Richard Harris - MacArthur Park - Lyrics Meaning

MacArthur Park by Richard Harris was released in 1968 and reached number 2 in the US chart and number 4 in the UK charts.

The main subjects in these lyrics are the cake and the park. The park actually represents real life and the cake represents the hopes and dreams of the young man in the song.

Our plans, hopes, and dreams are often referred to as being half-baked or fully baked, and this is why the cake has been used in the song and this represents the young man's plans for a life filled with the love of his life.

He goes off to fight in Vietnam and his thoughts keep going back to a girl he met before he went off to the war.

Whilst serving in Vietnam he experiences many horrific experiences and to escape these horrors he keeps thinking back to magical experiences to felt with this girl.

When he talks about leaving the cake out in the rain he is talking about his plans lying in ruins (from what he is seeing in Vietnam)

Amid all of this doom and gloom he is still saying there is hope and he knows when he gets back to the US he will be able to get his life back together.