# Lyrics to "MacArthur Park"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-to-macarthur-park/178956>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 1, 2003, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-to-macarthur-park/178956 "2003-06-01T16:50:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2003, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-to-macarthur-park/178956/1 "2003-06-01T16:50:08Z")

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Could somebody please explain the lyrics to “MacArthur Park”?

I’m sure this topic has already been done to death, but a coupe searches yielded nothing. And I’d appreciate it if someone could explain _that._

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**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2003, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-to-macarthur-park/178956/2 "2003-06-01T17:04:18Z")

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I searched out data base for “MacArthur Park” and got 67 hits, many of which pointed to Worst Song type threads. [Here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=171413&highlight=macarthur+park) is one in which the lyrics are discussed.

Haj

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**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2003, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-to-macarthur-park/178956/3 "2003-06-01T17:09:56Z")

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A Google seach for “MacArthur Park lyrics” turned up this quote from Jimmy Webb who wrote the song:

> [@](#):
>
> I always think that whatever is art, need not and should not be explained, as someone once said. "But I’ll tell you: MacArthur Park is clearly about a love affair ending, and the person singing it is using the cake and the rain as a metaphor for that. OK, it may be far out there, and a bit incomprehensible, but that is what I was trying to get at. I suppose the whole thing was that I wrote the song at a time in the late 1960s when surrealistic lyrics were the order of the day. It was written around about the same time as Strawberry Fields, so it probably seems a bigger deal now than it was back then. Still, the lyrics never stopped Richard Harris, Frank Sinatra, Donna Summer and any number of trash garage bands from doing it - and who else can say that about one of their songs?

Haj