Interview with Peter Yarrow, WAMC (1995)

Me, Peter Yarrow, and Puff, the Magic Dragon

by G. Jack Urso

From the Aeolus 13 Umbra YouTube Channel.

In respect to the recent passing of Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul, and Mary — in 1995, while working at WAMC as the arts editor, I got to interview him about a concert he had planned in Woodstock. Yarrow was not feeling his best that day. When I called, he was lying down on the floor to give his injured back some support, so he conducted the interview with me that way.

It was my job to interview actors and musicians passing through the area. I got to speak with people I grew up with on film and TV, such as Juliet Mills (Nanny and the Professor), Kim Hunter (Planet of the Apes), Audra Lindley (Three’s Company), and her ex-husband, actor James Whitmore (The Shawshank Redemption), among many others. 

While it was exciting to speak with them, I had to keep it professional. Don’t take up too much of their time — just talk about the show they’re appearing in, get their quotes, and wrap it up.

After getting the basics of the performance he was giving, I departed from protocol to share with Yarrow about how much I loved “Puff, the Magic Dragon” as a child. Yarrow wrote the song, released in 1963, based on a friend’s poem. Having been born in 1964, I grew up with it. My parents bought the single and I demanded it be played over and over, due in part to hearing my childhood name “Jackie” in the song (“Little Jackie Paper”). I felt the song was meant for me, specifically.

Even as a boy, I told Yarrow, I understood from the song that there was a sorrow to growing up and leaving our childhood behind as only memories that we abandon in time. Several minutes after the interview ended, as I was replaying the tape and choosing the best sound bites, the studio phone rang. It was Yarrow, referencing our discussion about the song and saying how much he enjoyed the interview and speaking with me. I was touched, of course, but mainly shocked. No one I interviewed, let alone a celebrity, ever called back to say they enjoyed speaking with me. I began to tear up.

Thirty years have passed since that interview in 1995, as much time as from that moment in 1995 to when I was a child and first heard the song. There is nothing special about this interview. It is a standard arts announcement with some quotes from the headliner, yet of all the interviews I’ve done, this is one of the most important for me personally.

Yarrow's call drew me back to my childhood and helped bring “Puff, the Magic Dragon” out of his cave for one last mighty roar.

Only magic can do that.

 

This story was originally related in a more abbreviated form in my short story, “Family Affairs and Pieces of Our Childhood.”

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