Isn’t there a “Happy” ending to Puff the Magic Dragon…it talking it over with my wife, we both seem to remember a version that had another little boy coming to play with Puff and Puff coming to know that while “not so little boys”, that there would be a endless supply of little boys to play with? But we can’t find it and anyone else we ask looks at us like we’re nuts! Help me!
Lord, let me be the person that my dog thinks I am!
Sounds to me as though you are confusing Puff and Peter Pan. Peter never pays attention to such mundane things as time and so fails to come get Wendy each Spring to clean his house (as he promised). When he finally does come, he finds, not Wendy, but Wendy’s daughter (who happily goes off to have an adventure).
Tom~
I don’t know, but anyone else familiar with the rumor that this was just a dope song?
(Puff the Magic - Drag On!)
Was this Peter, Paul and Mary? Did they write it?
Or maybe you’re getting mixed up with the animated TV movie, which goes in odd directions indeed.
-PIGEONMAN-
Hero For A New Millennium!
The Legend Of PigeonMan - Back in the new year! Honest. I promise. No, really.
I’ve heard the “happy ending” version too. And ever since, the canonical version with the scales falling like rain has bummed the hell out of me. Can’t give you an attribution though. My guess is that PP&M occasionally ad-libbed.
Thanks for the web site but I’ve never thought of it as a drug song…how people could think that!
A dope song? Absurd.
It is clearly an allegory about Nazi Germany escaping from the influence of the Bavarian Illuminati and coming into the sphere of the Trilateral Commission. Remember, Hitler was a paperhanger…
I have never heard a version of Puff that contains a verse referencing a new kid discovering Puff. But you might be remembering Captain Kangaroo’s illustrated version of the song, featuring, IIRC, a kid who looked like he was a caveman or Tarzan or something, dressed in animal skins. They illustrated (not animated) the whole song, and at the end, when Puff is exiled in his cave, the words “But Wait…” appeared on the screen, and a new kid in a new animal skin is seen creeping up to the sealed mouth of the cave, thereby inspiring hope that the cycle of imaginary friendship doesn’t end, but merely is accessed by a new generation. Or something.
As far as Peter Paul ‘n’ Mary go, they have realized the error of their ways re: this song. We have a videotaped family concert of theirs titled “Peter, Paul and Mommy” in which they sing the final chorus as “Puff the Magic Dragon lives by the sea,” then in the gap before the next line they say in unison, “Present tense!” It is the song that will not die.
The Dave-Guy
“since my daughter’s only half-Jewish, can she go in up to her knees?” J.H. Marx
I vaguely remember a version that was shown on Captain Kangaroo in the 60’s. The song itself didn’t mention another little boy, but at the end of the song the cartoon drawings that accompanied the song showed another little boy approaching Puff’s cave. (Wow, how’d I ever dredge that one up?)
The song as written by Peter, Paul, and Mary does not have a happy ending. Any happy endings you may have heard are the result of (1) tampering by terminally optimistic revisionsists or (2) hallucinations caused by drugs, as suggested in the lyrics.
I left out the evidence:
Puff the Magic Dragon
by Peter, Paul and Mary
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!
…
[excess lyrics snipped- here’s a link so you can see the “evidence” http://www.lyricsfreak.com/p/peter+paul+mary/puff+the+magic+dragon_10205000.html- Ivorytowerdenizen]
No it is not. The actual author of the poem Leonard Lipton, Before he gave it to his college friend Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul and Mary, has done many interviews frustratingly telling that it had nothing to do with drugs or any other hidden messages.
:smack:
You registered an account here just so that you could fall for a long-forgotten joke in a 17-year-old thread?
This was actually NOT written by Peter, Paul and Mary. The original poem was written by Leonard Lipton who gave it to his college friend Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary). Peter Yarrow then wrote the MUSIC to the poem and tweaked the last paragraph. So Peter was the ORIGINAL REVISIONIST. I think it is unfortunate that he wasn’t really vocal about Leonard Lipton’s role in this song. Also, though there have been several happy endings by many added to the song, Peter Yarrow DID do one as well but it was eliminated because it made the song go beyond the standard 3 minute time frame. So even the original performers, if not writer was “terminally optimistic”…thank goodness, the world would be such an unhappy place if everyone walked around, “terminally sad and angry”.
PS: Could you explain how being optimistic is, “terminal”? I hope you are able to THAW at some point.
Yes, I saw the dates and it doesn’t matter. Someone else will stumble on this sight just as I did and they may not know the facts of the song and may walk away with false information. At least now it is there if they are taking time to also read 17 year old information. The facts of the song and it’s origins are the same no matter when the information gets posted.
And you took the time to respond for no other reason than to be surly. You need to consider how you are spending your own time before you judge me on mine. At least I provided constructive information.
I recall the Captain Kangaroo version. It was the happy ending the OP is thinking of.
[quote=“PoliticallyWhat, post:15, topic:5612”]
This was actually NOT written by Peter, Paul and Mary. The original poem was written by Leonard Lipton who gave it to his college friend Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary). Peter Yarrow then wrote the MUSIC to the poem and tweaked the last paragraph. So Peter was the ORIGINAL REVISIONIST. I think it is unfortunate that he wasn’t really vocal about Leonard Lipton’s role in this song.
Also, though there have been several happy endings by many added to the song, Peter Yarrow DID do one as well but it was eliminated because it made the song go beyond the standard 3 minute time frame. So even the original performers, if not writer was “terminally optimistic”…thank goodness, the world would be such an unhappy place if everyone walked around, “terminally sad and angry”.
PS: Could you explain how being optimistic is, “terminal”?
PSS: The author of the poem also had no hidden messages referring to drugs. If the actual drug filled listener heard the song and found meaning in an innocent child’s song about the loss of innocence, then that is on them and the others who make something out of nothing…talk about revisionist. Just as with any other song, people hear what they want or how their own life experiences imprint on the meaning of the song for THEM personally, not how was necessarily intended by the author.
I hope you are able to THAW at some point.
As the Snopes article says:
In the context of the times, it’s not surprising. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Peter Yarrow comment on it, but I wonder if he’s ever shared any thoughts about “Puff, the Magic Dragon” getting used as a nickname for the AC47 Spooky gunship during Vietnam. I wouldn’t be surprised if that actually pissed him off more.
Wow.
That must have been back when I still smoked the marijuana.
I can’t believe how quick I was to Godwinize a thread about a sing.