Puff, the Magic Dragon

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"Puff, the Magic Dragon"
Single by Peter, Paul and Mary
from the album Moving
Released	1963
Recorded	1963
Genre	Folk, Pop
Length	3:20
Label	Warner Bros/Wea
Writer(s)	Leonard Lipton, Peter Yarrow
Audio sample
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"Puff, the Magic Dragon" is a song written by Leonard Lipton and Peter Yarrow and made popular by the group Peter, Paul and Mary in a 1963 recording. The song is so well-known that it has entered American and British pop culture.

[edit] Lyrics

The lyrics for "Puff, the Magic Dragon" were based on a 1959 poem by Leonard Lipton, a nineteen-year-old Cornell student. Lipton was inspired by an Ogden Nash poem titled "Custard the Dragon," about a "realio, trulio little pet dragon." Lipton passed his poem on to friend and fellow Cornell student Peter Yarrow, who created music and more lyrics to make the poem into the song.

In 1961, Yarrow joined Paul Stookey and Mary Travers to form Peter, Paul and Mary. The group incorporated the song into their live performances before recording it in 1962; their 1962 recording of "Puff" reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in early 1963. This song also spent two weeks atop the Billboard easy listening chart that same year.^[1]

The lyrics tell a story of the ageless dragon Puff and his playmate Jackie Paper, a little boy who grows up and loses interest in the imaginary adventures of childhood and leaves Puff alone and depressed. The story of the song takes place "by the sea" in the fictional land of Honalee (the spelling used by author Lenny Lipton, though nonauthoritative variations abound).

A 1978 animated television special, Puff the Magic Dragon, adapts the song.^[2] It was followed by two sequels, Puff and the Land of Living Lies, and Puff and the Incredible Mr. Nobody. In all three films Burgess Meredith voiced Puff.

A 2007 book adaptation of the song's lyrics by Yarrow, Lipton and illustrator Eric Puybaret gives the story a happier ending with a young girl (presumed by reviewers to be Jackie Paper's daughter ^[3]) seeking out Puff to become her new companion.

[edit] 2008 Parody Controversy

Both tune and elements of the lyrics were adapted in the controversial parody "Barack the Magic Negro", distributed as a Christmas greeting in 2008 by Chip Saltsman, a candidate for chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, to members of that group. Although the parody was inspired by an article in the Los Angeles Times by a columnist sympathetic to Barack Obama, and primarily poked fun at Al Sharpton and not Obama, composer Peter Yarrow condemned the act as "shocking and saddening in the extreme," stating that "taking a children's song and twisting it in such vulgar, mean-spirited way, is a slur to our entire country and our common agreement to move beyond racism. . . . Puff, himself, if asked, would certainly agree."^[4]

[edit] Speculation about drug references

Several years after the song's initial success, speculation arose that the song contained veiled references to smoking marijuana.^[5] For example, the word "paper" in the name of Puff's human friend (Jackie Paper) was said to be a reference to rolling paper, and the word "dragon" was interpreted as "draggin'," i.e., inhaling smoke; similarly, the name "Puff" was alleged to be a reference to taking a "puff" on a joint. The supposition was claimed to be common knowledge in a letter by a member of the public (who offered no qualifications for his expertise on the topic) to The New York Times in 1984.^[6]

The authors of the song have repeatedly rejected this urban legend and have strongly and consistently denied that they intended any references to drug use.^[7] Peter Yarrow has frequently explained that "Puff" is about the hardships of growing older and has no relationship to drug-taking.^[8] He has also said of the song that it "never had any meaning other than the obvious one".

On one occasion, during a live performance, Yarrow mocked the drug-related interpretations by reciting his own tongue-in-cheek drug-related reinterpretation of "The Star-Spangled Banner", and ended by saying, "...You can wreck anything with that kind of idiotic analysis."^{[citation needed]}

In 1976, "Paul" of Peter, Paul and Mary also upheld the song's innocence. Noel "Paul" Stookey recorded a version of the song at the Sydney Opera House in March 1976,^[9] in which he set up a fictitious trial scene. The Prosecutor, a snake, accused the song of being about marijuana, but Puff and Jackie protested. The judge finally leaves the case to the jury (the Opera House audience) and says if they will sing along with the song, it will be acquitted. The audience joins in with Stookey, and at the end of their sing-along, the judge declares "case dismissed."

An example of how this myth had become part of the popular culture four decades after the song's introduction, can be gauged by the song's appearance in the 2000 film Meet the Parents, where there are many conversations and references to its supposed drug message. The song also appears in the fourth episode of The Oblongs, where Bob, Milo's father plays a few lines on a piano at a parent-teacher meeting.

Another example of how the urban legend has become part of the culture comes from an assertion made by Fox News that in January 2004, as Yarrow was campaigning with personal friend and Presidential candidate John Kerry, Kerry had made a gesture as if puffing a joint as Yarrow sang "Puff".^[10]

[edit] Cover versions

Building upon and expanding its popularity, the song has been covered by multiple artists, including widely-known performers such as:

• Klamydia Finnish punk/rock -version
• Bing Crosby in 1968 with the "Bugs" Bower Orchestra^[11]
• The Chipmunks (from the 1965 album, "The Chipmunks Sing With Children")
• Dolly Parton
• John Denver
• The Kingston Trio
• Marlene Dietrich (performed in German as "Paff, Der Zauberdrachen")
• Seal
• The Seekers (performed live in concert)
• Trini Lopez
• Roger Whittaker
• The Irish Rovers
• Claude François (performed in French as "Poff, le dragon magique", 1971)
• Aaron Lewis, the lead singer of the rock band Staind, covered the song during one of his acoustic performances.
• Amazing Transparent Man (appears on the 1999 release, "No Fun Intended", and is titled as "Puff Daddy")
• Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (recorded on 2005 Puff the Magic Dragon single, and on the children's music album Songs for the Young at Heart)
• Broken Social Scene^[12]
• Gregory Isaacs (for the Reggae For Kids project).
• Joan Manuel Serrat (performed in Catalan as "Puf, el Drac Màgic")
• Henry Hall
• Tom Glazer (with children's chorus; featured on the album "On Top of Spaghetti")
• Mariko Kōda (featured as the 9th track on her "My Best Friend 2" album)
• Tom Chapin
• Patsy Biscoe
• Rosenstolz (performed in German as "Paff, Der Zauberdrachen")
• Paul Shanklin (Parody of the song done as Barack the Magic Negro in reference to a Los Angeles Times article in 2007. Shanklin imitates Al Sharpton singing the tune through a megaphone.[1])
• Dizzee Rascal's 2007 song Lemon
• Polly Scattergood

[edit] Cultural references

During the Vietnam War the AC-47 Spooky gunship was nicknamed, "Puff the Magic Dragon".

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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More spoken articles

• Urban Legends Reference Page which disputes the drug-reference interpretation.
• Cartoon Adaptation
• Story of the cartoon adaptation