MacArthur Park by Richard Harris

[eameece]

Jimmy's lost love also resonates to the lost ideals of 1968 in the very Park's actual location. For just down the street, just when the song was a hit, Robert Kennedy was killed. America never recovered.

[Projectsocial1234]

DUDE MY DAD GREW UP THERE! hes dead now R.I.P. Robert MacArthur the place is named after his dad a war person

[lob287]

Baked goods and bad weather. My two favorite song subjects.

[Piklethedoodad]

+1 if you came here after watching Vertical Limit

[Texguy1976]

Thanks for the video! One of my favorite songs.

[CloverTV]

Never called R.H. a wierdo.

[stevevandien]

Growing up in the 1960s, I heard this record more times than I could count on the radio. All these years later, some of the lyrics remain bizarre (all that baking-cake stuff).

BUT -- DESPITE all that, there's no denying the sheer, in-your-face POWER of "MacArthur Park." It comes through in the renditions of Harris, Campbell, Summer -- who else has recorded it?

[davekingpt]

@stevevandien

Maynard Ferguson did a big band version with him on trumpet. Also Jimmy Webb performed it on the album "Ten Easy Pieces" playing piano and singing himself. Jimmy is an excellent pianist and his performances of "Galveston", "Witchita Lineman", "The Moon's a Harsh Mistress" and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" on that album are all very well done and very enjoyable along with "MacArthur Park".

[stevevandien]

@davekingpt Oh, DUH on my part:). I'd forgotten that I actually heard MF and his orchestra perform it at a Milwaukee club while I was in high school, 35 years ago. I must be getting old:).

Haven't heard Webb's version, but he's a fine interpreter of his own songs; will certainly check it out -- thanks much! Best, Steve

[mediamadman747]

I'm sure, these days, you could find the cake's "recipe" on the internet.

[mayafrica]

Love this song........brings back memories during my high school days!

[TypesALot]

When the music starts at about 6:20, it sounds like one of those old TV detective shows that used to be on TV back in the 70's like "Barnaby Jones" or something! LOL! i have always thought that, but it is still and will always be a great song no matter who covers it, except for the disco version Donna Summer did in 1978.

[allisonforfornsed]

wow....that's hilarious!

[Calkan58]

Back in Kansas where I grew up, one of the local TV stations used the fast instrumental part as the theme song for their nighttime news broadcasts. I thought it was pretty cool then and I still do. : ) Richard Harris was excellent In Harry Potter also. Too bad he couldn't have lived long enough to make the rest of the sequels. : (

[guyfawkesistaken]

@Calkan58 He didn't want to be a part of Harry Potter.

[sagilady52]

Classic song!

[CloverTV]

I shot this video some yeras ago, in January 2006.

[dodgedavis]

Did you record this recently?

[CloverTV]

Well, you can`t like them all. His singing is little bit strange but i like it! Maybe I like all the wierdos of this sucking planet. Time to grow up?

[herbgarratt]

@CloverTV

Tried any other planets?

How do you know this one sucks?

Might be REALLY good?

[35mm35]

@CloverTV, Harris' voice had more character than beauty, and that gave him a certain "everyman" quality that suited the lyrics and the locale. Nothing like unrequited love to inspire brilliant lyrics. Pure poetry, and that's the key.

[guyfawkesistaken]

@CloverTV Did you just call Richard Harris a "Weirdo?"

[TracyAndersonFoxhunt]

i like richard as an actor, but his singing kind of sucks. i've spit many times in this park

[philipvanlidth]

Sounds a little like a first love to me, one that the writer may have thought would lead to a lifetime together (wedding cake?). In any case, at the moment he doesn't think he'll ever find quite this kind of love again. Frankly, I've felt the same kind of feeling in the past, and I have always loved this song...

[philipvanlidth]

If you look at the lyrics, it's obvious to me that this song is about a love affair that ended, much to the writer's pain. He is remembering the times they shared in MacArthur Park (it apparently looked better in the 60s than now, from the comments I've read) and considering that, even if he does find another love someday, he will always remember this particular one for the rest of his life.

[leilabeauty]

@philipvanlidth from one of the concert i watched, and learned a little trivia about this song, actually the lyrics is not really about a love for a partner but love for a long lost child, w/c was base on true life story of the writer of this song, the cake that he is referring in this song is his child, whom was lost while they were at macarthur park, and never found.

[philipvanlidth]

@leilabeauty According to an interview with Jimmy Webb in the LA Times in 2007, MacArthur Park was where he and a love interest met during their relationship, and in an interview with Terry Groce on NPR Webb stated that the song was about the end of a love affair. As Webb is both lyricist and composer of the song, I would imagine that his statements are authoritative...

[leilabeauty]

ah ok, maybe the information i heard was not accurate, or maybe just a story he made up. i dont know. thanks for the information anyway

[LAKE424]

bought a love gone bad and he spent alot of time building the relationship and now its over he doesn"t think he will meet someone like he had and have that kind of relationship again

[CloverTV]

Yeah, it´s Jimmys wedding cake which is smelting in the rain...

[harponercam]

No change!

[dalesman4]

A remarkable song. I know many others have covered it but I doubt if anyone will ever match Harris's interpretation (have I used an incorrect possessive form here, Petmama?). Match this with the other tracks on 'A Tramp Shining' anfd you have what is just about my favourite all-time album.

When I play this sort of music I sup whisky, turn the lights down and think back to the women I have known. 'A Tramp Shining' - an album for lovers. Play it again, Sam. Harris - you went too soon, man. RIP

[lpbonci]

Beautful music and marvelous Park! Five!!! :-)>

[DINOBRAV69]

About five years ago, my car broke down right beside MacArthur park at 3 in the morning. I was amazed at all the activity inside that park. People were going in and out. Everyone was an addict. I even saw a couple of nurses dropping off some drugs.

[petmama1217]

Recorded in 1968, running more than 7 minutes, Harris's topped the music charts in Europe and peaked at #2 on the U.S. charts. The song peaked at #10 in Billboard's Easy Listening survey, and was #8 for the year on WABC's overall 1968 chart.[4]

Through his recording, Harris can be heard using the incorrect possessive form, "MacArthur's Park". Webb said he tried correcting Harris during re-takes, but gave up when he simply could not (or would not) sing the correct words

[peck4111]

the song is about life

[staffbus1]

It's easy to understand, 'someone' left a cake out in the rain, all we have to do is find out who that 'someone' was and shoot them, obviously ruined a bloody good cake by the sounds of it, and now the recipe is missing too!!.

[minty448]

Great Stuff, You gave me a good laugh at your take on this song, take care ,minty.

[CloverTV]

I am all messed up person this morning here in Helsinki, Finland. But frankly speaking it was Jimmy Webb´s wedding cake which melt out in the rain. Think about that. My cakes are all melt down, but this is another story inside the story.

[yahoofreak456]

weird al messed up the song

[thebrainsquid]

@yahoofreak456 That's what a parody is

[swampfoxgeneral]

This is a masterpiece. Jimmy Webb never revealed his meaning of this song, and when pressed said "everyone can decide on their own what this song means, and they will all be right."

He without question, was one of the most important artist in American musical history.

[s6u6r6f6]

This is a song about an acid trip....plain and simple.

ya hadda be there.

nice shots of the park, though.

Its where you tripped if you lived in the city: the Park...any park

[meggiblu]

He was asked what the song was about; not drugs, love. That might just be too simple for some people to accept but it is what the writer said.

[s6u6r6f6]

This wasnt the 70s...it was the late 60's, everybody tripped...its what a park in summer looks like when it rains...a melting cake...at least for Jimmy it did...guess thats better than a kaliedoscope turning...turning....a daylight aurora borealis...............ooooooh nooooooooo! listen to the last 4 phrases of the song....and how they grow and explode....oh no....oh no....oh no......oh....nooooooooooooooo­o! play this song ten times in a row it almost took you through a whole trip. actually...

[meggiblu]

Someone say it was the 70s? I recall this song living in California in 1968. My aunt took me to a lovely park where lovers were strolling and sitting in the grass. She told me this was the Park written about in the song on the radio; MacArthur Park. There was a piece in the paper of an interview with Jimmy Webb and it talked about breaking off with a girl for reasons beyond their control. If it is or isn't about drugs, them tripping the day they fell in love or their cupcakes melting..whatever.

[s6u6r6f6]

far be it from me to stand between you and your grandmother!  I accept your description! MacArthur's Park...god bless him...I'm surprised California didnt rename it for Che Guevara

[meggiblu]

Grandmother? Maybe you mean the Aunt that took me to the Park? Surprised California didn't rename it for 'Guevara'? What? Why?

I don't see any connection at all...maybe you were trying to make a joke or it's a mindset thing...or maybe to those that never saw the real park they invert their own 'reality' in place of the actual park.

[s6u6r6f6]

I'm from Mill Valley. I've lived in Monterrey, Lancaster, San Diego and Ocean Beach.

we had a park in SD...Balboa Park. ...nice park as parks go. Come see it sometime! but MacArthur's Park? I know it only as music by Jimmy Webb .....better left unvisited if only for my memory's sake of this song.

[CloverTV]

Good comment. I agree. It's all in this song: life, hopes, dreams, dreams that never comes true, loneliness, knowledge that you're only a short while visiting this planet before is your turn to go the Big Sleep...

I am now in Saigon. Here's buzz after Cambodia. Many Americans hanging around. Also the former GI Joe's drinking beer in the street bars.I like this city. It has the soul!

[r33driftinhard]

death that is

[Marty1fatbstard]

The depth, meaning and metaphors used in the lyrics of this song go deeper than anyone less than a mature adult could possible comprehend. One has to have lived ,loved and truly lost beyond any reconciliation to even start to understand. No amount of education can give the ability to understand the hurt and reason behind the thinking of this song. only experience. Love is akin to hate as hate is also a passion. Its all in there. If you been there you will feel it. Awsome song. No single meaning.

[robswartzer]

this is by far Richard Harris' and Jimmy Webb's best song ever!

[profling]

The original MacArthur Park cannot hold a candle to Prospect Park in Brooklyn, which is where I first heard the song and which conveys, to me at least, the best feeling of the song. The actual park is ugly.

[foxofthesouth3]

Sounds like he's in his fav. park, & he's depressed at how it looks or something. He's going to take his own life, People will morn his lost, make a monument to him of some kind in the park, it'll be raining during the opening day, & other people will be encouraged to write as well as sings songs! At least that's what I think...

[CloverTV]

Lyrics from up to top, sorry that comment can be only 500 charachters...

[CloverTV]

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 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!

[danoba6]

Has anyone got the lyrics for this?

[CloverTV]

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 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!

[jajack33]

that was my oder bro he hates this song alltho i love this song

[CloverTV]

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

[Orbo2009]

It's the global Economy Stupid!

[CloverTV]

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

[gdgca]

love the song, one of my all-time favourites .. reminds me of my beloved .. and not gay

[CloverTV]

MacArthur 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!!

[gdgca]

Yes, that `recipe` .. hmm .. in the cookbook from above I believe, don`t available to mere mortals :-)

[jajack33]

lol this song is fo gay people

[Rakin2008]

Why do people say something is Gay when they really mean it is stupid or something?...

I am not saying the song is stupid, because it is a great song, but I think that is what this person is trying to say.

[taylor100550]

thanks for posting the vid i been looking for it