SONG OF THE DAY Terry Callier – You Goin’ Miss Your Candy Man

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Way back in 1994 I bought a single by UK hip hop band, Urban Species entitled Listen. One of the reasons I liked this track in the first place was because of the bass line and guitar riff, but little did I realise at the time that these were sampled from a far older song.

The sample came from Terry Callier’s 1968 single You Goin’ Miss Your Candy Man, a track taken from Callier’s What Colour is Love LP which was released on Chicago’s Cadet Records (a Chess Records subsidiary) in 1973.  It’s a truly emotive and powerful song, riding on a bass-driven soul groove that is embellished with a dramatic horn section and dynamic percussion.  Callier’s vocals are heartrending as they stirringly declare through loosely structured, yet immensely powerful lyrics how “Baby you might miss me when I’m gone/I do declare you’re gonna miss your candyman.”  Spanning over seven glorius minutes this track sucks you in and as the arrangement slowly swells to a striking high, it later retreats to an acoustic stripped-back lull, before rising back again…what an absolute corker of a song! Check it out above (ignoring the fact it states that Shuggie Otis on the Bandcamp attachment)  and listen to another Terry Callier gem on my page here.