One can correctly assume that if I am writing of the 40th anniversary of my radio program “Celebration Rock,” I am fairly geezer-like. (That word, geezer, is derived from a word meaning one who goes about in masquerade or disguise. Hmm.) So it should come as no surprise that I remember when Peter, Paul, and Mary had hit songs. I remember in 1963 driving down North Street in my hometown of Endicott, NY, with my childhood friend David Cook. On the radio came “Puff the Magic Dragon” by PP&M, and Dave told me the song was about marijuana. No way was I going to buy that. These days, of course, it’s harder to grasp the fact that “Puff” was a hit song! No place on the charts today for that kind of gentle folk music telling children’s stories for children of all ages.
About a year later, Peter, Paul, and Mary came to Westminster College as part of the school’s concert series. It was probably my first “big name” concert, and as the college newspaper photographer I had access to the stage and dressing room areas. I remember Paul Stookey as being very approachable and loose, joking around with everybody backstage. The concert, of course, was great fun, but the trio had more to sing than children’s songs. Their social consciousness was apparent in songs like “If I Had a Hammer” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” as well as Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a’Changin’.” They also did a song called “Jesus Met the Woman at the Well,” a story from John’s Gospel.
(I’m not sure why I didn’t try an interview with them the night of that Westminster concert. I did interview jazz legend George Shearing in college, but I may have been limited to one hat, that of photographer, that night.)
Fast forward to the 70’s when “Celebration Rock” was my primary work. PP&M was on hiatus, and Paul Stookey had become a “born again” Christian, using his full Christian name, Noel Paul Stookey. He was in semi-retirement, building a home in New Hampshire, and traveling to do concerts just for friends and special causes. I had become acquainted with John Wilson who was the director of the Virginia Council on Social Welfare at that time, and John told me that Noel Stookey was coming to Roanoke to do a concert for a small conference sponsored by John’s organization. Did I want to interview him? Of course.
Stookey had driven his camper to Roanoke, did the concert in the hotel ballroom (a grandiose term for a big hotel conference room), singing, telling stories, playing the comedian, and in a fairly low-key way witnessing to his faith.
After the concert, he stayed around for a Q&A session with the audience, and then we did the interview, with a few folks left in the room to eavesdrop. Stookey told how Bob Dylan had led him to the Scriptures, and how a fan in Austin, TX led him to his profession of faith in Christ. The interview we did was laid back, friendly and conversational. I was impressed with Stookey’s combination of evangelical faith and deep liberal commitment to social action. The “Celebration Rock” show that resulted from that evening in Roanoke used album cuts by Peter, Paul, and Mary, but most of the music content came from the singer’s live album recorded at Carnegie Hall. I assume that was one of his earliest solo efforts.
I eventually acquired four or five of Stookey’s subsequent albums, always able to count on him for thoughtful songs I could add to CR shows when I needed a Christian musical voice to bring a topical theme together. Of all the interviews I’ve done with musicians, the one with Noel Paul Stookey was the most comfortable and faith-centered.
And, by the way, Noel Paul Stookey strongly denied at that Roanoke meeting that “Puff” had any drug connotations at all. I figured that as a born again Christian, he could have admitted the drug link, confessed it as part of the past he was leaving behind, and disavowed the thing. But the fact that he has confirmed that it’s just a children’s fantasy song about a boy and a dragon…well, if you can’t trust a reborn Christian, who can you trust? So, case closed as far as I’m concerned. Let the rumor die, and let the song live on in its innocence.
