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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Puff the Magic Dragon (various ending From: Joe Offer Date: 05 Sep 09 - 11:21 PM Maybe it's just me, but I think the Bush Administration gave "homeland" a bad name.... |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Puff the Magic Dragon (various endings) From: SharonA Date: 05 Sep 09 - 11:40 PM LOL, Joe! A magic dragon as "homeland security" -- what a concept! *grin* Unfortunately, I can't think of a better two-syllable word. "Country" and "nation" don't work any better. Jeez, I didn't mean to turn the song into "God Bless America" but, now that you mention it, my verse does seem headed in that direction.... Back to the drawing board? |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Puff the Magic Dragon (various endings) From: GUEST Date: 19 Feb 10 - 05:30 AM For a few years now I've been singing my own final verse, without ever thinking of trying to seek out additional verses written by others. After reading the rest on this thread, which is admittedly several months old now, I still prefer my own verse (below) Before I wrote my final verse, I used to sing it as I heard PPM perform it on a live recording, where they yell out "Present Tense!" and then repeat the chorus, LIVES by the sea... That was clearly their way of making it a happy ending... as if Puff got over it, and left his cave, so he still lives by the sea, and still frolics in the autumn mist... But as SharonA mentioned above, I always felt it was a cruel ending for Puff to live alone forever in his cave, abandoned by his friend who grew up and stopped dreaming of him. I couldn't bear to keep telling the children (through the song) that they should grow up, like Jackie, and stop dreaming their childhood dreams, as if dreaming is reserved only for children. As catspaw47 said above, "this song is about the loss of innocence" but do we really LOSE our innocence as we age, or do we just FORGET it? And as a song about losing innocence - sung to children - what should we teach them? What do they learn from the song? The verses posted above about Jackie's child are cute, but I find them somewhat trite, and I dislike the reservation that only children are allowed to dream of Puff and play with him. I'm 31 and I still dream of dragons sometimes, and slip away to the magical lands of my imagination. I dislike that Jackie himself never returns to visit Puff in those verses: he only sends his child as an emissary. Why? Because he outgrew his imagination. And is that what we should teach our children through this song? Grow up and leave childish things behind... Bah! No! Of course there is a place for that, I mean we can't cling too tightly to naive innocent fantasies as adults, but adult life also still has a place for imagination and dreams. Plus I considered that the adults in my audience were the ones who really paid attention to the lyrics, and thought about them. I don't think most of my child audiences really think about the song very much or what the story means - I certainly didn't until I was older - but it's my peer-aged friends who always ask me to sing it, and always listen to the words, and they even tend to praise me for remembering all the lyrics ... I think because I sing my own verse at the end, which they don't remember, because they only hear it from me, so they assume I remembered it (not that I wrote it myself) ... but I take it as a great compliment that my verse seems to fit that well that I have to tell them I wrote it myself. Anyway, I wanted to remind the adults in my audience to keep dreaming too, so I wrote my added "happy ending" verse as follows... I'll tell you a secret If you listen close to me In each every one of us Is a bit of Jackie P. He'll fly on dragons' wings Forever 'til the end And every day he laughs and sings When he's with his best friend Ohhhh Puff the magic dragon Still lives by the sea And frolics in the Autumn mist in a land called Honnilee Puff the magic dragon Still lives by the sea And frolics in the Autumn mist in a laaa-nnnd caaaaaaalled Hooon---niiii---leeeeee |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Puff the Magic Dragon (various endings) From: oldhippie Date: 19 Feb 10 - 09:11 PM There's a version by the Brobdingnagian Bards that has a happy ending, however I don't have the lyrics. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Puff the Magic Dragon (various endings) From: GUEST Date: 10 Aug 10 - 06:52 AM suggested ending Children love adventure, games for bold and brave Soon daniel drum and johny plum had found puff's magic cave With coloured flags all waiving, they frolic by the shore And children come from miles around to hear Puff's mighty roar |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Puff the Magic Dragon (various ending From: GUEST Date: 19 Oct 10 - 09:07 AM Puff should befriend Superman. He also lives forever |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Puff the Magic Dragon (various endings) From: Mo the caller Date: 20 Oct 10 - 03:17 AM Was the original written by an English writer brought up on A.A Milne's Winnie the Pooh? In the days that was written boys of a certain class had to leave the nursery behind and grow up and go to boarding school, as Christopher Robin does, leaving his bear and other toys waiting for him. The end of the book and song have the same feel to them. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Puff the Magic Dragon (various endings) From: Mo the caller Date: 20 Oct 10 - 06:01 AM Thinking about it, who is really lamenting the loss of imagination and innocence? Not Christopher or Jackie. Hardly a stuffed bear or an imaginary dragon. It's the storytelling parent or the songwriter observer who laments both their own childhood and that of their children. But the extra verse writers have it right. It all come round again with grandchildren. Christmas Day with toys being played with. Yipee. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Puff the Magic Dragon (various endings) From: SINSULL Date: 20 Oct 10 - 10:12 AM I prefer the version where Puff gets high on LSD and attacks Tokyo. Raymond Burr is in there too. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Puff the Magic Dragon (various endings) From: Trapper Date: 20 Oct 10 - 01:02 PM When I was a kid, my family had a recording of "Drag, the Magic Puffin" - now that I think about it, it may be the first parody I ever heard! - Trapper DRAG THE MAGIC PUFFIN by Marc Field (?) There once was a puffin just the shape of a muffin And he lived on an island in the deep blue sea And he ate little fishes that were most delicious And he had them for supper and he had them for tea. Spoken: There was that magic little puffin, but the name of Drag Now this little puffin, he couldn't play nothin' For he hadn't anybody to play with at all So he sat on his isle and he cried for awhile And he felt very little and he felt very small. Spoken: Poor Drag. His magic only made him live forever. There he was, all by himself. But one evening, when he went down to fish for his tea-time snack, his problems were solved. These cute little fishes, they said "If you wishes You may have us for playmates instead of for tea" Now they all play together in all kinds of weather And Drag the magic puffin eats pancakes Like you and me. YouTube recording: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv1vIgFVQYA |
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Subject: Lyr Add: DRAG THE MAGIC PUFFIN (Paddy Wex) From: Trapper Date: 20 Oct 10 - 01:25 PM Here's another one I found, in my search for the original "Drag"... - Trapper DRAG THE MAGIC PUFFIN Words: Paddy Wex (2009) Drag the magic puffin wasn't just a bird; He also was a vampire, though I know it sounds absurd. He drank the blood of anything that seemed a trifle weak; He'd yellow fangs three inches long concealed inside his beak. A magic puffin's not the sort that you'll see every day; Its orange beak and golden plumes will scare most folk away. If you see the vampire type, it's pretty frightful luck; It sinks its fangs into your neck, goes errrrrgh! and starts to suck. Drag the magic puffin lived miles from the sea And frolicked deep in forests dark and lonely cemeteries; Little Jacky Viper loved that vampire, Drag, And brought him mice and voles to eat inside a picnic bag. Together they would travel in a souped-up V8 Hearse Seven gears and overdrive and three more in reverse. Jacky did the driving; for miles and miles each night Till Drag would say "I'm hungry, lad, so let's stop for a bite." Just in case you're wondering, it simply isn't true That, asked if he liked children, Drag the Puffin said, "I do, But I couldn't manage a whole one." His answer to the question Was actually, "No. You see, they give me indigestion." How do puffins turn to vampires? In the case of Drag - He chatted up a cormorant, expecting just a shag. He didn't know she drank the blood of any foolish bloke Who thought that for a fish or two she'd let him have a poke. He offered her a haddock, saying "Darling, you have this." "How sweet!" she answered with a sigh, "Now you deserve a kiss!" Drag closed his eyes and pursed his beak, expecting just a peck; The next thing that he knew, she'd plunged her fangs into his neck. He felt his lifeblood draining as she almost sucked him dry, And then she laughed and said with relish, "Now you'll never die. You'll sleep by day, grow fangs and through the night remain awake Till Buffy comes to find you with a mallet and a stake." "What's your plan, Drag," Jacky asked, "if Buffy comes for you?" "She's pretty fit," was Drag's reply, "So this is what I'll do: I'll lie in wait, then bare my fangs; my muscles I will flex And study every move she makes through magic x-ray specs!" One grey night it happened: Jacky Viper came no more, So Drag went out and found him dead; their friendship was no more. He took him to a taxidermist but hope for Jack was past So fondly Drag did have him stuffed and mounted under glass. His head was bent and twisted, the stuffing all fell out, Till putrefaction staled the air and drove the neighbours out. Without his lifelong friend, Drag could not be brave, So Drag that magic puffin sadly slipped into his grave. Drag the magic puffin lived miles from the sea And frolicked deep in forests dark and lonely cemeteries; Little Jacky Viper loved that vampire, Drag, And brought him mice and voles to eat inside a picnic bag. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3dA5jSxQ-c&feature=youtube_gdata |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Puff the Magic Dragon (various endings) From: GUEST,Grishka Date: 21 Oct 10 - 07:13 AM The "Drag" offered by Trapper is very funny indeed. The times they have a-changed once more. A happy ending for the Puff song nowadays would be as follows: The dragon undergoes a therapy against his preference for little boys. He finds a dragoness of suitable age and religion, and they live happily ever after, and when they see a little boy, they hurry past him. For the Jewish Puff, I suggest the following heroic ending: A famine comes over the land, so Puff offers himself to be slaughtered to feed God's People. The Rabbi finds a clever solution to the problems of claws and chud etc., so Puff ends his life under the shochet's knife. Finally, he has become "Puff the kosher dragon". Unfortunately, I am not a poet. It's your turn, gifted 'catters! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Puff the Magic Dragon (various endings) From: GUEST,stargazer Date: 25 May 11 - 12:06 AM There was a version on an album I had as a kid entitled "On Top Of Spaghetti. It too had Jackie's son returning. Wish I could find the lyrics to that version... |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Puff the Magic Dragon (various endings) From: Joe Offer Date: 25 May 11 - 12:24 AM Hi, Stargazer - We have some happy endings in this thread (click), but I don't see a son right off. There's a daughter, though... -Joe- |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Puff the Magic Dragon (various endings) From: GUEST,JR Date: 06 Mar 12 - 09:24 PM I sing this song at camp, and my song leader ends with this verse: One bright shiny morning, as Puff walked down the strand, a little girl came up to him and said, "Here, take my hand. Hey, now Mr. Dragon, don't you look so sad. My name is Jenny Paper. I was sent here by my dad." My song leader says he saw Peter, Paul, and Mary sing this verse in a concert, but people got angry, saying it contracted from the meaning, so they didn't do it anymore. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Puff the Magic Dragon (various endings) From: GUEST,Sean Date: 24 Mar 12 - 11:48 PM I had heard the "walking down the strand" one years before, but could never recall it. I've used this instead- but remembered the basic sense of the others posted above: One day ole Puff was walking Along that lonesome shore When he saw a set of footprints he Had not seen there before. A voice came from behind him, -said, "Puff, sir, don't be sad. My name is Jenny Paper. I was sent here by my dad." |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Puff the Magic Dragon (various endings) From: Joe Offer Date: 06 Jul 13 - 04:06 AM There's a time to make fun of all this, too: (click) |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Puff the Magic Dragon (various endings) From: GUEST,Flash MacTavish Date: 10 Sep 13 - 04:53 PM This version was popular in the RCAF. Christ the magic hebrew lived by the sea, and taught us social protest in a land called Galleli, born a tax-deduction, with a star above his head, Christ the king of all the jews, had horseshit for a bed. Christ went to a party, everything was fine, when the host ran out of beer, Christ changed water into wine, the Palestine liquor control board, thought this was mighty nice, changing water into wine, without a change in price. Christ walked on the water far from the docks, Peter tried, and Peter died, He could not find the rocks. There was a Roman soldier, I think his name was Mike, He said, Christ won't you cross your legs, I only have one spike. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Puff the Magic Dragon (various endings) From: Joe Offer Date: 05 Dec 21 - 09:23 PM Here's my alternate ending to "Puff": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mkl_Tf9J77k&t=1140s |
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