'Puff, the Magic Dragon' Has Been Debated for Years Due to Its Perceived Double Meaning

Even if you didn't grow up listening to or even knowing much about Peter, Paul and Mary, you probably know a thing or two about the band's music. Or, at the very least, you know some of the bangers, like Puff, the Magic Dragon. Maybe it's because you think the meaning behind the song is slightly inappropriate, and has to do with something other than what the lyrics suggest.

Or, you appreciate the song for what it is and totally trust Peter Yarrow's years-long explanation for what Puff, the Magic Dragon means. It's an iconic song for various reasons, including what some fans believe to be a double meaning behind it. But what did Yarrow say about what Puff, the Magic Dragon means before his January 2025 death? He spoke about it often.

Puff, the Magic Dragon is about a magical best friend dragon, named Puff, who is dreamed up by a little boy whose imagination runs wild as a child. But, as the boy grows up, he slowly grows apart from the dragon. And eventually, the dragon doesn't exist because the little boy is older and doesn't need him.

The lines that explain this in the song are:

"A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys

Painted wings and giant's rings make way for other toys

One gray night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more

And Puff, that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar."

In 2017, Yarrow told Florida Today that the song is about children and the loss of innocence and was never meant to be about anything else.

"It is an imbecilic reality that we just have to live with now," he said at the time, of the other meaning behind Puff, the Magic Dragon. "It won't stop me from singing it and asking children to come and join me on stage and sing along with it either. It's lovable enough to last, and I won't let that die."

He also explained that the rumor about the song being about drugs stemmed from a writer at a magazine who claimed he needed a third song in a list of popular songs about drugs. According to Yarrow, Puff, the Magic Dragon was chosen. But that was never the intended meaning behind the song.

Besides the unnamed magazine writer who Yarrow said first suggested that Puff, the Magic Dragon is about drugs rather than children growing up, fans have taken lines from the song to draw their own interpretations that include there being a secret meaning behind it all. The word "puff" being used to name the dragon, for example, is believed by some to be in reference to "puffing" a marijuana joint.

The child in the song is named Jackie Paper, which once again, is perceived by some fans to mean rolling papers used for marijuana, and that the song has a drug-laced meaning behind it. But long after the song was released and until his death, Yarrow insisted otherwise.