“MacArthur Park” Lyrics & Meaning (Richard Harris)

MacArthur Park is an actual park in Los Angeles, California.

And the song MacArthur Park is about that park.

But it is, in essence, a love song.

A love song about a park?

No, not exactly. The song is about the park, but it is also about the writer’s love for a woman.

Keep reading to learn exactly what the Mac Arthur Park lyrics meaning is. We’ll also explain how the length was kind of an “F you!” to the record executives.

 

MacArthur Park Lyrics And Meaning

MacArthur Park was penned by American singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb at the behest of producer Bones Howe in 1967. They originally intended for it to be recorded by the band The Association.

The band was not overly impressed with the song’s ambitious arrangement and unorthodox lyrics and duly rejected the chance to record it.

Instead, the first recording of the song was made by Irish actor and singer Richard Harris. It was released the following year, in 1968, and reached number 2 on the US, and number 4 on the UK, singles charts.

MacArthur Park is an actual park in Los Angeles. It was across the street from where Webb’s then-girlfriend, Susie Horton, worked.

The couple would meet regularly for lunch in the park. Upon their breakup, Webb was heartbroken. He wrote the song as a lament for that love lost.

Let’s take a look at the complete lyrics to MacArthur Park, before going into our analysis of their meaning.

 

MacArthur Park Lyrics

Verse 1

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

Verse 2

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

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

Bridge 1

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

Bridge 2

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
Oh, after all the loves in my life
I’ll be thinking of you
And wondering why

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, oh no)

 

MacArthur Park Meaning

MacArthur Park was a little unusual in terms of its length, arrangement, and some of its lyrics. At almost seven and a half minutes, it was much longer than the average pop song of the era.

Rumor has it that Webb was annoyed by British record executives, so he extended the song past seven minutes, with the intention that it would cause problems for the executives trying to get the song radio airtime at first.

The song’s arrangement was notable for being quite complicated, with time changes and a classical structure featuring several movements.

But it was some of the song’s seemingly odd lyrics that caught the public’s imagination, with the chorus in particular sparking debate as to its meaning:

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.

Listeners the world over were confounded by this lyric and drove themselves crazy trying to decipher its meaning. The songwriter himself had this to say regarding the infamous “cake in the rain” lyric:

“I’ve also tried to tell the truth, which is that it’s just a song about a girlfriend of mine, Susie Horton, and this place on Wilshire Boulevard where we used to have lunch, which is called MacArthur Park. And the truth is that everything in the song was visible. There’s nothing in it that’s fabricated. The old men playing checkers by the trees, the cake that was left out in the rain, all of the things that are talked about in the song are things I actually saw. And so, it’s a kind of musical collage of this whole love affair that kind of went down in MacArthur Park.”

And there you have it—straight from the horse’s mouth. Susie Horton may have broken Webb’s heart when she ended the relationship, but in doing so, she indirectly gave the world MacArthur Park.

 

Interesting Facts About MacArthur Park

• Donna Summer made a disco version of MacArthur Park in September of 1978. It was a huge hit, much more so than the original, selling millions of copies and even reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
• Many other notable artists have created cover versions of the song. Some examples are country singer Waylon Jennings, Tony Bennett, and The Four Tops.
• Richard Harris was actually an actor and was much more successful at that than he ever was as a singer. Today’s audiences will likely know him best as Professor Dumbledore in the early Harry Potter films.
• Susie Horton did not inspire just this one song. Webb used her as an inspiration for multiple hit songs, including By the Time I Get to Phoenix, Where’s the Playground, Suzie, Didn’t We, and The Worst That Could Happen.
• But Webb and Horton never got back together. She went on to marry musician Bobby Ronstadt, who was a cousin of Linda Ronstadt.

 

MacArthur Park Lyrics Meaning: Final Thoughts

Jimmy Webb wrote MacArthur Park and Richard Harris was the first one to record it, although many artists have covered it since.

The song was unusual for its time, in terms of the length, the arrangement, and even the lyrics. Those lyrics are basically about a park, but the song is also a love song.

Another song about a relationship ending is one of The Rolling Stones’ biggest hits. Take a look at our analysis of the Wild Horses lyrics meaning here.

The meaning of the Whiter Shade Of Pale lyrics has been hotly debated for decades. What we know for sure is that it is about a young couple at a party. The debate concerns how their relationship progresses.