Puff, the Magic Dragon

This article is about the song. For the film, see Puff the Magic Dragon (film).

"Puff, the Magic Dragon"
Song

"Puff, the Magic Dragon" (or "Puff") is a song written by Leonard Lipton and Peter Yarrow, and made popular by Yarrow's group Peter, Paul and Mary in a 1963 recording. The song achieved great popularity.

Lyrics

The lyrics for "Puff, the Magic Dragon" were based on a 1959 poem by Leonard Lipton, a 19-year-old Cornell University student. Lipton was inspired by an Ogden Nash poem titled "Custard the Dragon", about a "realio, trulio little pet dragon."

The lyrics tell a story of the ageless dragon Puff and his playmate Jackie Caper (Jackie Paper in the later cartoon), a little boy who grows up and loses interest in the imaginary adventures of childhood and leaves Puff alone and depressed. (Because of the line "A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys", the lyrics may imply to some that Jackie Caper dies, most interpreters believe that he just grew up....) The story of the song takes place "by the sea" in the fictional land of Honalee (the spelling used by author Lenny Lipton, though non-authoritative variations abound.)

Lipton was friends with Peter Yarrow's housemate when they were all students at Cornell. He used Yarrow's typewriter to get the poem out of his head. He then forgot about it until years later, when a friend called and told him Yarrow was looking for him, to give him credit for the lyrics. On making contact Yarrow gave Lipton half the songwriting credit, and he still gets royalties from the song.

In an effort to be gender-neutral, Yarrow now sings the line "A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys" as "A dragon lives forever, but not so girls and boys." This implies that Jackie Paper can be either a girl or a boy, even though it originally was about a boy. The original poem also had a verse that did not make it into the song. In it, Puff found another child and played with him after returning. Neither Yarrow nor Lipton remembers the verse in any detail, and the paper that was left in Yarrow's typewriter in 1958 has since been lost.

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 number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and spent two weeks atop the Billboard easy listening chart in early 1963. It also reached number ten on Billboard's R&B chart.

Speculation about drug references

After the song's initial success, speculation arose — as early as a 1964 article in Newsweek — that the song contained veiled references to smoking marijuana. The word "paper" in the name of Puff's human friend (Jackie Paper) was said to be a reference to rolling papers, 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 to The New York Times in 1984.

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. Peter Yarrow has frequently explained that the song is about the hardships of growing older and has no relationship to drug-taking. He has also said of the song that it "never had any meaning other than the obvious one" and is about the "loss of innocence in children".

In 1976, Yarrow's bandmate Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary also upheld the song's innocence. He recorded a version of the song at the Sydney Opera House in March 1976, in which he set up a fictitious trial scene. The Prosecutor accused the song of being about marijuana, but Puff and Jackie protested. The judge finally left the case to the jury (the Opera House audience) and said if they will sing along with the song, it would be acquitted. The audience joined in with Stookey, and at the end of their sing-along, the judge declared: "case dismissed."

Adaptations

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

The song was adapted for a children's pantomime, which played at Sydney's Seymour Centre in 1983.

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) seeking out Puff to become her new companion. The lyrics remain unchanged from the Peter Paul and Mary version; the young girl is only seen in the pictures by illustrator Puybaret. On the last page of the book, she is introduced to Puff by an older Jackie Paper.

Both tune and elements of the lyrics were adapted in the controversial parody "Barack the Magic Negro", written and recorded by Paul Shanklin for Rush Limbaugh's radio program, after the term was first applied to then presidential candidate Obama by movie and culture critic, David Ehrenstein, in a Los Angeles Times op ed column of March 19, 2007. 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."

In the mid 1970s an American Jewish band named Ruach created a parody version of the song entitled "Puff the Kosher Dragon". In the course of the song, Kosher Puff eats kosher food, has a Bar Mitzvah, fights anti-semites and finally marries and brings up his children as loyal members of the faith. The Ruach song has been noted as one of the first examples of a modern Jewish band using a popular secular tune.

The tune was used in the promotional LP Push the Magic Button for the track with the same name by Versatec, a computer printer company

Vietnam War

During the Vietnam War the AC-47 Spooky gunship was nicknamed the "Dragon" or "Dragon ship" by the Americans because of its armament and firepower – the nickname soon caught on, and one website without primary citations indicates that the American troops began to call the AC-47 "Puff the Magic Dragon".

Cultural references

Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, said his Dragon spacecraft was named after "Puff the Magic Dragon".

Part of the song was use in a scene from "Meet The Parents" where Greg Focker is uncomfortably trying to explain to Jack Byrnes how the song is supposedly about smoking marijuana.

Other versions

• Alvin and the Chipmunks covered the song for their 1965 album The Chipmunks Sing with Children.
• The Andrews Sisters covered it on their 1963 Dot Records album The Andrews Sisters Presents.
• JPop artist Mariko Kouda covered it in the mid-'90s.
• Korean pop boy band Super Junior covered it on their Super Show 2 Tour.
• Marlene Dietrich recorded a German version (lyrics: Fred Oldörp) "Paff, Der Zauberdrachen" in 1963
• Reggae singer Gregory Isaacs covered it on his album Reggae for Kids. The track was included in Nick Hornby's 31 Songs book and CD.
• The Irish Rovers covered on the album Children Of The Unicorn (1976).

International versions

A German translation of the song ("Paff, der Zauberdrachen": Fred Oldörp, 1963), was first performed by Marlene Dietrich. Later covers include Daliah Lavi (1975) and Rosenstolz (2001). There is also a Low German version ("Drees, de Wunnerdraken": Knut Kiesewetter and Fiede Kay) and a Swiss-German version (Hans-Peter Treichler).

This song was performed in Finnish by Brita Koivunen and other artists as "Lohikäärme Puff," in Swedish by Jan Malmsjö and other artists as "Puff en Pappersdrake," and in Hungarian by the band 100 Folk Celsius as "Paff, a bűvös sárkány."

Brazilian singer Nara Leão recorded a version in Portuguese called "O Dragão Mágico", made by singer and composer Renato Teixeira. The lyrics are not faithful to the original.

A Catalan translation ("Paf, el drac màgic") was popularized by the Grup de Folk supergroup on the 1967 EP "Escolta-ho en el Vent", becoming from then onwards one of the most popular children songs in Catalan. It has also been played, among many others, by Joan Manuel Serrat.

The Norwegian translation, "Puff, den lille dragen" ("Puff, the little dragon"), is well-known children's song in Norway. It was recorded by Kjell Vidars on the LP record Kjell Vidars 8 (Snowflake Records CLP 3008).

Popular Japanese jazz singer Saori Yuki has covered the song in concert and recording with the group Pink Martini ( in the 2011 album 1969) in a nostalgic ballad-like approach combining Japanese and English phrasing.

See also

• List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1963 (U.S.)

External links

• "Puff", Urban Legends Reference, Snopes. Disputes the drug-reference interpretation.
• "Cartoon", Video (adaptation), Google.
• Puff the Magic... Stoner?, Philadelphia: NBC.