Sometimes I listen to a song but only hear the words subconsciously if at all. MacArthur’s Park is one of those; I was certainly aware of the singer’s regret about the lost recipe but that’s it. I found the song quite poignant so maybe the lyrics penetrated my subconscious but I was unaware of them consciously. (Rather than being too bored to listen to the words, I wonder if the song’s strength put me in a trance?) Anyone else like this with some songs?
Anyway, I finally read the lyrics. (Maybe I had to because Dopers mentioned the cake left out in the rain one too many times. ) I decided the sentiment of the song was special. There are many MANY songs about a lost love but none like this one.
This, to me, is fine poetry. The meaning is vivid.
But overall the song suffers from horridly silly metaphors. The “striped pair of pants” might be almost as bad as the lost wedding cake recipe.
So… Several Dopers are excellent poets. Take up the challenge! Re-engineer a few lines of lyrics and change MacArthur’s Park from a beautiful but failed song into a masterpiece.
MacDonald’s food is clogging up your heart.
All the cheap and greasy phony cow.
Someone said their tea was AOK.
I don’t think that I can eat there
Cos you won’t find decent meat there
So I’m heading down the road to Chick-fil-A, oh yeah!
There will be other brands of fries
And I will eat them
There will be lots of other meals for me
Someone will bring them
I will drink the Pepsi™ while it’s cold
And never let you catch me
Thinking it’s all a joke
But after all the tacos and KFC’s
And food from Wendy’s and Arby’s
I’ll still lust for Mac ‘n’ Coke™
I can’t think of any changes. I actually like the song. Always have since it was new. Its weird metaphors work in the song. They aren’t the best, but they work.
It was a different time, you understand.
But I do like the parodies in posts 2 and 3. Classic!
Jimmy Webb is a great song writer. Up, Up and Away", “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”, “Wichita Lineman”, “Galveston”, “The Worst That Could Happen”, “All I Know”, any many more. But you write one stupid song…
…and I found that recipe again,
(cause I looked it up on the internet)
I watched cake boss last night
and they made a giant green cake,
the recipe looked so good I tried it myself
I thought I could bake it
but it took so long to make it
and that recipe was a disaster again
You know of course, it’s 60’s lyrics. I am I said. To no one there. And no one heard at all, not even the chair, for example. They didn’t have to make sense. Something about drugs and acid and shit. MacArthur Park is a truly beautiful song. I’ve heard Jimmy Webb sing it as a ballad. It’s perfect. The problem is simply the over produced, over orchestrated aria that Mr. Harris tried to make it. But, I actually always liked it.
If you parse it out line by line, the song works well in most parts:
Spring was never waiting for us, girl
It ran one step ahead
As we followed in the dance
Okay, that makes sense. Then the metaphor goes in the wrong direction. I’m not a poet, or a songwriter, but here’s one way to pull it back
*Between the parted pages and were pressed
In life’s sweet, bitter book
Like a feather from a nest *
Now we get to the real trainwreck, with the park and the cake and the rain and all that. But there’s still some vivid imagery we should try to preserve.
Our love died there in MacArthur Park
Someone left the cake out in the pouring rain
The sweet, green icing flowing down
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!
We throw the word “love” in so people understand IT’S A SONG ABOUT A BREAKUP, NOT A CAKE. The flip a couple of lines so that people understand 1) Love is like a cake 2) that’s falling apart and 3) really hard to put back together.
By the way, I saw Richard Harris on stage in Camelot. That hyperemotive delivery may not work well on a record, but it’s electrifying in a theater.
MacArthur’s Park’s now sleeping in the dark,
All the picnic trappings fallen down.
Forgotten dead balloons haunt all my dreams:
Though love’s memory’s still yearning,
Like yesterday there’s no returning,
And I’ll never have a dream like that again.
Oh no!
MacArthurs Park is closed down, to be paved
A garage is needed for our cars!
Now there will be no more destroyed cakes
The old park will now be covered!
Tons of concrete poured all over!
So fuck your park, I just got sweet revenge!
A-gain!
) I decided the sentiment of the song was special. There are many MANY songs about a lost love but none like this one.