"MacArthur Park" by Richard Harris: Love it or hate it?

[TheWizardOfMudd]

I downloaded some Glen Campbell songs for my collection years ago and ended up doing research on the songwriter, Jimmy Webb. I was surprised to find that he wrote "MacArthur Park."

In the course of the research, I came upon web sites with themes as, "Worst Songs Ever," and "Greatest Songs Ever." "MacArthur Park" figured prominently on all of the web sites, pro and con.

What a divisive song!

Love it, or hate it?

Personally, I love it because I figure Johnny Carson does.

[laura888]

1. I love the song.

But I'm curious - why do you care what Johnny Carson thinks?

[TheWizardOfMudd]

4. Good question

In my mind, I just imagine the song defines a time period in which someone like Johnny Carson would have become hip to it while he was in between divorces.

I never thought of it as a song for very young people, at the time.

[Art_from_Ark]

21. I was in elementary school at the time it came out

and I loved it-- especially the instrumental part. 1968 was a terrible year for America, but a pretty good year for me, and that song brings back good memories. And, being in Arkansas, the rumor was that the song was about MacArthur Park in Little Rock.

I also remember hearing it on a "golden oldies" station in 1986 right after they announced that the Democrats had taken back the Senate-- so actually, MacArthur Park brings back good memories of two years for me.

[sundog]

2. I like Donna Summers' MacArthur Park...

--

[joeybee12]

23. Yup, MacArthur Park is a stupid song, but GREAT Disco!

[salin]

3. can't help it... love it. But hated the remix.

[elperromagico]

5. It's not a bad song musically,

but that cake metaphor has never sat well with me.

[pagerbear]

27. Mmmmmmmm............cake...............

...all that sweet green icing flowing down.........

[moof]

6. Love the song, Love Harris, Like his rendition of it.

[Dirk39]

7. Love love love love love it....

I love THAT song, I love the stupid lyrics, I love and admire and celebrate the click-clack bass sound, which was invented by Bert Kaempfert, who grew up about 2 miles from where I'm sitting now in Germany: the guy, who did write strangers in the night for Sinatra. And being an amateurish bass-player: to figure that one out, is harder than some of James Jamerson's Motown-classics.
I luuuuuve it,
Hello from Germany,
Dirk

[mitchum]

8. It was surprising to find out that the great Jimmy Webb...

wrote that atrocity, wasn't it? Not even in the same league as "Wichita Lineman, By The Time I Get To Phoenix, and "Galveston" (great songs all)

[wtmusic]

9. The bizarre, oversized track

is a perfect fit for the bizarre, oversized lyrics.

Love it. :thumbsup:

[ClintonTyree]

10. Hate it.........

with a passion. To me it's the most inane piece of tripe ever. Richard Harris as an actor wasn't bad, I loved "Man in the Wilderness" but his singing drove me up the wall.

[ForrestGump]

11. Hate it. Detest it. Loathe it. Can't stand it. But Donna Summers'

disco remake is an improvement....this may be partly because hers is the version I first knew, and it has situational nostalgic associations, but she also has a better voice and the thing doesn;t lurch along quite so interminably as does old Ricardo's original.

My favorite, of course, was Elvis' off-the-cuff a capella rendition during the taping of his '68 TV Special, in a falsetto that he continued with a similar tribute to "Tiptoe Through The Tulips." One reason that this is my favorite is that it lasts but a few seconds.

[TheWizardOfMudd]

12. Perhaps, some day, . . .

. . . you will be able to step outside yourself and objectively evaluate a song in the context of its time, place or period, including the author's and singer's contemporaneous pop sensibilities, which may be unique to a framework defined by a temporary or flowing artistic culture, in which case your emotions may subside and your knowledge will overcome.

[ForrestGump]

13. Perhaps, one day,

you'll stop playing provocateur, stop spouting pretentious crap, and stop making broad and deep assumptions about people that you don't even know.

[TheWizardOfMudd]

14. You hate, detest, loathe and can't stand a song!

What did it do to make you feel this way?

[ForrestGump]

18. That's my prerogative, to quote a stupid Bobby Brown song

What it did to me was to play in my vicinity. It traumatized me. I'm hating it in self-defence.

[Wapsie B]

15. Only if Maynard Ferguson plays

his rendition of it. But even at that, it's far from the Boss's best work.

[Hotler]

28. I've seen Maynard do that piece live.

He blew the whole house away. He always has a good band behind. Lots of power and talent.

[blackcat77]

16. It's goofy

But it was long and obscure so that made it "groovy." If you smoked enough dope, it was tolerable.

The other song he did sorta like this one was "The Yard Went On Forever." All these years later and I still can't figure out EITHER of them.

[NightTrain]

17. It's a piece of shit.

:puke:

[ForrestGump]

19. Perhaps, some day, . . .

. . you will be able to step outside yourself and objectively evaluate a song in the context of its time, place or period, including the author's and singer's contemporaneous pop sensibilities, which may be unique to a framework defined by a temporary or flowing artistic culture, in which case your emotions may subside and your knowledge will overcome.


Or so I've heard.

[TheWizardOfMudd]

20. I just looked up the lyrics

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!!

[newyawker99]

22. I hate this song and it doesn't matter who sings it.

:puke:

[DemExpat]

24. Mixed....LOVE it while it irritates me.....

:crazy:

DemEx

[GalleryGod]

25. Jimmy Webb was a fabulous songwriter! Used to Appear on Glen's Show

Wrote "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" in 20 minutes:crazy:

[Trajan]

26. Call me crazy....

But I am quite sure that Bruce Springsteen was 'inspired' by this song when he wrote 'Born to Run' .... not lyrically, but musically ...

The coda has the same intense, step-wise, atonal bridge development before returning to the final verse .... which is in itself a grand recapitulation of the main theme, sung with the highest vocal intensity and emotion ....

There is a WHOLE LOT of 'MacArthur Park' in 'Born to Run' ...

[Gildor Inglorion]

29. I love it; always have

It was one of those songs we heard on AM radio and tried to understand the lyrics and fathom the deeper meaning hidden within (hey, it was 1968!) And as someone earlier noted, a little bit o' Mother Nature didn't hurt, either. And, as much as I loved Richard Harris, the boy couldn't sing. "Camelot" (the movie)was released in 1968, also; at least that's when I first saw it. What a crushing disappointment. All that incredible talent so hopelessly mis-cast.