Boomer Anthems: McArthur Park

Hey, man! Give us a break. It was the Age of Aquarius and we were all a bit giddy. Also, we got high a lot.

Posted by SteveS at October 15, 2016 8:21 PM

Not me. I was only about 6, and you filthy hippies were the cousins I was forced to live with. I only liked the Beatle with the big nose, all the rest were pointless.

Posted by Jewel at October 15, 2016 8:25 PM

When I was a senior in high school, I was in a show choir.
When we were taught this song to perform, I couldn't get through it without cracking up. We tried to be earnest and serious, and would look at one another and lose it. ha

Posted by Leslie at October 15, 2016 9:02 PM

In speaking with Jimmy Webb who wrote the song, he indicates it was about and surrounding a romance at that time of his life. Not much else. Great song.

Posted by joedaddy at October 16, 2016 3:27 AM

Heaven!

Posted by Jake at October 16, 2016 7:35 AM

You had to do it, didn't you Mr. Vanderleun. Everything I hated about that deplorable decade wrapped up in one song. Ugh. People have been murdered for less. Now I'm going to have that revolting piece of crap running through my head all day.

Posted by D S Craft at October 16, 2016 7:48 AM

We had to sing it in choir too. It never made the slightest bit of sense to me. SCTV parodied it:

https://youtu.be/jdPAk2abXTg

Posted by Dr. Mabuse at October 16, 2016 9:36 AM

...and Jimmy Webb didn't get the Nobel Prize in Literature...How unfair!

Posted by TN Volunteer at October 16, 2016 11:41 AM

Lucy in the sky with diamonds, did it.

Posted by Foodog at October 16, 2016 12:42 PM

Last year, I was driving somewhere, and heard "Wichita Lineman" on the radio. I don't think I had heard it in over 45 years. I actually felt a little like tearing up over it. It reminded me of being young again. Not young anymore.

But not about MacArthur Park. It was a silly place, let's not go there.

Posted by David at October 16, 2016 7:43 PM

Best comment on that song I ever heard was at College, "Man. Takes longer to play that piece than to get a piece."

Too often true.

Posted by John the River at October 16, 2016 8:35 PM

I always liked it.
A song of loss and disappointment.
The tune is nice. Especially on piano.

Posted by Odins Acolyte at October 18, 2016 11:06 AM

I saw Richard Harris on a re-run of the Johnny Carson Show broadcast on local TV. He was very funny, surprisingly so. He caught my interest so much I watched the complete show. I rarely watched Carson back then, about 1992, or ever for that matter. He had been absolutely sober for something over 10 years, but admitted to imbibing more than the average man with his actor buddies.
I never realized it was Harris singing McArthur's Park, thinking the whole time it was the other Richard, Burton.
Quite a talented man. Funny!!!, too.

Posted by tomw at October 20, 2016 8:12 AM