Does “MacArthur Park” make any sense? No Does Richard Harris ever actually get the title of the song right when he sings it? No Is it the greatest pop track ever committed to record? Yes, very possibly - ThreadSky

josie.zone • 303 days ago

Does “MacArthur Park” make any sense?

No

Does Richard Harris ever actually get the title of the song right when he sings it?

No

Is it the greatest pop track ever committed to record?

Yes, very possibly

Comments

guyt.bsky.social•303 days ago

Number 1 in Dave Barry's Book of Songs (which, of course, I read years before I'd heard most of the songs).

mackenzievogt.net•303 days ago

Haven’t been any other songs about the effect of weather of pastry because how can you possibly top this

josie.zone•303 days ago

I’m sayin!!!!

mackenzievogt.net•303 days ago

Also, the sheer gumption of this song to decide to go for the key change and tempo swtich 4:50 in

josie.zone•303 days ago

They used to play this shit on the radio!!!! Amazing

dannyrubin.bsky.social•303 days ago

I mean we did give Richard Harris the second highest honor we possibly bestow on any celebrity. He was given the role of Dumbledore.

tsalmoth.bsky.social•303 days ago

Any song that gets a Weird Al parody is a classic.

vegetablegremlin.bsky.social•28 days ago

macarthur park makes perfect sense to me

mnent.bsky.social•303 days ago

I don't know why, but the fact that Troy McClure's Agent in the Simpsons is MacArthur Parker cracks me up!

josie.zone•303 days ago

Same

r42.bsky.social•28 days ago

Thank you for linking the original - I had only ever heard the Donna Summer suite.

And before that, the oblique reference in the They Might Be Giants song “It’s Not My Birthday”

A song about an intervention? TMBG songs are hard to pin down.

morganlbrown.bsky.social•27 days ago

I think this is my favourite version. Levi Stubbs will make you FEEL his anguish as that sweet, green icing starts flowing down. https://youtu.be/mIUFUG5g6oY?si=UXcRPgOlZ4G5qZ5Y

ambignostic.bsky.social•303 days ago

It takes a swing so big it doesn’t matter whether it misses

josie.zone•303 days ago

Great way of putting it

jimnobu.tv•303 days ago

So good

jennymarie.bsky.social•303 days ago

i remember asking my mom what it meant (the donna summer version in this case) & she said it didn't matter b/c it was such a great song

josie.zone•303 days ago

She was right

janet-tzara.neocities.org•28 days ago

any time it's mentioned I can only think of this now https://youtu.be/anuvvFGtROE

queenjolene.bsky.social•303 days ago

GOD I LOVE THIS SONG SO MUCH. I mean, the Donna Summer version is by far my favorite, but it’s so DRAMA

josie.zone•303 days ago

Yes

robbykarol.bsky.social•303 days ago

I think it’s a bold choice to cover Weird Al’s “Jurassic Park” and rewrite the lyrics!

josie.zone•303 days ago

“…and were pressed in love’s hot fevered iron / Like a stripèd pair of pants”

That’s poetry right there

josie.zone•303 days ago

Pop singers of the 60s and 70s will sing anything. “MacArthur’s park is melting in the dark.” No it isn’t. That’s not true.

garwoodmurray.bsky.social•28 days ago

Remembering the apoplectic fits am radio stations went thru having to play a 7min, 21sec track in heavy rotation in ‘68. Fuck the advertisers. 1 of the GOAT pop songs. Thank you, whoo!

andrewhickey.500songs.com•303 days ago

Although the *best* thing about MacArthur Park is the way that when Glen Campbell used to perform it, he'd sing it at the microphone very staidly, a la Sinatra, then when it got to the break he'd pick up a guitar, turn into Eddie Van Halen for two minutes, then calmly put it down and carry on.

cardiokiwi.bsky.social•303 days ago

Ah, that takes me back. Always felt that Campbell was incredibly underrated as a guitarist. 😔🙂

nostaticatall.bsky.social•28 days ago

my alt/classic rock musical upbringing did not prepare me for the belated discovery that glen campbell could Shred. jarring.

rigg.lgbt•28 days ago

In tone shift is even more extreme than that weird bit in the middle of Live and Let Die.

Not quite up there with the theme from Rainbow though

zootius.bsky.social•28 days ago

Haha that's amazing! Respect buff +100 😍

chucke.com•303 days ago

I wish this got shared as often as Prince playing While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

josie.zone•303 days ago

Ooh will watch

Currently listening to the version by Glen Campbell and the Kimberlys, which is a BANGER

andrewhickey.500songs.com•303 days ago

The other best version is the one by Stew and the Negro Problem, which only covers the first half, but does it note-for-note except for changing the word "cake" to "crack".

josie.zone•303 days ago

YES I LOVE THAT ONE

otherjimdonahue.bsky.social•28 days ago

Thanks for this--I'd never heard Campbell's version. I've never understood why so many hate this song, even though I fully realize the lyrics are ridiculous ("... in love's hot fevered like a strip-ed pair of pants" being the most ridic).

Saw Webb in concert a decade ago--he's a great storyteller.

johnlk.bsky.social•28 days ago

Didn't fully realize that Webb wrote all those songs when he was barely out of his teens.

andrewhickey.500songs.com•28 days ago

Yeah, basically like Brian Wilson he had written all the stuff on which his reputation rests by the time he was twenty-three. There's obviously stuff he did later that's great (like "The Highwayman" and "The Moon's a Harsh Mistress") but the bulk of the big stuff he was practically a baby.

otherjimdonahue.bsky.social•28 days ago

One that amazes me: Sandy Denny first recorded a demo of "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?" at 19.

johnlk.bsky.social•27 days ago

Dylan was what, 21 when he recorded all the songs on Freewheelin' and completely finished with his folk phase before he turned 24?

ambignostic.bsky.social•28 days ago

A big factor is "overplayed," a reason for hating songs that I've never accepted because it says nothing about the song itself – for that matter, it suggests the song *does* have value (or it wouldn't get overplayed).

ambignostic.bsky.social•28 days ago

Another is "overblown" which is a shoe that fits. The song just takes itself SO seriously and so does the standard arrangement and so does everybody who sings it. It's bombastic! It has aspirations of depth and grandeur that its content can't support!

ambignostic.bsky.social•28 days ago

p.s. I love the heck out of Macarthur Park

andrewhickey.500songs.com•28 days ago

Overplaying can move a song from mild dislike to utter hatred though, if you have to hear it. (One reason I've become much more tolerant of bad music in recent decades is I've very rarely had to listen to any music I didn't choose).

andrewhickey.500songs.com•28 days ago

He really is. Seen him a bunch of times and met him briefly a couple, and he's great. His book Tunesmith is *the* best book on songwriting ever, too.

andrewhickey.500songs.com•303 days ago

(Seriously, watch that video -- or indeed any video of Campbell doing this. It's staggering.)

johnwbuaas.bsky.social•302 days ago

You are correct in this.
Surely you've seen this one as well: Campbell's chat w/ Webb about "Galveston" and then his different but very striking performance of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8qsYsG3aQY

cmraman.geek.org•303 days ago

Leon Russell once said that Glen Campbell was the best guitarist he ever worked with.

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