Remembering Peter Yarrow, Folksinger and Songwriter of Puff, the Magic Dragon

This past week we lost one of the most famous Jewish songwriters and performers of folk songs when Peter Yarrow died at 86.

Best known as one third of the folksinging group Peter, Paul, and Mary, Yarrow co-wrote the song Puff, the Magic Dragon in 1962, a song about the loss of innocence and the inevitability of children growing up and taking leave of their childhood toys.

As John Rogers wrote in The Times of Israel, 

Born May 31, 1938, to Jewish Ukrainian parents in New York, Yarrow was raised in an upper-middle-class family that he said placed a high value on art and scholarship. He took violin lessons as a child, later switching to guitar as he came to embrace the work of such folk-music icons as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.

After months of rehearsals, the three became an overnight sensation when their first album, 1962’s eponymous “Peter, Paul and Mary,” reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart. Their second, “In the Wind,” reached No. 4, and their third, “Moving,” put them back at No. 1.

From their earliest albums, the trio sang out against war and injustice in songs like Seeger’s “If I Had a Hammer” and “Where Have all the Flowers Gone,” Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “When the Ship Comes In” and Yarrow’s own “Day is Done.”

In this interview recorded seven years ago, Yarrow reflected on the origin and meaning of the song.

Enjoy!