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| McArthur Park | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 22 2006, 07:27 PM (141 Views) | |
| justme | Apr 22 2006, 07:27 PM Post #1 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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can anyone explain the lyrics to this song? We were at the symphony tonight and they played McArthur's Park. I never understood this song. I remember Richard Harris sang it. And I could never understand that either. I always associate him with this song and A Man Called Horse. |
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"Men sway more towards hussies." G-D3 | |
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| George K | Apr 22 2006, 07:33 PM Post #2 |
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Finally
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(brief aside) Saw Don McLean in concert about 5 years ago. He said "Everyone asks me what 'American Pie' means. I tell them that it means that I never have to work again, if I don't want to." (back to your regularly scheduled thread. Move along, nothing to see here) |
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A guide to GKSR: Click "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08 Nothing is as effective as homeopathy. I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles. - Klaus, 4/29/18 | |
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| justme | Apr 22 2006, 07:35 PM Post #3 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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that's interesting, George, but it doesn't answer my question.
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"Men sway more towards hussies." G-D3 | |
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| George K | Apr 22 2006, 07:39 PM Post #4 |
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Finally
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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! 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 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 After all the loves of my life I'll be thinking of you And wondering why. <extended (1:24) up-tempo instrumental interlude that rivals anything done by Chicago or even "Classical Gas" by Mason Williams> 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, no Oh NO!! (upon which Harris suffers an irreversible gender change) |
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A guide to GKSR: Click "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08 Nothing is as effective as homeopathy. I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles. - Klaus, 4/29/18 | |
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| George K | Apr 22 2006, 07:44 PM Post #5 |
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Finally
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Macarthur Park The park is divided in two by Wilshire Boulevard. The northern half includes a amphitheatre, band-shell and childrens' playground; the southern portion includes a lake. The bandshell (presently closed) in the past was host to jazz, big band, and salsa concerts. The lake is fed by natural springs (although it now has an artifical bottom laid during construction of the Red Line). In the past a fountain with a reflecting pool on the northern end also was fed by springs. The park, originally named Westlake Park, was built in the 1880s, along with another similar park, Eastlake Park, whose lake is artificial, in East Los Angeles. The park was re-named shortly after the end of World War II; Eastlake Park was re-named Lincoln Park. Wilshire Boulevard formerly ended at the lake, but in 1934 a berm was built for it to cross and link up with the existing Orange Street (which ran from Figueroa to Alvarado) into downtown Los Angeles. Orange Street was renamed Wilshire and extended east of Figueroa to Grand. This divided the lake into two halves; the northern one was subsequently drained. In the mid-1800s the area was a swampland; by the 1890s, it was a vacation destination, surrounded by luxury hotels. In the early part of the 20th century, the MacArthur park area became known as the Champs Elysees of Los Angeles. |
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A guide to GKSR: Click "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08 Nothing is as effective as homeopathy. I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles. - Klaus, 4/29/18 | |
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| Larry | Apr 22 2006, 09:21 PM Post #6 |
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Mmmmmmm, pie!
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Peggy, around that period it became "fashionable" to write song lyrics that made you think they were heavy with metaphors, and that sounded as if a secret code was buried in the "message", but were in fact nothing more than nonsensical gobbledy-gook. MacArthur Park was one of the big ones. Remember - people were playing records backwards, finding hidden messages in album cover pictures, etc. The nonsensical lyric fad was just another example of that whole scene. American Pie actually *does* have quite a lot of genuine metaphorical references in it that one has to research to understand, tributes to various rock and roll artists, and other stuff. The song was mostly about Buddy Holly, but not just him. The overall message was a tribute to the various artists who had died, all tied to the question "is rock and roll dead?". Some examples, explaining lyrics in the song: "But February made me shiver" Buddy Holly died on February 3, 1959, in a plane crash in Iowa during a snowstorm. The name of the plane was - American Pie. "With every paper I'd deliver" The only job Maclean had other than singer/songwriter was delivering newpapers. "Bad news on the doorstep... I couldn't take one more step." He's reading one of the newpapers he's delivering.... "I can't remember if I cried When I read about his widowed bride" Buddy Holly had only recently gotten married, and his pregnant wife had a miscarriage shortly after learning of Holly's death. Each and every line of American Pie is a veiled reference to something, and is a metaphorical masterpiece of lyric writing. Many people have tried to read deep meaning into the lyrics of Macarthur Park, mentioning the drug environment of the real park, crack being the "cake" referenced, as well as the "recipe" - but any metaphorical references were done just enough to invite attempts to "crack the code" so to speak - the lyrics are nonsensical, on purpose. That was the point. |
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Of the Pokatwat Tribe | |
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| Kincaid | Apr 22 2006, 09:41 PM Post #7 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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How about these lyrics? From Beck's Loser. In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey Butane in my veins and I’m out to cut the junkie With the plastic eyeballs, spray-paint the vegetables Dog food stalls with the beefcake pantyhose Kill the headlights and put it in neutral Stock car flamin’ with a loser and the cruise control Baby’s in reno with the vitamin d Got a couple of couches, sleep on the love-seat Someone came in sayin’ I’m insane to complain About a shotgun wedding and a stain on my shirt Don’t believe everything that you breathe You get a parking violation and a maggot on your sleeve So shave your face with some mace in the dark Savin’ all your food stamps and burnin’ down the trailer park Yo. cut it. Soy un perdedor I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me? Soy un perdedor I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me? Forces of evil on a bozo nightmare Ban all the music with a phony gas chamber ’cuz one’s got a weasel and the other’s got a flag One’s on the pole, shove the other in a bag With the rerun shows and the cocaine nose-job The daytime crap of the folksinger slob He hung himself with a guitar string A slab of turkey-neck and it’s hangin’ from a pigeon wing You can’t write if you can’t relate Trade the cash for the beef for the body for the hate And my time is a piece of wax fallin’ on a termite That’s chokin’ on the splinters Soy un perdedor I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me? (get crazy with the cheese whiz) Soy un perdedor I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me? (drive-by body-pierce) (yo bring it on down) Soooooooyy.... (I’m a driver, I’m a winner; things are gonna change I can feel it) Soy un perdedor I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me? (I can’t believe you) Soy un perdedor I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me? Soy un perdedor I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me? (schprechen sie deutches, baby) Soy un perdedor I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me? (know what I’m sayin’? ) |
| Kincaid - disgusted Republican Partisan since 2006. | |
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| ivorythumper | Apr 23 2006, 09:56 AM Post #8 |
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
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Sorry, Larry -- Snopes busted that one. "The airplane, chartered through Dwyer's Flying Service in Clear Lake, Iowa, had no name. Its only designation was its wing registration number, N3794N. " However, a great set of lyrics. I always assumed the "Jester" was Bob Dylan. Other references I think are to the Byrds, Jagger at Altamont, Beatles, Grateful Dead, and the Monotones. The brilliance of the lyrics is in their openness to many interpretations. |
| The dogma lives loudly within me. | |
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