While Waiting on Cat Stevens To Show up for Their Date, Carly Simon Wrote “Anticipation”

Relationships, flings, and or situationships are some of the finest and most commonly used inspirations in songwriting. This is an evident fact, and the music business has made a killing from these types of songs. Well, that is all partially thanks to Carly Simon and particularly, her 1972 romantic diss track, “You’re So Vain”. Simon’s 1972 single is a generational hit and one of the original hit heartbreak anthems. However, it is far from the only song Simon wrote about this subject matter.

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As a matter of fact, before Carly Simon wrote and recorded her “You’re So Vain”, she wrote and recorded her 1971 single, “Anticipation”. Which peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. Regardless, “You’re So Vain” is not the only romantic song about a celebrity, as Simon wrote “Anticipation” in light of Cat Stevens (now known as Yusuf Islam) showing up late for a date at her house.

Some Extra Time and Nervousness: Why Carly Simon Decided To Write “Anticipation”

While Carly Simon’s “Anticipation” is not nearly as poignant and negatively direct as her generational hit. It still derives from one of her somewhat sour romantic experiences. Concerning how the song came to fruition, Simon recalled, “So I was waiting for [Cat Stevens] to show up at my little apartment on 35th Street, and I was very nervous. He was late, and I thought, ‘Oh my god, this is really too scary that he’s coming for dinner, what’s going to happen, what’s going to happen, what’s going to happen,’” per the Grammy Foundation.

Given her comments, Carly Simon was clearly feeling a lot of negative anticipation. So, to get her mind off the debilitating “what if” questions, she decided she was just going to write a song while she waited. “I caught myself not living in the moment, and so I picked up my guitar, and I said okay, I’m just going to keep on writing a song until he arrives,” stated Simon.

“So I picked up the guitar, and I imitated him, and I started doing Cat Stevens lunges into the air with my notes,” she added. “And so the whole song was kind of done so immediately because I was afraid of losing the song before he came, because I liked it. I liked it from the first verse on. And so I finished it by the time he arrived. I guess he was about 40 minutes late.”

It is unclear when that date happened. However, Simon and Stevens did have a relationship spanning between 1969 and 1970.

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