Jeff Duff on the Midday Show with Ray Martin.
A sea-green magic carpet ride
As a teenager, she had dreamed of
wearing an itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny polka-dot bikini
while playing Desdemona in Othello.
As an adult, she a wore a polka-dot blouse
and performed Shakespeare in Macarthur Park
on summer evenings and
wore blue pants, not the yellow cotton dress
foaming like a wave on the ground around her knees.
She co-starred with a man wearing
a hot fever ironed striped pair of pants
bearing cake he’d left out in the rain,
and who followed her in the dance
as Macarthur Park began melting in the dark,
with sea-green icing flowing down and
their passion flowed like rivers in the sky.
They rode a flying carpet together
and travelled with birds
like tender babies in their hands and
looked down on old men
playing checkers by the trees.
StereoStory # 699
Macarthur Park by Jimmy Webb
Spring was never waiting for us, dear
It ran one step ahead
As we followed in the dance
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 beneath your knees
The birds, like tender babies in your hands
And the old men playing Chinese checkers by the trees
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
MacArthur’s Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left my cake out in the rain
And 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
MacArthur Park lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
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I was the roadie for Jeff Duff’s band, Kush, before he went solo, and I never tired of hearing him sing this song.
Love it. Mish mash mush.
Thanks, Chel.