During my years of teaching preschool, I got to share that dragon song with a new generation of dragon-fanatics. I love the two additional verses, added years later, that I'd learned from Amber McInnis' version on Music For Little People's "Family Folk Festival":
"Jackie he got married, and they had a little babe. Jackie's daughter Sophie went adventuring one day. Happily she wandered down the misty beach alone. And passing by a hidden cave, she heard a muffled groan.
Bravely Sophie slipped into the place where Puff did dwell. The startled dragon spun around and frightened her as well. Then she saw his lonely eyes, and quickly lost her fears. She kissed the dragon's scaly nose and wiped away his tears."
But wait. I knew I'd heard a version of "Puff" with a happy ending somewhere. WFMT host Rich Warren helped me find it on "Family Folk Festival," a 1990 compilation CD.
And despite the low esteem in which the hackneyed "Puff" is held by serious musicians, Warren has agreed to play the "Family Folk Festival" version, sung by 11-year-old Amber McInnis, Saturday on his "Midnight Special" program (from 9 p.m. to midnight, WFMT-FM 98.7):
Jackie he got married, and they had a little babe. Jackie's daughter Sophie went adventuring one day. Happily she wandered down the misty beach alone. And passing by a hidden cave, she heard a muffled groan.
Bravely Sophie slipped into the place where Puff did dwell. The startled dragon spun around and frightened her as well. Then she saw his lonely eyes, and quickly lost her fears. She kissed the dragon's scaly nose and wiped away his tears.
The liner notes credit Yarrow with the lyrics, but Yarrow, through a spokesman, said Friday that the above is "not an official or sanctioned last verse." He said he's not bothered by the improvisation and that "literally hundreds of people have written their own last verses, and each last verse inevitably has inherent in it the desire for Puff to find another child to play with."