Tue Dec 7, 2021, 09:49 AM

It's MacArthur Park time once again...

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12 replies	Author	Time	Post
It's MacArthur Park time once again... (Original post)	Mr. Scorpio	Dec 2021	OP
"MacArthur Park" is a great song. Why do people hate it so much? NT	mahatmakanejeeves	Dec 2021	#1
Everybody gets pissed off when they remember the time they	Tomconroy	Dec 2021	#3
For me, it was the knowledge	EYESORE 9001	Dec 2021	#8
The lyrics were silly (supposedly composed on a bet by Jimmy Webb) but I always liked it	hlthe2b	Dec 2021	#11
I am embarrassed to this day by my youthful admiration of those lyrics. (nt)	Paladin	Dec 2021	#2
With the famous "cake out in the rain," this is one of the more lyrically intriguing songs	Goonch	Dec 2021	#4
Love This Song	colsohlibgal	Dec 2021	#5
This message was self-deleted by its author	Hotler	Dec 2021	#6
The singer has a nice voice.	Cracklin Charlie	Dec 2021	#7
Maynard Ferguson Live at Jimmy's is a great version.	Hotler	Dec 2021	#9
Pos def on that !	eppur_se_muova	Dec 2021	#10
Ilove the Richard Harris version	Xavier Breath	Dec 2021	#12

Response to Mr. Scorpio (Original post)

Tue Dec 7, 2021, 09:58 AM

mahatmakanejeeves (46,023 posts)

1. "MacArthur Park" is a great song. Why do people hate it so much? NT

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Response to mahatmakanejeeves (Reply #1)

Tue Dec 7, 2021, 10:06 AM

Tomconroy (5,559 posts)

3. Everybody gets pissed off when they remember the time they

left a cake out in the rain.

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Response to Tomconroy (Reply #3)

Tue Dec 7, 2021, 10:37 AM

EYESORE 9001 (20,833 posts)

8. For me, it was the knowledge

that I’d never have that recipe again. Oh no!

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Response to mahatmakanejeeves (Reply #1)

Tue Dec 7, 2021, 11:51 AM

hlthe2b (92,207 posts)

11. The lyrics were silly (supposedly composed on a bet by Jimmy Webb) but I always liked it

including both the Richard Harris version and Donna Summer's later "disco" version.

I am unabashedly a fan of the song--silly lyrics and all.

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Response to Mr. Scorpio (Original post)

Tue Dec 7, 2021, 10:04 AM

Paladin (25,441 posts)

2. I am embarrassed to this day by my youthful admiration of those lyrics. (nt)

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Response to Mr. Scorpio (Original post)

Tue Dec 7, 2021, 10:13 AM

Goonch (2,426 posts)

4. With the famous "cake out in the rain," this is one of the more lyrically intriguing songs

"...ever recorded. MacArthur Park is a real park in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, but that's about the only tangible reference.

Jimmy Webb, who wrote the song, explained in Q magazine: "It's 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 I wrote the song at a time in the late 1960s when surrealistic lyrics were the order of the day."

The love affair Webb speaks of was with Suzy Horton, who in 1993 married Linda Ronstadt's cousin, Bobby. Said Webb (in the Los Angeles Times), "MacArthur Park was where we met for lunch and paddleboat rides and feeding the ducks. She worked across the street at a life insurance company. Those lyrics were all very real to me - there was nothing psychedelic about it to me. The cake, it was an available object. It was what I saw in the park at the birthday parties. But people have very strong reactions to the song. There's been a lot of intellectual venom."

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Response to Mr. Scorpio (Original post)

Tue Dec 7, 2021, 10:19 AM

colsohlibgal (5,205 posts)