I have written so many of these devotional blogs that I find it hard to come up with new stuff. Often, I ask the Lord to help me with ideas; I should do that every day, honestly. Yesterday, the song MacArthur Park started running through my mind. If you've never heard it, the link is below. My take is that it's one of those songs you either love or hate. It's considered a classic but has turned up on the worst song ever lists. It was penned by Jimmy Webb, one of the great songwriters of the 60s-70s with a slew of hits to his credit like Up, Up, And Away and Galveston. The singer of MacArthur Park was not really a singer but an actor. Richard Harris, star of stage and screen, was the voice behind the recording, more or less reciting the lyrics which were full of very vivid imagery. With the length of the record running to seven and a half minutes, it was very non-typical of a single. My intent tonight was to write something I read Jimmy Webb mentioned in an interview on the various stories he's told over the years about MacArthur Park and its meaning. (Many listeners over the decades tried to decipher each line, akin to the scrutiny of Carly Simon's, You're So Vain.) But the more I read about Webb and the song that had piqued my interest, the more I noticed something else: Suzy.
Jimmy Webb and Suzy Horton knew each other in high school and would be classified as friends. Apparently, he was in love with Suzy but her feelings didn't quite match his intensity, at least according to interviews. They went their separate ways and ending up marrying other people but that's not the end of the story. From the accounts I read, you can make the case that five or maybe six of Webb's songs can be attributed to his love for Suzy. Besides MacArthur Park, where Webb and Suzy sometimes ate lunch together, there was also By The Time I Get To Phoenix, The Worst That Could Happen, Where's The Playground, Suzy?, Didn't We?, and perhaps Wichita Lineman. And these aren't filler songs for albums or the B side of singles- all were legitimately big hits. What they all have in common, if what I read is true, is the relationship that never really took off between Jimmy Webb and Suzy Horton.
Looking back from the vantage point of fifty years, I wonder if they would change the past if they could. She was obviously the love of his life and his muse, although she probably never knew it at the time. If you took Suzy out of the picture, his fame might have been limited and the doors that opened to get involved in other parts of the industry perhaps could have stayed close. It's funny how one person alters the path of another. I could make a long list of people who changed the course of my life path and I would also say most aren't aware of their significance. You undoubtedly could do the same. Some of those encounters were long term and some brief. And not all were positive at the time but ended up beneficial to me, I think, in the end. I'm also sure I've played that same role in other's lives but I'm blissfully unaware of how and why that came to be. One thing I love about teaching the Gospels is that we see the impact Jesus had on the lives of those whose paths He crossed. Many interactions were brief; the demon possessed, Zacchaeus, the woman at the well, the dead He raised, the blind who gained their sight. Not all were positive; some walked away, like the rich young ruler, and some deserted even with long term contact, as in the case of Judas who betrayed despite years of evidence none of us believe we ourselves would reject. At least a half dozen songs were written with Suzy Horton in mind but thousands upon thousands have been composed about the Lord and Savior of Mankind. Jimmy Webb survived and maybe even survived nicely Suzy Horton's rejection of his heart. But the survival rate is not the same if we reject the invitation of the Christ. Suzy married and that door was closed to Jimmy. Fortunately, the love of Jesus is still available to anyone who will receive it! And the good news is you won't even have to write a love song to pay him back.
To listen to Richard Harris and MacArthur Park, copy and paste or click the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iplpKwxFH2I
Applicable quote of the day:''I can speak for most songwriters - those breakup love songs are so easy to write, as far as the inspiration and all that.''
Lucinda Williams
God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.vom
E-mail me at steve@hawleybook.com
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