Bleeding Fiction

Right. Next they'll tell us that "Turning Japanese" is really about a guy who becomes Japanese.

mmmmmm interesting what other song titles would be "disturbing" if they were true?

The thing is, Gus, that Puff the Magic Dragon bit is true, no matter what the people at Snopes say or that the dude who wrote the song tries to deny it. It has to be true. It's practically an article of faith for every American who grew up hearing the song.

Nice sarcasm, Jason. It's hard to believe people will be so crass about a cute/sad nursery song. While we're at it, why don't we interpret the "take the key and lock her up" part of "London Bridge is Falling Down" to mean S&M and "Hot Cross Buns" to really be about hookers.

Besides, if it was a metaphor, it'd be on their adult albums, not just on their kid stuff.

There is a thread of reasoning that assumes that a song is about whatever you think it's about. To you. Lyrical Relativism! What a sea of modern inquity we live in.

That thread of reasoning is crap. At least vis-a-vis this song. I'll give you relativism any day of the week. Disect Bob Dylan lyrics until the stars grow dim and cold and I won't say a thing. But Puff is about a goddamn fucking joint. Or maybe, you know, a bong.

Jacquee - heh; sorry, but I really wasn't being sarcastic. The search for hidden meaning in songs and poems often goes waaay too far, but it's not really "hidden" when you trip over the meaning at the age of seven, you know? My parents, who were teens when this song came out, had it pegged same as me.

(Oh, and not to quibble, but since I'm anal about music: Puff is on Peter, Paul & Mary's adult (as in "regular") albums - I've got the song on the 10th anniversary album and it was originally on their 1963 album "Moving." It's just that the trio are fairly low-key hippie types with relatively sedate protest/folk songs. This means that, as with John Denver (and Harry Chapin's classic Cats in the Cradle), it happens to be about the right speed, volume and simplicity for kids music. It helps, too, that Peter, Paul & Mary, as well as the people listening to them, eventually settled down and had kids. That's why I listened to all of this as a little kid - because my mom still liked it and thought it was appropriate. Also because all of my parents' other music burned to the ground along with their house a month or so before I was born and they couldn't afford to re-buy it all.)

Are you calling Peter, Paul and Mary liars? You really wanna THROW DOWN with PPM, son? Step off, or they gonna go hippie on yo' ass.