MacArthur's Park - Anthology

MacArthurs Park from the album The Yard Went On Forever. Some people say it is about a Cake, some say Love others a Park, you decide, fact is the 1968 song has become a classic. (I could not find a recipie for a cake named MacArthurs Park) Music, Lyrics, History-Wikipedia

Music Click the links

Richard Harris

Donna Summer

How It Started

Lyrics

McArthur Park, Jim Webb The song begins as a poem about love, then moves into a lover's lament. When asked by interviewer Terry Gross what was going through his mind when he wrote the lyrics, Webb replied that the lyrics were meant to be symbolic, and they referred to the end of a love affair.

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 striped pair of pants

MacArthur Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down...
Someone left the 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!

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 Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down...
Someone left the 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!

(BRIDGE)
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
After all the loves of my life
I'll be thinking of you
and wondering why.

MacArthur Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down...
Someone left the 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!

History

The park, originally named Westlake Park, was built in the 1880s, along with a similar Eastlake Park, whose lake is artificial, in Los Angeles. Westlake Park was re-named May 7, 1942; Eastlake Park was re-named Lincoln Park. Both Westlake and Eastlake (as well as Echo Park) were built as drinking water reservoirs connected to the city's systems of zanjas (small conveyance channels). When the city abandoned the non-pressurized zanja system for a pressurized pipe system, these smaller, shallow reservoirs located at low points no longer provided much benefit. They were then converted into parks.
In the mid-19th century the area was a swampland; by the 1890s, it was a vacation destination, surrounded by luxury hotels. In the early part of the 20th century, the MacArthur park area became known as the Champs-Élysées of Los Angeles.

Wilshire Boulevard formerly ended at the lake, but in 1934 a berm was built for it to cross and link up with the existing Orange Street (which ran from Alvarado to Figueroa) into downtown Los Angeles. Orange Street was renamed Wilshire and extended east of Figueroa to Grand Ave. This divided the lake into two halves; the northern one was subsequently drained.

According to a Los Angeles Times news story from 1956, two swans named Rudie and Susie hatched their five new cygnets on the island in MacArthur Park Lake, and according to the park superintendent, these were the first swans born in the park in over a decade.

For many years, Filipino World War II veterans protested in the park named after their former commander regarding promises made when they enlisted that the United States had reneged on. In 2009 as part of the stimulus package the Congress awarded lump-sum payments of $15,000 to Filipino veterans who are American citizens and $9,000 to those who are noncitizens.

May Day Mêlée with LAPD

Main article: The Los Angeles May Day Mêlée

On May Day May 1, 2007, a rally calling for U.S. citizenship for illegal immigrants took place in MacArthur Park. The incident has been dubbed the May Day Mêlée. In the evening, eight protesters (from a band of anarchists who regularly congregate at the park) began throwing rocks and bottles at officers, leading police commanders to declare the gathering an unlawful assembly and give the order to disperse. The police then cleared the park, using what some thought was excessive force against those who disobeyed the order. Sanjukta Paul, a female National Lawyer's Guild observer, was beaten repeatedly by an LAPD officer, including a blow to the kidneys, as she attempted to impede the progress of the police.

Another police officer was seen throwing a news camera from a cameraman as well as beating news reporters attempting to access their news vans. Protestors clashed with members of the LAPD, suffering reportedly excessive force, with rubber bullets, property damage, tear gas canisters being used on a mostly peaceful crowd at the hands of police officers equipped in full riot gear. At a subsequent press conference, LAPD Chief William Bratton said an investigation was underway to "determine if the use of force was appropriate" and that "the vast majority of people who were [at MacArthur Park] were behaving appropriately."

Gangs

Despite the rather poetic homage paid to it in the 1968 song, the real MacArthur Park became known for violence after 1985 when drug-dealing, shoot-outs and the occasional rumored drowning became commonplace, with as many as 30 murders in 1990. The Westlake area also became famous for the sale of fake identification cards. When the lake was drained in 1973 and 1978 hundreds of handguns and other firearms were found to have been disposed of in the lake.
Gang-on-gang violence still occurs occasionally in and around the park. In 1995, a small, local gang in the Westlake and Downtown area called the Burlington Street Locos got into an argument with another man who was believed to be in a rival gang called the Crazy Town Locos. A few days before, a member of Crazy Town Locos struck a man from Burlington Street Locos across the face. Seeking revenge, members of the Burlington Street Locos went to look for members of the rival gang and thought that a man that looked like the target was him. Without knowing, they fired a couple rounds into his chest and hid the body in a garbage bag and threw it in the lake.
In 1997, a member of MS 13 was found dead in the MacArthur Park lake. Police found his body two days after he died. Apparently, members of two small time gangs called the Crazy Riders and Drifters shot the victim in the chest and head after they found out he was selling crack on their turf.
In 2001, a couple members of the notorious 18 Street gang had a shootout with their rivals, the MS 13. A 18th Street clique known as MacArthur Park clique got into an argument with members of MS 13 which eventually led to a shootout. There were three deaths and two injuries.
In 2002, members of the 18 Street saw a member of another rival gang and beat the victim until he went into a critical condition. A day later, members of the victim's gang approached members of the 18th Street gang and started firing with semi-auto pistols. This event led to the death of two 18th Street members and an injury to an innocent bystander.
In 2005, three bodies in a trash bag were found in the lake. They were tied together and thrown into the lake after they had been stabbed and beat. One of the bodies was identified as a man that belonged to MS 13.
In 2008, a shooting occurred while a birthday party was being held. Members of the 18th Street started firing towards a crowd filled with rival gang members. This led to the death of three people, a rival gang member and a mother and child.

Revitalization

Beginning in 2002 the Los Angeles Police Department, and business and community leaders led a revitalization effort that has led to the installation of surveillance cameras, the opening of a recreation center, increased business, early-morning drink vendors, a new Metro station, the return of the paddle boats and the fountain, and large community festivals attracting thousands. Most recently, in 2005 the park was celebrated for having the highest reduction of crime statistics per resident in the United States.