I don't know how I've never seen this video before. This is an absolutely stunning performance.
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Will Lee performs MacArthur Park
- Thread starter McCall89
- Start date
Pretty simple, Guy reminiscing about his love lost with a girl he was in love with which irreparably destroyed by a # 2.
BUT, it’d a 60’s thing, and maybe the prose was composedunder the influence of a lack of sobriety…..
all I get is cake in the rain and some nonsense about the recipe. makes 0 emotional connection with me. I mean, I like a good cake, but....
As aluded, you had to have there…LOL!!!
I certainly am not claiming this is the best composition in the last 50 years. More to the point, why some artist had to dredge it up and after 50+ years is beyond me.
But this is from Wilipedia:
"MacArthur Park" was written and composed by Jimmy Webb in the summer and fall of 1967 as part of a cantata. Webb brought the entire cantata to the Association, but the group rejected it.[3] The inspiration for the song was his relationship and breakup with Susie Horton.[4]MacArthur Park, in Los Angeles, was where the couple would occasionally meet for lunch and spent their most enjoyable times together.[5] At that time (the middle of 1965), Horton worked for Aetna insurance, whose offices were across the street from the park.[1] When asked by interviewer Terry Gross what was going through his mind when he wrote the song's lyrics, Webb replied that it was meant to be symbolic and referred to the end of a love affair.[6] In an interview with Newsdayin October 2014, Webb explained.
Maybe this will help some
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed] above posrt is enough]
On point; excellent performance by Will and Top Notch backup Band; The Music was the Star not the lyrics in this one
And once again I find another killer musician who could more than carry their own water as a vocalist. Don’t get me wrong, there will always be Vince Gills, but I’ve always held to the belief that those musicians who truly have the music in them are also really good singers but like this vid shows, most of them take Frank’s advice and just shut up and play. I know it’s not a given and I’ve seen some very good players who struggle to sound mediocre as singers, but it is never a surprise when I see someone like Will Lee being more than capable of carrying a tune.
Yeah.... Macarthur Park is probably about as Psychedelic as Jimmy Webb ever got. 
Ain't no shade on Uncle Will Lee. I recall meeting Will in my sojourn in NYC in the late 80's. He was amused that he was making more money as a vocalist on commercials than playing bass, he joked that his singing was supporting his bass habit.
I cannot source this, so please take it for the grain of salt it is worth, but I read somewhere that Webb told Harris that he was going to write a song whose lyrics were going to be nonsensical to the point of being incomprehensible, and they would get a #1 hit from it. But the above Wikipedia article seems more credible.
It's a great song -- one of my favorities -- with memorable lyrics, but to me what sets the Harris version on such a high pinnacle is the arrangement, which I find magisterial. I think one of the reasons sixties music was so great was not just the singers/groups and the songs (I believe many eighties bands had more raw talent and better-voiced lead singers), but the arrangements. Many of those were just magical.
It's a great song -- one of my favorities -- with memorable lyrics, but to me what sets the Harris version on such a high pinnacle is the arrangement, which I find magisterial. I think one of the reasons sixties music was so great was not just the singers/groups and the songs (I believe many eighties bands had more raw talent and better-voiced lead singers), but the arrangements. Many of those were just magical.
I've seen this a bunch of times and never tire of it. Will does a great job of replicating Richard Harris' definitive 1968 version, except Will's a better singer. The song was always intended to be "MacArthur" Park, but Harris insisted on singing "MacArthur's, " and Will sticks to that. IIRC, this was two songs jammed together, a la A Day In the Life. I always have liked "After All the Loved of My Life" and the way Webb resolved it back into the main melody.
