"Puff, the Magic Dragon" is a song written and popularized by Peter, Paul and Mary in the 1960s. The song is so well-known that it has entered American and British pop culture.

The lyrics for Puff were based on a 1959 poem by Leonard Lipton, a nineteen-year-old Cornell student. Lipton was inspired by an Ogden Nash poem titled Custard the Dragon, about a "realio, trulio, little pet dragon." Lipton passed his poem on to his friend Peter Yarrow, who added a tune and additional lyrics to transform the poem into the song.

Believed by many people to refer to smoking marijuana, it became a hippie anthem. The authors of the song deny any intentional drug reference (compare Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds).

Parodies

Due to its popularity, the song has generated many parodies and songs sung to the same tune. One (~1964) went:

Mary was a virgin,
At least that's what they say,
But I still think she got knocked up
That same old-fashioned way.

See also: European dragon, list of dragons

External links

Puff the Magic Dragon is also American slang for the AC-47 gunship and AC-130 gunship airplanes in Vietnam, so-called because the 4 Gatling guns fired red tracers that gave it the appearance of breathing fire.