CANDYMAN
The second Los Lobotomys album, "Candyman", was released in 1994 (in Europe under Steve Lukather's name). Steve recorded Candyman with his usual amp setup: a trio of Marshalls with 4x12 cabinets full of Celestion Vintage 30s; one rig carries his dry tone, the others the effected signal. His guitar is => Music Man's new Luke model."I was grooving on the guitars Music Man's Sterling Ball was making for Eddie Van Halen, so I got together with him," recounts Steve. "It's not some earth-shattering new concept, just a really well-crafted Strat-type guitar, very versatile and easy to play."
The album was
recorded in studio A of the the Capitol studio's and mixed in studio D with
some overdubs done at Devonshire in the valley. The band consisted of Simon
Phillips (who co-wrote "Party in Simon's pants"), Steve Lukather, David
Garfield, Chris Trujillo, John Pena and Lenny Castro. => Fee Waybil collaborated with Garfield and
Lukather on 5 songs and did some background vocals, Richard Page and Kevin
Curry joined Waybill on the backing vocals, => Paul Rodgers (ex-Free, ex-Bad
Company) did guest vocals on the cover of Hendrix' "Freedom"
and David Paich supplied a real bluesy organ on "Never walk
alone".
In an interview with Guitar UK (september 1994), Steve comments on a couple of songs:
Song for Jeff
"Yeah, it's actually a musical tribute to Jeff Beck and a heartfelt tribute to my brother Jeff
Porcaro."
Freedom
"This is a childhood favorite of mine that no one's ever covered before."
Born yesterday
"Our => Steely Dan tribute? Creatchy (aka David Garfield)and
I went and saw Steely the night before we wrote
it; it was musically inspired by them. What a show, Steely, man, f**king great
to see Walter (Becker) playing."
Party in Simon's pants
"Aha! Well, Simon didn't know the title and as it was an instrumental I had the luxury of
calling it what I wanted! It's just a weird song with a 17/8 time signature -the riff is, anyway-
and when we were looking for a title I just wrote out the chart and put, There's A Party In
Simon's Pants! And it just sort of stuck. I have a sick sense of humor..."
The title and the cover-art (a psychedelic blur with an eye in the middle) refer to an idol of Lukathers: Sammy Davis jr. In a 1993 interview with "Guitar", Steve Lukather talked about his affection for Sammy Davis jr:
Question: "What's your infatuation with Sammy Davis, Jr., alias the Candyman? And that medallion you bought at an
auction-is that really from him or Mr. T?"
Steve Lukather: "Actually, that was a gift from Stan Lynch [of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers ]. He gave that to me as
a good luck charm.
Sammy has been a part of my life for many years. I always thought he was the coolest. I don't make fun of the guy; I
dig him. I watch all [his] movies. He had that great Vegas jive. I've got his golf clubs. His golf bag says "The
Candyman" on it. There's little pictures of him embossed in the actual clubs.
Sammy just brings good luck, man. Like before every show on this last tour [Kingdom of Desire], right before the house
lights hit we'd turn up his version of "What Kind of Fool Am I." David Paich's father, Marty, did the string arrangement
on it. Everybody would touch the Sammy medallion that I had on before the gig. That was our good luck before we would
hit the stage-everybody had to touch a little Sam. Huddle around Sammy."
There's a small hidden message to be heard on the track "Red House", which is on the US version of "Candyman" and the European "Borrowed time" cd-single. Fast forward to the end of the song, about 4:45. Slowly turn up the volume of the stereo and after you hear Luke break a string, you hear the faint sound of children. In fact, it's Luke's two children Cristina an Trevor, singing 'Who can take his eye out and put it in a glass...". Then a male voice (possibly Luke's) laughs and says "Perfect!". (Toto Legend, July 1995)
The record was re-released in a 5.1 DVD-Audio version in 2002.
Related Pages
Steve LukatherCandyman