Monday gets a bad rap, in pop culture. Garfield hates them, as do the Boomtown Rats. And yet, the Mamas and the Papas built this deceptively simple, wonderfully hooky song about them, so they can’t be all bad. Not that this is a tribute to Mondays; it’s another “the weekend is over, and so is the fun” song, despite the zingy strings in the background and lush harmonies smothering the bad news with sunshine (“Oh Monday morning/You gave me no warning/Of what was to be”). I’m a big fan of songs where the sound and the intent seem at cross-purposes, and this is definitely a prime example of that; you listen without really paying attention, and it seems like a relaxed, mellow upbeat tune and then the lyrics tell an entirely different story. Just goes to show: Two-part harmonies counterpointed with two-part harmonies make everything better. Someone should deliver the television news like that.
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