Nicole Henry performs MacArthur Park, the 1968 Jimmy Webb song about loss and melting cakes. Her vocal arrangement layers multiple voices through the famous refrains: the park melting in the dark, someone leaving the cake out in the rain.
Spring was never waiting for us, dear. It ran one step ahead as we followed in the dance. Between the Tattered pages that were pressed like love's hot fevered iron, like a striped bed of pans. MacArthur Park is melting in the dark, all that sweet green icing flowing down.
Someone left the cake out in the rain. They don't think that I can take it, 'cause it took so long to make it, and I'll never have that recipe again.
Oh no.
I recall that yellow cotton dress foaming like a wave on the ground beneath your knees.
Birds like tender babies in your hand, and old men playing checkers by the trees. The car park is melting in the dark.
All that sweet green icing.
Rain flowing down.
Someone left my 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. Oh no.
There will be another song for me, for I will sing it. There will be another dream.
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.
For after all the loves of my life, oh, 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 of their eyes, then I will lose it.
I will have the things that I desire.
My passion flows like rivers to the sky.
And after all the loves of my life, oh, after all the loves of my life, I'll be thinking of you and wondering why. Flowing down.
Someone left my 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. Oh, no.
I told you that is a bear.
