A dragon lives forever but not so little boys-----
Painted wings and giants' 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
"Puff, the Magic Dragon" written by Leonard Lipton and Peter Yarrow, 1963, based on a poem from 1959, performed by Peter, Paul and Mary; from the album Moving
A young boy, Little Jackie Paper, spends his days by the sea with his imaginary friend, a dragon named Puff. The little boy has the time of his life playing games and just being a kid with his magical friend. But, we all must grow up sometime and Little Jackie Paper grew up and left Puff behind along with his childhood. Puff is depressed at being left all alone and in place of choosing to find adventures with a new friend simply hides away in his cave never to be seen again (The original poem had a final verse where Puff meets someone new, but whatever. It's more sad this way).
Leonard Lipton was a 19-year-old student at Cornell University who was inspired to write a short poem about a pet dragon after reading Ogden Nash's "Custard the Dragon". Lipton was friends with a housemate of Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary fame and used Yarrow's typewriter to put down the poem on paper. After writing what was a much longer version than in the song, it was forgotten about until Yarrow called Lipton about crediting him for the song they would later record (and would reach number 2 on the Billboard charts).
Yes, you've heard it before. Yes, it is a kid's song. And, yes, it is terribly sad. And, no, it isn't a song about drugs. It's about a dragon. Who presumably does drugs. Can you imagine smoking with a dragon? And he'd just talk about other dragons he's smoked with? Whoa. It's a song almost everyone knows from somewhere. It's a song you may have sung in your class as a kid. I have known about this song since I was very young, but never really understood the last verse until I was in college. It's a song most people hear as a happy song about a funny dragon and a young boy who are best friends. Yet it is one of the saddest songs ever written because it deals with something every grown-up has had to reflect on at some point: the end of being a kid. (Personally, I was never a kid. I was sold to the factories at age 3 and when my caretakers perished in a fire at age 6, I went of to the Mojave Desert to raise myself. There, a pack of Jack London-esque wolves took me in and raised me as their own. After a few years they accepted me as their leader and I become El Rey de los Lobos, the King of the Wolves. But that's another thing altogether.)
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee,
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 Honah Lee,
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee.
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 flags 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 Honah Lee,
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee.
A dragon lives forever but not so little boys
Painted wings and giants' 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 lifelong 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 Honah Lee,
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee.
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