Lesh and Weir are so close together that it’s understandably difficult for Weir to get his pitch just right.
The trio eventually got the vocals just right for the studio recording of ‘Candyman’, but the rehearsal shows a different side to the Dead. While they often got the reputation of reckless, carefree hippies, the members worked hard in order to perfect their evolving sound.
Check out the footage of the Grateful Dead practising ‘Candyman’, starting at the 49-minute mark, down below.
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