Puff, the Magic Dragon — innocent ditty that was dragged into 1960s drug culture

{"text":[[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":9.56,"text":"The year was 1963; JFK was assassinated in Dallas, The Beatles released their first album, and Martin Luther King Jr gave his “I have a dream” speech in Washington DC. This was the backdrop for the release of “Puff, the Magic Dragon” by American folk revival band Peter, Paul and Mary. The song was based on a poem by American lyricist and filmmaker Leonard Lipton. In 1959 Lipton was a 19-year-old Cornell University student and roommate of Peter Yarrow, later of Peter, Paul and Mary. Lipton wrote the poem on Yarrow’s typewriter in 1959 and forgot about it until years later, when Yarrow got in touch to share the credit for the song he’d written around the poem."}],[{"start":55.64,"text":"The song tells the tale of an immortal dragon named Puff and his adventures in the land of Honah Lee with his friend, Jackie Paper. Alas, adulthood strikes for Jackie, who matures and leaves Puff alone with his games because, as the lyrics go: “A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys” (Yarrow later changed this to “girls and boys”)."}],[{"start":77.76,"text":"After the tune’s initial success — it peaked at number two in the US charts — speculation arose that it was not, in fact, about the inevitable loss of innocence in children. A 1964 article in Newsweek proclaimed that “Puff” was actually a reference to smoking marijuana. Puff’s friend Jackie Paper was said to be a reference to “rolling papers”, and the land of Honah Lee was supposedly a euphemism for “hashish”. The cherry on the cake of the accusation was Puff himself, interpreted as a reference to “draggin’” — as in, taking a drag from a joint. “Puff” was considered in the same gang as tracks such as “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”; a New York Times reader wrote in 1984 that such songs were part of the “romanticisation of drugs in the ’60s”. The same reader judged that it was “disingenuous to use the song as a symbol of innocuous intent”."}],[{"start":129.84,"text":"Peter, Paul and Mary objected to this interpretation. Yarrow called the suspicions a result of “sloppy research”, and defended the song’s intention to capture the magic of youth and mourn its loss. In 1976, band member Paul Stookey found his own way to protest against the slur. He set up a “trial” scene at the Sydney Opera House, and performed a new version of the track in which a prosecutor accused the song of being about marijuana. Puff and Jackie rejected the claim, but the outcome was left to the “jury” in the form of the audience, who had to sing along in order to acquit the song. They did, and Stookey proclaimed it “case dismissed”."}],[{"start":170.56,"text":"The band broke up in 1970; in the same year, Yarrow, who died in January this year, was convicted of sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl. He served three months in prison. He was pardoned by President Jimmy Carter in 1981, the day before his presidency ended."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":188.2,"text":"Notable covers include one in 1968 by Bing Crosby and another in 1966 by Swedish band Fabulous Four, which was produced by Benny Andersson, later of Abba. It was parodied by American Jewish band Ruach as “Puff the Kosher Dragon”. A 1978 animated TV special (and two sequels) related the further adventures of Puff, in which he helps a boy who is not talking to recover the power of speech. “Puff” also crops up in the 2000 comedy film [Meet the Parents:](https://youtu.be/VPkPuRBR3H8?si=piUrUvOl9j6aPA1B) the uptight Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro) loves the song without being aware of its supposed druggie connotations. In the 2004 sequel, Jack sets “Puff” as the sound of his RV’s horn."}],[{"start":232,"text":"One unusual destination for this song was as a nickname for a powerful gunship aircraft, the AC-47 Spooky, used by the US in the Vietnam war. Airmen called it “Puff the Magic Dragon” because on night missions its guns spouted fire and smoke. An unlikely fan of the song is Elon Musk, who named a family of spacecraft after it, the SpaceX Dragon. “So many people thought I must be smoking weed to do this venture,” he said, thus perpetuating the purported link with marijuana."}],[{"start":265.56,"text":"But the song’s real message still rings true: the carefree innocence of childhood is to be protected, and is often over all too soon."}],[{"start":274.28,"text":"Let us know your memories of ‘Puff, the Magic Dragon’ in the comments section below"}],[{"start":279.36,"text":"The paperback edition of ‘The Life of a Song: The stories behind 100 of the world’s best-loved songs’, edited by David Cheal and Jan Dalley, is published by Chambers"}],[{"start":290.52,"text":"Music credits: Warner; Noel Paul Stookey; Classic"}],[{"start":300.08,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1785566830_6324.mp3"}