A Terrific Early Album By Carly Simon!

Carly Simon straddled the world between folk and pop music in the early 1970s, and forged herself a place in the pantheon of very successful singers like Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, and a number of others like Carol King who were on the pop charts and in the folk clubs earlier in their career. This was her first big album in terms of success, and had the smash hit "Anticipation" on the album pushing it up the charts. Yet there are also a number of other interesting, provocative, and beautiful selections here, including "Legend In Your Own Time", a song obviously about her then-beau and soon to be husband James Taylor, whose professionally educated parents (his father was a physician) strongly disapproved of his non-academic and quite unprofessional choice of careers. My personal favorite here is "The Garden", which never got any air-time, but is a moving, intimate word picture of a song with a lovely melody, evocative lyrics, and an absoluutely haunting vocal. "Anticipation" was one of her first autobiographical confessional albums, and it gives us an interesting vantage point with which to understand her better. This is a great early album by an artist who is often under-appreciated. This is one I heartily recommend. Enjoy

Carly Simon's songwriting skills improve on her second album

"Anticipation" was Carly Simon's second album, the album cover showing Simon in her hippie chic outfit. Produced in 1971 it shows Simon further developing her songwriting skills. The title track, written about waiting for future husband James Taylor to show up for a date, has been diluted somewhat over the years because of all those Heinz ketchup commercials, but the second hit off of the album, "Legend in Your Own Time" better captures Simon at her best during this period. However, "I've Got to Have You" and "The Girl You Think You See" (co-written with Jacob Brackman) are the tracks that best represent Simon's strengths as a "confessional" singer/songwriter in the Seventies. These are songs that embraced vulnerability, not as a weakness, but as passionate strength. There is a tendency to see this as being a "feminist" perspective, and I am not totally sure about that. Clearly it embraces the feminine and redefines traditional elements as being strengths rather than weaknesses, which is at least compatible with the feminist perspective. It also made Simon's music accessible to those who were deal with the pain and promise of romance, which has it universal appeal as well. There is also a nice cover of Kris Kristofferson's "I've Got To Have You." Overall, "Anticipation" is an improvement on Simon's self-titled debut album, and really does set the stage for what was to happen with her 1972 smash album "No Secrets."

TALENT CRYSTALLIZED INTO THUNDERING CINEMA

Between Les McCann, Weather Report, Yes and Spirit's 12 Dreams of Dr Sardonicus, it was a strange favorite amongst the bunch in 1972. Carly had grabbed ears a year earlier on AM radio with "That's the Way I ALways Heard It Should Be" with her self-titled debut, but the album was all over the place, an imperfect mixture of East Coast folk and oddball country. But someone focused her many talents by the next year when "Anticipation" arrived with its shiny cover and odd dozen batch of beguiling songs, and not a dud amongst them. The production was even more stelllar than the first album, and the whole thing seemed infused with a cinematic grandness (and not grandiosity) that made the whole things SOUND and FEEL bigger than life.

Even the hard rock kids wanted to hear it.

People have described the songs better before me, but the hit title tune has regrettably been spoiled by that ketchup commercial in years past. Nevermind. The sun-dappled and shimmering "Summer's Coming Round Again" is worth the price of the CD itself, and little else in the folk-country canon has been more EROTIC than "(If I Have Known You Only) Three Days." Feeling ennui and lacking that zest for life? Spin "(Come into) The Garden" and be transported to Nirvana instantly.

Last but not least was the maturing fledgling's cover version of Kris Kristofferson's "I've Got to Have You." Ooooooooooh! This is still a scorcher! Carly comes off as the 50 Foot Woman in the best way imaginable, and the production gives voice to sexuality and angst rarely heard in folk or country.

If any album from this period so effectively captured a dance with the Passions, it was "Anticipation", and time has not spoiled its great power as a pop accomplishment.

And this is where we parted ways, but I will always say Thank You.