Puff (The Magic Dragon) (Peter, Paul & Mary, 1962-1963). Live cover performance by Bill Sharkey, Home Studio, Hawaii Kai, HI. 2021-05-02. "Keeping the Oldies Alive"
"Puff (The Magic Dragon)" was Peter, Paul & Mary's second top 10 hit rising to the second position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1963. In 1964, Newsweek published a piece on drug references in pop songs and suggested that "Puff" was a reference to smoking weed. This publication's interpretation was then assumed by the listeners of the song; however, both co-writers of the song, Peter Yarrow and Leonard Lipton, both claim that the song was about the loss of childhood innocence and nothing more (R. Knott, groovyhistory.com, 2017). Mary Travers has stated, “Believe me, if [Yarrow] wanted to write a song about marijuana, he would have written a song about marijuana” (R. Knott, groovyhistory.com, 2017). as a side note, now when Yarrow sings the song in concert, to be gender-inclusive, he changes the line “A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys” to “A dragon lives forever, but not so girls and boys” (seobrien.com, 21 May, 2000).
