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!
... and is sung operatically by perhaps everyone who's recorded it, starting with actor Richard Harris on his album produced by Webb titled " A Tramp Shining". During that time, biggest radio and jukebox hits were recorded by artists of other genres, and "MacArthur Park" was recorded and made into niche hits by the Four Tops and Waylon Jennings (shame on him!), who, if memory serves, garnered for it some award from the country music establishment. Harris' recording was one of the longest AM radio hits, over seven minutes, and if I remember correctly was issued as a single on a 33RPM record, B/W "Didn't We".
But about that notorious cake in the rain. Webb is fully aware of the notoriety of this lyric and in his Facebook post today mentions rain falling in New York, where he's performing, and adds: "Leave your cakes outside!"
The lyric has puzzled listeners and critics ever since it appeared in 1968, and I don't believe Jimmy Webb has ever explained it. It has been the source of endless puns, jokes, and parodies, not to mention criticisms as something that makes no sense.
Well, this is what caught my attention, the criticisms and the responses to them. The responses which diss the critics for failing to understand the supposedly lofty metaphor. I have seen it before many times, and noted it, the defense of a dense phrase or lyric, defense that relies on dismissing the critic as someone who fails to get it. But as usual, just what he fails to "get" is never stated, and in this story the cake left in the rain remains as mysterious as it was when Richard Harris sang it on an otherwise beautifully arranged and performed recording.
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