Puff (The Magic Dragon)

Album

Moving

Label

Warner Bros. Records

Genre

Folk

Composer(s)

Leonard Lipton;Peter Yarrow

Entered Chart

Mar 16, 1963

Peak Date

May 11, 1963

Released

Unknown

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Warner Bros. 5348

B-Side

Pretty Mary

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. 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. 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. (Thanks to John Javna for sharing this story.) 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. In an effort to be gender-neutral, Peter Yarrow later sang the line "A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys" as "A dragon lives forever, but not so girls and boys." 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. 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. This song was banned in Singapore and Hong Kong because authorities thought it contained drug references. 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." Paul Stookey put the song on trial during a 1976 show at the Sydney Opera House. He had a "prosecutor" on stage claiming the song was about drugs, with Jackie and Puff explaining that it wasn't. Stookey told the audience that if they sang along, Puff would be acquitted, which they did. The judge declared, "case dismissed." In order to show the stupidity of calling this a drug song, the band sometimes performs "The Star Spangled Banner" at concerts and pauses periodically to explain how the previous lines could describe drugs or drug-induced hallucinations. >> In the 2000 movie Meet The Parents, the family has a contentious debate over the meaning of this song. In the scene, this song comes on the car radio and Greg Focker (Ben Stiller), says to Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro), "Who'd have thought it wasn't about a dragon? Some people think that to puff the magic dragon means to smoke a marijuana cigarette." Byrnes replies: "Puff is just the name of the boy's magical dragon. You a pothead, Focker?" When this was played on Bob Keeshan's TV show Captain Kangaroo, the accompanying illustrations seemed to reflect the missing fourth verse. During the final chorus, the words "BUT WAIT!" appear on the screen, and another child (who looks like a little caveboy) is seen knocking on the door to Puff's cave. The final picture shows Puff and the new little boy embracing. >> In 1969, Peter, Paul and Mary released a children's album called Peter, Paul and Mommy which featured this song. >

Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honahlee
Little Jackie paper loved that rascal puff
And brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff oh

Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honahlee
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honahlee

Together they would travel on a boat with billowed sail
Jackie kept a lookout perched on puff's gigantic tail
Noble kings and princes would bow whene'er they came
Pirate ships would lower their flag when puff roared out his name oh

Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honahlee
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honahlee

A dragon lives forever but not so little boys
Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys
One grey night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more
And puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar

His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain
Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane
Without his life-long friend, puff could not be brave
So Puff that mighty dragon sadly slipped into his cave oh

Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honahlee
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honahlee