The times they were a-changin’ in the early-’60s… but in the U.S., they weren’t changin’ that fast musically in 1963. The Beatles would sweep in with the British Invasion the following year and soon Bob Dylan would pick up an electric guitar, but in ’63 it was still pretty much the status quo. Acoustic folk music was big, and we saw evidence of that on this day that year when Peter, Paul & Mary got to #2 with probably their most famous – and controversial – song, “Puff the Magic Dragon.”
The trio of Mary Travers, Peter Yarrow and Noel Stookey were put together by Albert Grossman, who managed both them and Bob Dylan. One guesses “Peter, Noel and Mary” didn’t ring right so Noel became “Paul.” They were well-liked folk singers in New York and Grossman figured a male/female trio harmonizing would be popular. He was right.
Their first album did well for them, and they had an audience ready for their second album, Moving. So much so that later that summer, they performed at the “March on Washington”, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
The two guys played guitar and all three members sang, obviously; Grossman co-produced the album. The first single off it, “Big Boat” didn’t take sail up the charts, but for a follow-up they picked a children’s song. A bit of a commercial risk, one would think… but wait, was it a children’s song or a counter-culture call to arms? The debate rings on to this day.
“Puff the Magic Dragon” was written largely by Leonard Lipton, a friend of Yarrow’s in college. He’d written a poem of that name in the ’50s, loosely based on another poem, “The Tale of Custard the Dragon” by Odgen Nash. Yarrow modified the lyrics a little to make it fit the song a bit better, presumably and they were off.
The song tells of a magical dragon who lives in the land of Hanna Lee, who made friends with a little boy named Jackie Paper. Paper would bring him gifts like “strings and sealing wax” – hey, do you know what amuses a dragon? Me neither! – and they’d take off sailing on a boat, scaring pirates and meeting “noble kings and princes” who would bow to them. Sadly, the boy grows up and stops coming to play with the dragon, which is now sad and retreats to a cave. Some children’s books based on it finish it a bit more happily, with Jackie returning with his own child to play some more with Puff.
Innocent weird kids’ stuff… right? Well, many figured it was full of druggie double entendres promoting marijuana. The very name “Puff” seemed questionable, and the boy named “Paper” Was that “rolling papers” they’d wonder. And why did they take off on exciting trips when together?
The folkies and Lipton all deny they had anything illicit in mind when they put the song together. “A song for little kids that advocates the use of drugs would not be appropriate,” the poet told the L.A. Times shortly before his death in 2022. “Pirates and dragons were common interests in stories for boys” back then he noted, comparing it somewhat to Peter Pan.
Innocent or suggestive, the song worked for the times. It got to #2 in the U.S. and earned them a gold record. It was their second top 10 hit, after “If I Had a Hammer.” However, when the Beatles came ashore, the age of coffee house folk seemed prematurely drawn to a close and they found their audience waning. They did have an impressive comeback however at the end of the decade with “Leaving on a Jet Plane”, their only #1 song. That one helped put John Denver (who wrote it) on the map.