Can someone expain the verse “MacArthur Park is melting in the rain; I don’t think I can take it because it took so long to bake it, and I’ll never have that recipe again…”
I get the symbolism about how love (and the effort to cultivate a relationship) is like the effort to bake the perfect cake, but what IS MacArthur Park? Is it a place, or the name of some exotic cake? All these years, this has been buggin’ me! - Jinx
It’s a park in Los Angeles. Someone who has been there will be along soon.
This has some interesting comments on the song, including a snippet from an interview with author Jimmy Webb.
He basically says, “I dunno. Beats the hell out of me, too.”
There’s symbolism in the song? I have never noticed. :smack:
Mind you, everytime I hear the song, I have been laughing so hard I guess I never noticed there may have been symbolism in there.
Someone left the cake out in the rain?
Funniest line in a song. Period.
(thanks to Dave Barry for tipping me off to this great piece of music)
It’s too bad the song is held back somewhat by its more-obscure-than-a-squonk lyrics; it’s one of the best compositions in 20th century music, at least IMHO.
Yeah, I liked the music too until I listened to the lyrics…“all the sweet green icing flowing down.”
At one time it was voted “Worst popular song ever” by a large group, but I don’t remember who.
Is there any reason for me to associate Richard Harris with that song? Did he record it?
Yes. He recorded it.
Furthermore, according to MSN Entertainment
From the website Things to do in Los Angeles. Scroll about halfway down the page.
And a map of the surrounding streets.
The line in the song I always took to indicate that the singer’s character had baked a square cake and decorated it to resemble the park. Why? It beats the hell out of me.
Macarthur Park looks pretty scary when I drive by it. I wouldn’t put it on my “must see” list for L.A.
I heard the song peformed by Jimmy Webb once. He wrote it and it sounded much better when he sang it, although it’s impossible to get the Richard Harris version out of my memory. Harris was a great actor, but as a singer he was…a great actor.
How could you not love the Richard Harris version? What are you, one of those philistines who prefers the Donna Summer?
Ah, but what about the Waylon Jennings and Jesse Colter version, Otto? Truly a point of pride for fans of Hoss.
Actually, I prefer the Weird Al Jurassic Park version.
Now the old Michelle Shocked song makes sense to me:
“I heard the screams of the dying dark
Through the sweet green icing of MacArthur Park”
“What is MacArthur Park?”
The worst song ever written!
Well, maybe. But probably not.
Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” went to number 2 a full three years earlier, even though it was six minutes long. A huge number of AM radio stations were playing the seven-minute-long version of the Doors’ “Light My Fire” in 1967, the year before “MacArthur Park.” Also in 1967, Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe” went to number 1 right after the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love.” Both songs were originally six to seven minutes long and edited down for radio, but I believe both were over 3:30 and may be over four.
The music world was changing pretty rapidly by 1968. “MacArthur Park” can claim some of the credit for breaking the length barrier, but it was just part of the trend of the times.
I don’t know why everyone says it’s the worst song ever written. It may be among the worst lyrics, but the music is good. And the bad lyrics are just those couple of lines abou the green icing. Ok, and the striped pair of pants. But c’mon, I can list a dozen songs that have hit the top 40 that have awful lyrics if you just read them written on a page.
The best version of this song ever recorded was Maynard Ferguson on Live At Jimmy’s (no lyrics!).
I haven’t seen or heard Jimmy Webb interviewed in quite some time, but the last time I did, he seemed rather bored and exasperated by the perennial “What does Macarthur Park mean” question. He seemed to have reached the point where he just wanted to shrug, “Hey, it was the SIXTIES, man! What do ANY of the songs from that era mean? What does “Nights in White Satin” mean?”
Mmmm…white satin sheets.
I had heard long, long ago (from friends of mine as we sat around in a circle, a la “That 70’s Show”) that the “cake” was symbolic for a baby – girl had sex in the park (as was common in those free-lovin’ hippie days, apparently) and got pregnant and had a cheapie (and in those days) illegal abortion. “There’ll never be a cake like that again!” basically means although the hippie chick may have other kids, but that fetus she terminated will never come back.
It was supposed to be a cautionary safe-sex song. At least that’s what I’ve always been led to believe.
Could I have been wrong all this time?