Some lyrics shouldn't be written...or recorded
Surely, someone makes decisions about what songs to record. They tweak lyrics, change chords, say 'I don't think people will like this', etc... Yet plenty of stuff gets by. On my drive home from Chicago late last night, I found Donna Summer's disco re-recording of MacArthur Park. The song is pretty absurd to begin with, but you add disco and the fact that's it's 2:30 am and I start to question the nature of my reality.
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!
Do those lyrics make anyone else think of anything in particular? The song was written in the summer of 1967 by Jimmy Webb. The same summer as the first San Francisco Be-In. The same summer that the U.S. Government outlawed LSD.
Did I mention that it was originally the 7 minute coda to a 22 minute long piece? Oh, and did I mention that LSD was popular that summer? I did? Oh, okay, just checking.
So yeah, even with those bizarre lyrics, MacArthur Park was a hit. Even more of a hit when converted into disco. So next time you're getting upset over some of the trash that's out there now just remember that we've been putting...unusual...music out there for decades now. Ashley Simpson is nothing new. I could see a Merry Prankster singing a song called I am Me too.
Who wants a lid for his cake dish more? Jimmy Webb wants a lid for his cake dish more.
- barrett 'n megan
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!
Do those lyrics make anyone else think of anything in particular? The song was written in the summer of 1967 by Jimmy Webb. The same summer as the first San Francisco Be-In. The same summer that the U.S. Government outlawed LSD.
Did I mention that it was originally the 7 minute coda to a 22 minute long piece? Oh, and did I mention that LSD was popular that summer? I did? Oh, okay, just checking.
So yeah, even with those bizarre lyrics, MacArthur Park was a hit. Even more of a hit when converted into disco. So next time you're getting upset over some of the trash that's out there now just remember that we've been putting...unusual...music out there for decades now. Ashley Simpson is nothing new. I could see a Merry Prankster singing a song called I am Me too.
Who wants a lid for his cake dish more? Jimmy Webb wants a lid for his cake dish more.
- barrett 'n megan
posted by barrett 'n megan at 12:30 PM
2 Who wants to comment more:
Someone once asked Jimmy Webb what that song meant. His reply, "I don't know."
Way to use your art to change the world, Jimmy.
Are you crazy? Jimmy Webb is the only person ever to have won a grammy for music, lyrics and orchestration. He wrote the Wichita Lineman, By The Time I Get To Phoenix,Up Up and Away, The Moon's a Harsh Mistress, Galveston, Time Flies, Didn't We,All I Know...to name only a few. His unique talent delivered amazingly complex and poignant melody, orcestration and compostition with human lyrics enough to ruin any heart. Research him...why would hearing something as outrageous as MacAthur Park spark ridicule from you? Why not curiosity? Why so square? It is hard to believe the younger generations are indeed younger...where is your sense of the absurd? an openess...a wonder? "I tripped and missed my star....I fell and fell alone....the moon's a harsh mistress and the sky is made of stone". Jimmy Webb is one of the greatest music makers of all time, and not because I said so, but because it is just plain true.
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