What Does The Song "Puff the Magic Dragan" Mean
The folk group Peter, Paul and Mary were a national treasure in so many ways. Elitist folk music critics of them during the 60's and 70'scoffed at their slick harmonies, perfect diction and pop music popularity. Real folk music was more crude and unpolished like Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger . However, a folk music icon deep in the Bob Dylan tradition, Arlo Guthrie, would have none of that. He said Peter, Paul and Mary would take stands on controversial issues when they did not need to. They performed free at the most controversial of events. "They had more to lose than the rest of us" said Arlo.
Then there was the political right and rumors about what the song, "Puff," was about. The craziest was that it was written to promote drug use.
After their retirement, each of Peter, Paul and Mary did some solo performing and charitable work. Paul Stooky came to Fargo to help with a Lutheran fund raising dinner which I attended. He mixed easily with everyone and then sang a few of their famous songs. Before "Puff the Magic Dragan" he said one of the weirdest things was the rumor the song had something to do with drugs. "It's a song about a kid and his toy. It's about a childhood lost."
The link to drugs started with a Newsweek article which quoted various people who claimed they had figured this out. They noted also the lyrics included the little boy's name, Jackie Paper. Paper was chosen, the said, because marijuana and cocaine use paper in their consumption. It was, of course, a time of heavy illegal drug use. The song started as a poem written by a Cornell college student. He based it on a child story he had read. Years later Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary adapted it to music. It was not about drugs.
The marijuana connection to the song is a classic example of the phrase used often by Christians, "What this means is..." What the written or spoken words "mean" at any point in time come from what is going on at that time. The narrative at the time was hippies are drug users. Hippies like folk music. Therefore folk music is about drugs. The Bible takes on a different meaning whenever current events change.
If Newsweek can say "What this means..." so can I. I have decided I know better than anyone else what the song "Puff the Magic Dragon" is about. It is about gods. The lyrics include, "A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys. Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys."
What this means is people play with a god until they tire of it. Then they move on to "other toys" meaning other gods. You are free to quote me.
no matter the topic, you can't forego a dig at Christianity, can you? that aside, I think that the meaning of Puff is obviously a whimsical musical rendering of the transition from childhood to maturity. as to interpretation of "meaning" consider the many meanings to be found in any complex literary, musical or other artistic work. actually deconstructionists -- insofar as I understand them -- seem to delight in finding hidden, ideological meanings even in works might otherwise have a fairly straight forward meaning or complex of meanings. take King Lear for example.
ReplyDeleteshould explain. picked Lear as an example. some people think that it is, inter alia, a surreptitious commentary on the politics of the bard's day. the same could be said about most of any literary work. and in some cases, such analysis may bring to light some interesting aspects of the work involved. and even if we stick with the author's literal words, there are several ways in which these can be interpreted. but a little common sense is always in order: avoid the wild eyed stuff that some kook(s) throws out.
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