"MacArthur Park" (Jimmy Webb, 1968)

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 stripped pair of pants
MacArthur’s Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet green icing flowing down...
Someone left a 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 a 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,
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 a 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!