Let's go back to simpler times, 1965:
ADDED: From Wikipedia:
The lyrics for "Puff, the Magic Dragon" are based on a 1959 poem by Leonard Lipton, then a 19-year-old Cornell University student. Lipton drew inspiration from Ogden Nash's poem "The Tale of Custard the Dragon."...
Lipton, who was acquainted with Peter Yarrow through a mutual friend at Cornell, used Yarrow's typewriter to commit his poem to paper. He forgot about it until years later, when a friend informed him that Yarrow was seeking him to properly credit him for the lyrics. Upon reconnecting, Yarrow shared half of the songwriting credit with Lipton, who received royalties for the song until his death in 2022....
After the song's initial success, speculation arose—as early as a 1964 article in Newsweek—that the song contained veiled references to smoking marijuana.
I read the original article when it came out. I was a junior high school student and we were required to subscribe to Newsweek and take a weekly quiz that tested whether we'd read it. Of course, I read that article with great interest! This experience reading mainstream media and seeing how to find hidden meanings in things is still echoing through this blog, 6 decades later.
The word "paper" in the name of Puff's human friend Jackie Paper was said to be a reference to rolling papers, the words "by the sea" were interpreted as "by the C" (as in cannabis), the word "mist" stood for "smoke", the land of "Honahlee" stood for hashish, and "dragon" was interpreted as "draggin'" (i.e., inhaling smoke). Similarly, the name "Puff" was alleged to be a reference to taking a "puff" on a joint....
The adults were so afraid that we kids would take drugs. The fear itself caused hallucinations! And we, the kids took drugs anyway.
53 comments:
I've always preferred 'pled' to 'pleaded' - simply because it's easier to say. I guess that's why it's listed as colloquial in the AP Style Book.
That's such a sad song.
Mary looks and carries herself like Althouse! Or is it vice-versa? Was she a role model for you, Prof?
JSM
“ Learning of the pardon, the victim told The Washington Post decades later, was “like you got sucker-punched in the gut. It’s telling him, ‘It’s okay what you did, just don’t get caught next time.’”
Yes, I took the drugs too, and yes, my parents were right to tell me I shouldn’t have. My life would have been so much more successfull and happy if I’d continued on the open path before me to becoming a major Catholic cathedral pipe organist, and I had entered into a sanctified marriage when I was 20, and had a mess of kids. That’s not what I did. I’m not exactly proud of getting diverted from the straight and narrow, but that’s what I did.
I sang that song to my kids most nights. I also hated that it was sad, so I made up a new verse about Jacky introducing his own kids to Puff.
"morals charge involving a minor."
That is among the most polite euphemisms for "molesting a 14 year old" I've ever heard. Proof that all artists get the "Polanski" treatment.
Once again - certain people are above the law.
I knew Lenny Lipton. He always insisted that Puff was not about smoking marijuana. His passion was 3D visualization, which is where I worked with him.
"Was she a role model for you, Prof?"
The hairstyle — I would point to Mary Travers, Patty Boyd, and Marianne Faithful — echoes through the decades. But Mary swept the bangs to the side in a distinctive way that looks great on stage but would be fussy to maintain, so I never did that. It was a perfect hairstyle for her.
When I look at that video, I greatly admire how Mary looks, and her torso, turned to the side, looks so svelte. But we know she got quite fat as she aged, so that suggests that the lovely thin look was something she had to struggle to maintain.
Like the swept to the side bangs, the great torso looks casual and natural, but there was a lot of work behind that.
"I knew Lenny Lipton. He always insisted that Puff was not about smoking marijuana"
Did anyone know Ogden Nash?
What was his view of all this? (He lived until 1971.)
A taste:
Belinda lived in a little white house,
With a little black kitten and a little gray mouse,
And a little yellow dog and a little red wagon,
And a realio, trulio, little pet dragon.
Now the name of the little black kitten was Ink,
And the little gray mouse, she called her Blink,
And the little yellow dog was sharp as Mustard,
But the dragon was a coward, and she called him Custard.
Custard the dragon had big sharp teeth,
And spikes on top of him and scales underneath,
Mouth like a fireplace, chimney for a nose,
And realio, trulio, daggers on his toes....
You are assuming that, having avoided diving over one cliff, you would not have proceeded to find a steeper one. Maybe. When I consider my own careen, I suspect that I'm just lucky my bad judgment didn't get me into worse trouble. It's a jungle in there.
I don't know that I'd call the torso "great". The whole presentation looks bizarre now. An acoustic guitar and two -- two! -- microphones. And the "Sing along!". Man. No wonder Dylan went electric.
"Did anyone know Ogden Nash?"
Neil Young?
Later, he he joined Crossnee, Ogden Nash, and Mr. Stillman. But then he was…he was dead then! After that. On no! Poor Neil, dead as a doorna…ob. “He was? How?” The coronary asked. “He might have died in his own frow-up,” I said. Could he have been a drug abuser?
His death was a great loss to both Rock and Roll.
I loved PPM and saw them in concert when I was in high school. Mary was so striking and I loved the way her hair swayed forward when she leaned in to sing, something she did often. It was the strangest thing but when she died, it hurt. Peter's death, not at all. I always saw him as an annoying little commie (I know, I know, they all were - minus the annoying and the little).
"In 1970, Yarrow was convicted and served three months in prison for taking "improper liberties" with 14-year-old Barbara Winter. In August 1969, she had gone with her 17-year-old sister to Yarrow's hotel room in Washington, DC seeking an autograph. Winter stated that Yarrow answered the door naked and made her masturbate him until he ejaculated. Yarrow served three months of a 1–3 year prison sentence"
How did he serve only 3 months of a 1-3 year sentence? And what a strange behavior. What's up with these oddball performers who like to mastubate in front of women?
"What's up with these oddball performers"
They like to perform?
"made her"? Hmm, I never read about the brandishing.
I took a girlfriend to a Peter, Paul, and Mary concert not long after that Newsweek article came out. And during their concert they took a break to assure us in the audience that “Puff, the Magic Dragon” was emphatically not about marijuana, however they had stumbled across a song that definitely did have suspicious lyrics:
“Oh, say can you SEE
— C standing for cocaine.
And thus they went on, emphasizing the “rockets’ RED glare, the BOMBS bursting in air “
And we in the audience positively roared with laughter. It’s been more than fifty years and I remember that part of their show with perfect clarity.
Later in life, as he grew more aware of his true self, Puff moved to a new cave in Erebor, developed a gold fetish, transitioned, and renamed himself Smaug.
It didn't work well out in the end.
Ogden Nash wrote the lyrics for "Speak Low" with music by Kurt Weil. That tops Puff the Magic Dragon in my estimation. Sadly, he lived before lyricists were considered great artists and never got to entertain fans in his drawing room.
First, child molestation is still treated as less of a crime than raping an adult lady unless she's gay, a select group of different ethnicities and minorities, or actually a fake female born as a man? If you can't actually find these facts, using statistics or the USSC, you are legally incompetent.
Second, Why would anyone think this creepy song wasn't about bad behavior?
Third, these laws haven't just "give back pot" to kids. Any libertarian or Democrat has "given back" a situation in which substantually powerful bred marijuana is pouring "kids" and stupid adults into mental institutions. Don't you care that what you remember experiencing, or still can with your own experience to guide you, isn't what they're imbibing? How disgustingly selfish.
Fourth, in no state that has legalized marijuana have illegal sales, cartels, or violence decreased. Instead, legalization has created more oportunities for illegal activity to expand its grasp, especially on minors.
Thanks, Boomers.
I was into airplanes from as early as I can remember, and I made many model airplanes as a kid. So when someone says "Puff the Magic Dragon", my first thought is AC-47 gunship.
I think I recall Yarrow being on the Carson show and Johnny asked him about the pot thing. He denied it had anything to do with pot. IIRC he said it was a song he sang to his kids. It’s been a while so. I’m not sure about that.
I saw them perform several times over the tears. They all changed - Mary got fat, and as Peter put it one time, “We’re grateful that so many of our male fans have chosen to emulate our hairstyles as they have evolved over the years.”
*Over the years
Was the morals charge for puffing or his queer sexual orientation involving underage girls?
He scheduled room service and wires got crossed.
I once bought Peter Yarrow's book on guitar playing, I recommend it if you have huge hands. Otherwise, you may find it of limited interest.
Depending on the woman's state of mind, you brandish your "weapon," or it is a blandishment.
I was a young boy when this song came out, and I remember finding it incredibly sad. I have not heard it for years. Just now, when I clicked play, I felt a lump form in my throat.
Noel Paul Stookey also did a sendup of "Puff," interspersing lines of the song with a mock trial in NY.
Puff, the Magic Dragon
Sometimes a dragon is just a dragon.
The late 60s through the Reagan ascendency was an age of sexual liberation where teens were seen as young adults able to make their own sexual choices. A young girl going to a musician's hotel room and jacking him off was not that far from accepted norms back then. Some of the stories from that time are legendary.
Never trust a man -- or a woman -- with a goatee.
Louis CK’s mentor?
Iman said...
Louis CK’s mentor?
In fairness to Louis CK, he asked adult women if they would please watch him jerk off.
Peter asked a 14 girl to jerk HIM off. To completion. I hope she at least got his autograph.
I used to work Transportation at the Kerrville Folk Festival and gave Mr. Yarrow a ride back to town a few times. The last time just a few years ago at 2:00 in the morning when he was singing at a campfire with other artists. Our cut off time was at 2 and I arrived at the camp about 1:30. Some lady came out to the van and asked did he need to stop sing and leave like I'm going to tell some legend to shut up and get in the damn van. So I sat by the fire till he was ready. A nice memory and he seemed like a pleasant fellow to me.
"saw his reputation tarnished" Passive voice. Nice.
Generally referred to among air operators back in the day as, "Spooky".
“I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than…”
“I’d rather have my reputation burnished than…”
Yarrow had his shvantz burnished and then saw his reputation tarnished.
Peter Paul and Mary exemplified the leftward tilt of folk music being subtly pushed by Stalinists like Pete Seeger. No enemies to the left. Take it as far as you can without going full commie.
"A young girl going to a musician's hotel room and jacking him off was not that far from accepted norms back then."
It wasn't an "accepted norm" for the 2 young girls. Or society. Maybe it was for the musicians.
I hate to have to point out the elephant in the room but, if he did this once, he was probably doing it more often. You don't just all of the sudden open a door naked for fans and expect to get jacked off. It probably happened enough times before that he became less careful about with who and how it happened.
Groupies will be groupies whether for folk musicians or rock musicians. He was expecting a groupie and got a naïve fan.
"Went to his hotel room". He probably asked to be whacked off and the girls cheerfully complied. Societal norms were different then. Consider the varied ages of the protagonist in "Stray Cat Blues" versions by the Rolling Stones
I can't remember when DC got home rule--it must have been after 1970 for Carter to be able to pardon him in '81. Both sisters must have been really star-struck to enter a room answered by a naked man. Wikipedia says it happened in August '69, and he married Eugene McCarthy's niece that October.
Mary perfected the art of the hair toss!
A few thoughts. 1) we can be sure you weren't a popular musician in the '70s. 2) societal standards have evolved greatly on sexual behavior. For example, if it turned out he was gay, it would have been a big deal then, now not at all.
Evolved queer sexual orientations.
That's true. Under Democratic law, it is illegal to discriminate against queer sexual orientations (e.g. homosexual, pedophilia, sadomasochism, incest).
Some aren’t. To actually be hauled before a court then was the anomaly. Psychopathic sentimentality sucks as hard as a 14-year old victim, Michael.
How fucking touching.
Mary Travers was clever. Pick the company you hang out with well enough and any one of us could become "the pretty one."
"He was expecting a groupie and got a naive fan."
And a handjob for the history books.
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