MacArthur Park--brilliant or bust?

MacArthur Park
by Jimmy Webb

(sung by Richard Harris)

Spring was never waiting for us, girl
It ran one step ahead
As we followed in the dance
Between the parted pages and were pressed
In love's hot, fevered iron
Like a striped pair of pants

MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!

I recall the yellow cotton dress
Foaming like a wave
On the ground around your knees
The birds, like tender babies in your hands
And the old men playing checkers by the trees

MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!



There will be another song for me
For I will sing it
There will be another dream for me
Someone will bring it
I will drink the wine while it is warm
And never let you catch me looking at the sun
And after all the loves of my life
After all the loves of my life
You'll still be the one

I will take my life into my hands and I will use it
I will win the worship in their eyes and I will lose it
I will have the things that I desire
And my passion flow like rivers through the sky
And after all the loves of my life
After all the loves of my life
I'll be thinking of you
And wondering why



MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!
Oh, no
No, no
Oh no!!

Jimmy Webb was/is a fantasic songwriter where music is concerned.

'someone left the cake out in the rain.....I don't think that i can take it, cuz it took so long to bake it and i'll never have that recipe again....'


sorry but that is pure tripe.

and didn't they have a stand-in do the very high notes at the end?

What I find perplexing is that both Webb's music and lyrics for many songs are brilliant. That is not the case with this one, though.

brilliant.

pure genius.


calablanca records' gift to the world.

I thought that was this:



By the way, Lisa and I listened to all four of these one night. Not surprisingly, Gene Simmons was the worst. In fact, it's the worst thing I've ever heard. And I've heard a lot of crap.

casablanca gave the world many gifts

on the Simpsons playing it on the tablas for a talent show :P

Dave Thomas is Richard Harris and he just dances throughout the majority of the song. And calls for towels. :)

and get some new group to sing it and then the world would call it brilliant. I actually like it exactly as it is.

:puke:

But only if it's performed by His Royal Highness, the God of the Stratosphere.

>



Maynard Ferguson

...he hasn't played that way in at least 10-15 years, if not longer. The last three or four times I saw him, he just couldn't hit the high notes anymore. Unfortunately, he kept trying.

I like the music, and I loved the song the first time I heard it up until I heard the line about the cake in the rain. Some stupid lyrics can be ignored, but that just stunk way too excessively.

to me. Whatever the image, it fits well to me.

pretentous, pre-art rock garbage...

It's one of the songs that chased me away from oldies radio.