The first time I heard
this I thought someone was having a joke. But really, living in the sixties there were shock-waves after shock-wave so nothing should have surprised us. 'What?' An old man mouthing some weird and possibly 'square' words about a cake in the rain, in the park? And string arrangement to boot and 7 1/2 minutes long to top it up. And the middle stanza with fast moving brass was just the last straw. What could anyone one make of this? Just ignore it! But they played it again on the radio and so that was that I had to sit down and listen to it properly. Now of course I think this is a masterpiece of melody, lyric, arrangement and interpretation and Jimmy Webb's best song and probably my all time top ten. Please ignore all other versions including Webb's, this is the real deal - with the possible exception of
Waylon Jennings version which runs pretty close to perfect. Read heaps about this song at
Songfacts.
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