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 also the nickname of the Douglas AC-47 Spooky gunship, an American military plane used during the Vietnam War.

"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 "Really-O, Truly-O, 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 (Sometimes spelled Honah Lee).

A 1978 animated television special, Puff the Magic Dragon, adapts the song.^[2], it was followed by two sequels. 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 his new companion.

[edit] Interpretations

The song is believed by many to refer to smoking marijuana, due to references to paper, dragon ("draggin'"), puff (smoke), traveling "along the cherry lane" (the burning ember of a cigarette or joint is called a cherry, and moves up the cigarette's length as it burns), and Hanalei (Honahlee) is a town in Hawaii known for marijuana use. This theory led to the song becoming a hippie anthem. The authors of the song have repeatedly and vehemently denied any intentional drug reference.^[4] Peter Yarrow himself insists that "Puff" is about the hardships of growing older, not drugs.^[5] He has also said of the song that it "never had any meaning other than the obvious one".^[6]

Also, during a live performance, Yarrow once mocked the drug related interpretations by reciting his own drug related reinterpretation of the Star-Spangled Banner, and ended by saying, "...You can wreck anything with that kind of idiotic analysis."^[7]

"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 of 1976,^[8] 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."

The song appears in both Meet the Parents and its sequel Meet the Fockers where there are many conversations and references to its drugs message.

In January 2004, as Yarrow was on campaigning with personal friend and Presidential candidate John Kerry, Kerry was reportedly videotaped gesturing as if puffing a joint as Yarrow sang "Puff".^[9]

[edit] Other versions

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Puff the Magic Dragon

Due to its immense popularity, the song has been covered by multiple artists, including:

• 100 Folk Celsius (performed in Hungarian as Paff, a bűvös sárkány)
• 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")
• Bing Crosby
• 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^[10]
• Brothers Four (the)
• The Chipmunks (from the 1965 album, "The Chipmunks Sing With Children")
• Dolly Parton
• Gregory Isaacs (for the Reggae For Kids project).
• Joan Manuel Serrat (Puf, el Drac Màgic)
• John Denver
• Henry Hall
• The Kingston Trio
• 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)
• Marlene Dietrich (performed in German as "Paff, Der Zauberdrachen")
• Seal
• The Seekers (performed live in concert)
• Tom Chapin
• Trini Lopez
• The Loop (band) [Puffmagic.com]
• Southeast Asia version referring to US Air Force gunships
• Patsy Biscoe
• Grup de Folk (performed in Catalan as "Puff, el drac màgic")
• Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
• Roger Whittaker
• Rosenstolz (performed in German as "Paff, Der Zauberdrachen")
• The Irish Rovers
• Staind live acoustic album
• 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
• Nivi

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Listen to this article (info/dl)

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More spoken articles

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