puff the magic dragon...

 FEBRUARY 1963 (59 YEARS AGO)

Peter, Paul And Mary: “Puff (The Magic Dragon)” b/w “Pretty Mary” (Warner Bros. 5348) 45 single is released in the US.

"Puff, the Magic Dragon" 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. It reached #2 on the Cashbox Top 100 and Billboard Hot 100 charts. It also reached the Billboard Middle-Road Singles chart (#1) and Top R&B Singles chart (#10).

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 Paper, 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 Paper dies.) 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 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.

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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 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."

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CASHBOX, March 9, 1963, PICK OF THE WEEK

“PUFF” (3:20) [Pepamar ASCAP—Yarrow, Lipton] “PRETTY MARY” (1:54) [Pepamar ASCAP—Stookey, Mezzetti, Okun] PETER, PAUL & MARY (Warner Bros. 5348) “Puff” is a charming folk tune, about a magic dragon, right-up-the-vocal-alley of the remarkably successful folksters. Besides their regular mature folk following, the singers can also add the kiddie trade to their fandom with this outing. Watch closely. Team poignantly expressed the lovely flip opus. Side’s are from the crew’s “Movin’”hit LP.

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SONGFACTS

This song was rumored to be about drugs, particularly marijuana. This rumor was fueled by a 1964 Newsweek article about hidden drug messages in pop music that came up with the following interpretations:

Puff's friend Jackie Paper = rolling papers

"Puff" = to take a puff from a joint

"Dragon" = a variation of "dragin'," as in taking a drag from a joint to inhale the smoke.

The band claimed that the song is really about losing the innocence of childhood, and has nothing to do with drugs. At the end of the song, Puff goes back into his cave, which symbolizes this loss of childhood innocence.

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Peter Yarrow wrote the song in 1958 before he joined the group. It started with a poem his roommate, Lenny Lipton, left in his typewriter. In a Songfacts interview, Yarrow told the story:

"Lenny Lipton and I were at Cornell, and it was exam time. He came to my place in Collegetown, sat down at the typewriter, and wrote some poetic words - he had been thinking about Ogden Nash for a while. And he wrote part of what became the lyric. He actually left the piece of paper in the typewriter when he left because he was absorbed in getting to his exams. It was not intended to be a lyric of a song or anything - it was just something that he typed on paper, and I looked at it and loved it. I wrote the rest of the words to give it a song form and a dramatic arch, and the music to it.

Later, on the second album [Moving], when we were looking for children's songs - we did some children's songs on the first album, including 'Autumn to May' and 'It's Raining' - I suggested 'Puff, the Magic Dragon,' and we put it on the album, without any thought that it might ever become popular in any important way. Yet, it happened spontaneously at some point, because a DJ somewhere in the Northwest started to play it on the radio, and it just took off, and it's the song that it now is."

A few years after this song became a hit, Yarrow found Lipton and gave him half the songwriting credit. Lipton, who was a camp counselor when Yarrow found him, gets extensive royalties from the song. Lipton went on to develop a system for projecting films in 3D.

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For his book Behind The Hits John Javna spoke with Lenny Lipton about his poem that sparked this song. Lipton was feeling homesick when he wrote it. One day, he was on his way to dinner at a friend's house, and was a little early, so he stopped at the library and happened to read some Ogden Nash poems. The title of the poem that grabbed him was The Tale Of Custard The Dragon, which is about a "Really-o Truly-o Dragon."

Lipton was friends with Peter Yarrow's housemate when they were all students at Cornell University. On the walk from Cornell's library to the friend's house (where he was to eat dinner), he wrote the poem, which was about the loss of childhood. But no one was home when he arrived - there was some sort of mix-up about dinner. So he just went in and used Yarrow's typewriter to get the poem out of his head. Then, he forgot about it. Years later, a friend called and told him Yarrow was looking for him, to give him credit for the lyrics. Lipton had actually forgotten about the poem.

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The original poem 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 remember the verse in any detail, and the paper that was left in Yarrow's typewriter in 1958 has since been lost.

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In 1964, 53 Douglas AC-47 passenger planes were armored and subsequently deployed as gunships by the United States Air Force in the Vietnam War. The planes carried tremendous firepower, shooting bright flares and rounds of machine gun fire on the Viet Cong, which referred to them as "Dragon Ships." This nickname led Americans to start calling the planes "Puff The Magic Dragon," turning the title of the winsome children's song into a moniker for a lethal killing machine.

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Some of the alleged drug references in this song include the "autumn mist," which was marijuana smoke, and the "land of Hanah Lee," which was the Hawaiian town of Hanalei, famous for its marijuana plants. Peter Yarrow insists that not only did the song have nothing to do with drugs, but that he didn't even know about pot in 1958, which kills any theories that he put drug references in subconsciously.

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This song was banned in Singapore and Hong Kong because authorities thought it contained drug references.

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Peter, Paul and Mary formed in 1961, and this song was always part of their repertoire, although they didn't record it until their second album, Moving, was released in early 1963. The first concerts of Peter, Paul, and Mary consisted of a solo set by each of the men, followed by a dozen songs sung as a trio, which is when they performed "Puff."

nifty chords in lullaby style 5*