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
Oh, 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
Oh no!
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
Oh, 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
Oh no!
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it's just so sad...the melody is beautifully haunting...the stage is being set beautifully from "Spring was never waiting for us, girl" to "love's hot, fevered iron" but then there has got to be that simile -- being pressed like a pair of striped pants???
Anyhow, "Macarthur Park is melting in the dark" might be the most heartbreaking lyric ever written...and the mood of the song is perfect for it...then the very next line -- THE VERY FUCKING NEXT LINE!!! -- is about green icing flowing down...then cake???? ABSOLUTELY FUCKING INEPT AND ABSOLUTELY NO FUCKING EXCUSE!!!!!!!!!!!
anyhow, it still manages to be a great song...except that it's a great in that cheezy, "u don't hav to take it seriously" kinda way instead of the "great classic song" kinda way...i think it's about a guy who loves a girl but she runs off to be w/ some rich guy and now the dude doesn't wanna love again b/c no love will ever be like the one he lost...the cake reference could be a literal wedding cake (it's still a terrible fucking lyric) or it's symbolic of their love (which is even worse) or it could be both (which is the superlative form of terrible or worst)
what a shame...good song to sing in the shower though
The rest of the first stanza and the third stanza seem to be about the wedding of our unlucky couple. The "parted pages" could be the wedding album and the striped pants certainly remind us of a groom's tuxedo.
If that wedding were held on the grounds of McArthur Park, with the admittedly unconventional bride wearing a flowing "yellow cotton dress" (think Marilyn Monroe in that sexy scene where she passes over a sidewalk vent and her dress "foams like a wave"), then the day could easily end with the park "melting in the dark."
What are the scenes that he remembers on that fateful wedding day in the park? He could easily deify his lady and imagine her in a goddess-like pose with birds in her hands, or even in a more realistic scene with doves being released as a symbol of their love. Not everyone in that huge park, however, was celebrating their wedding: our luckless singer was probably struck by the people on the periphery doing what they normally do in the park, namely the "old men playing checkers by the trees."
But, as is so tragically common, the marriage dissolved and our jilted lover imagined his wedding cake melting in the rain of his depression. Is that so hard to fathom? I don't think so. Rain and depression go together; wedding cake as a representation of that delightful day in the park when they were married--it seems natural to melt the cake in that rain as their union melted.
"I don't think that I can take it," . .. well, who hasn't felt that at the initial stages of loving breaking? And since we are using the metaphor of a cake to represent the marriage, then how do we represent all the time, effort, expense, and mental stirrings of the courtship? Well, we say that we "baked" that wedding cake. And what if we can never imagine going through this courtship/love/marriage/divorce trauma again? We say that we will "never have that recipe again." "Oh, no!" he cries in grief--the universal grief of the brokenhearted.
Then there is the instrumental break and that break represents time . .. time to reflect, time to heal, time to see a more optimistic viewpoint of life and love---but, not too much time. Just enough time to imagine another woman (another "song") and to have some optimism (another dream) about the future.
But, our hero is not healed yet, for he is still drinking the wine while it is warm and not aged, and he will still "never let you catch me looking at the sun," which is to say, "you will never see me blinded to the wiles of a woman again." Because, through it all he is still in love with the girl in McArthur's Park and "You'll still be the one."
He will throw off the depression and take charge of his life ("I will take my life into my hands and I will use it"), but he is still a scarred man who is going to punish womanhood by using and abusing the image of the woman who cast him off ("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 then we are reminded that all the troubles he creates for her sisters is because of her: "I'll be thinking of you /And wondering why."
The song ends with the lament of the vampire with a conscience, "Oh, no! /Oh, no /No, no /Oh no!!"
Is it a dark song? Maybe, but perhaps just the initial stages of a lover in the process of healing. We can hope so, but if nothing else, we can all identify.
bruno
...hey, Dodge! Why didn't you show up for work for the past three days?
Listen to "Play That Funky Music, White Boy," and it will explain everything.
I beleive it. so many specific thoughts that wouldn't come to mind if they didn't happen for real.
I fall into the second group. I think the tune is romantic, and the orchestration gorgeous, especially the little 6- to 8-note quadrilles. At first hearing they sound alike, but in fact each is slightly different. And I am willing to overlook the striped pants and the cake in the rain in favor of love's hot, fevered iron, drinking the wine while it is still warm, and passion flowing like rivers through the sky. No matter whether it was written as a joke or not, it surmounts all efforts to make it silly and remains halcyon and glorious.
I always thought the icing melting was in reference to his memories of the girl and the park fading with time. Memories that were built up over a long time and cannot be recreated, even for all the passion he still feels.
Yeah.