MacArthur Park

Recently I listened to a version of ' MacArthur Park' by Beggars Opera, on their Pathfinder album. ' MacArthur Park' is one of those songs that begs to be covered (with one exception of course, I'll come to that in a bit). The song was written by Jimmy Webb , who also wrote ' Witchita Lineman'. Jimmy Webb, in my opinion is a great songwriter with an amazing knack for writing haunting songs. Only problem is that his songs largely depend on a singer with a certain je ne sais quoi to bring out the song's phantasmagorical essence. For ' Witchita Lineman' it was Glen Campbell; ' MacArthur Park' had Richard Harris. The song was released in 1978. The Richard Harris version sounds like an ancient Vampire (probably royalty) reminiscing about a delicious meal, in the form of a comely human female, he had ages ago. Unfortunately this rendition gets a tad melodramatic when these lines come around:

MacArthur 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!

The music is haunting and the song is long (over seven minutes). Nevertheless a gem. The Beggars Opera version is bit longer than the original with an extended intro. The mournful quality a la Richard Harris has been diluted to 50% and the lyrics are slightly different. According to Jimmy Webb, Richard Harris could never remember the right lyrics and it was a bother trying to correct him. Now the exception: Watch out for a shorter version of the same song by Donna Summers. A disco disaster that killed this delicate long suffering song.

NB - The song in this Youtube video is the Richard Harris version.