Just Above Sunset
Volume 5, Number 10
March 11, 2007

No Cake, No Rain - World Famous MacArthur Park

But who can forget that song, MacArthur Park -

"MacArthur Park" is an epic song written by Jimmy Webb and first performed by Richard Harris on his album A Tramp Shining in 1968. The seminal recording topped the music charts in Europe and peaked at number two on the U.S. charts. The song is named after MacArthur Park, a park in Los Angeles, California.

It was an unusual single, running for more than seven minutes, with a long, climactic orchestral break. The lyrics were more symbolic and sentimental than descriptive (featuring the notable line, "Someone left the cake out in the rain"), and were apparently about a lost love and a rendezvous in the park.

The song has been covered more than fifty times, including versions by Waylon Jennings, The Negro Problem, Glen Campbell, Maynard Ferguson, Stan Kenton, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Liza Minnelli.

A disco version by Donna Summer in 1978 topped the U.S. charts for three weeks and ran to 8:40 in its full-length album version as part of "MacArthur Park suite" on Summer's 1978 double album "Live and More". Her first Billboard Hot 100 number one single in the United States was shorter. Summer also released the 17:40 long medley "MacArthur Park Suite" as a US 12" promo, incorporating the songs "One of a Kind" and "Heaven Knows". The suite went to number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart for five weeks in 1978.

Ed Ames recorded a version featuring only the middle section as "After all the loves of my life". The Four Tops recorded their version of the song, omitting the long instrumental breaks of the song.

A poll conducted by American columnist Dave Barry, recorded in Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs, selected Harris's version of "MacArthur Park" as the worst song ever recorded.

Despite the rather poetic homage paid to it, the real MacArthur Park became known for being a violent place after 1985 when drug deals, shoot-outs and occasional drownings became somewhat common there. Before the decline of the neighborhood, the park featured the traditional paddle-boats and a large fountain in the center of the lake; the park was a popular middle-class destination for over fifty years. The park has been cleaned up and gentrification is occurring all around the surrounding area of Downtown Los Angeles.

Also -

"Weird Al" Yankovic recorded a version of the song for his album Alapalooza called "Jurassic Park," with new lyrics recapping the plot of the film of the same name.

In an episode of The Simpsons, "Lisa the Beauty Queen", Apu's niece Pahusacheta announces that she is going to sing the song in its entirety, while playing the tabla, and the audience laughs at her. They then gasp when she says that she is serious. Later, she is shown performing the last few lines to a bored audience. When she finishes Krusty says "ohh...That just kept goin' huh?"

In another episode of The Simpsons, Homer is upset about being put on hold on the phone. He decides to get back at them by singing his own hold music. One of the songs he sings is "MacArthur Park."

A Muzak version is briefly featured in the film Airplane II: The Sequel, blaring loudly from an airport elevator. All elevator passengers, except for two airline executives, enter or leave the elevator covering their ears.

The song is awful. The park is fine.  No rain.  No cake.

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

CHORUS

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

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!! (upon which Harris suffers an irreversible gender change)

If you use any of these photos for commercial purposes I assume you'll discuss that with me.

These were shot with a Nikon D70 - using lens (1) AF-S Nikkor 18-70 mm 1:35-4.5G ED, or (2) AF Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto, or after 5 June 2006, (3) AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor, 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G ED. They were modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0

The original large-format raw files are available upon request.