In the days after a Manhattan grand jury indicted President Donald Trump, anticipation has been growing about when and how the former president will surrender to authorities and undergo processing for the next step in the legal process. That day will come tomorrow. Until then, the anticipation will continue, so our natural choice for Sharp Notes Monday this week is Carly Simon’s “Anticipation.”
Of course, the lyrics of the song are about a different type of anticipation, As Simon explained on Dan Rather The Big Interview television program in 2016, she wrote the song while nervously awaiting Cat Stevens’ arrival for dinner:
“I invited him to come to my apartment when we were going to play Carnegie Hall together. It was about 7 o’clock when he supposed to arrive and he hadn’t arrived yet. I was so nervous that the chicken wasn’t cooked and the cherries would have melted. I picked up the guitar. I had to fill my brain with something. I pretended I was Cat Stevens. I started out with very Cat Stevensy chords, very abrupt. I was so stuck in the moment of being fearful so as a lesson to myself I said: “but we can never know about the days to come”. I didn’t know when the door-bell was going to ring. I liked that. It was all of a sudden a quarter to eight and I had written the whole song.“
“Anticipation” has been adapted for other purposes in the past, including a 1979 commercial for Heinz ketchup.
As part of our “Sharp Notes, Sharp Thoughts” music and social media project, we share a song every Monday to start your week.
View previous Sharp Notes Monday selections.
Categories: Jandoli Institute, Music and Social Justice, Sharp Notes Monday, Sharp Notes Sharp Thoughts
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