Puff the Much Maligned Dragon

If you believe the potheads, the Peter, Paul & Mary song "Puff the Magic Dragon" is about marijuana. Don't you believe it. The song is about a child and the loss of innocence. That's according to Peter Yarrow, the author his ownself. I got to meet Peter at a concert in Ft. Worth. He was there early and shook hands with fans as we were coming in. My kids got to meet him. He's a sweet guy, despite being a liberal. I respect his beliefs and his music very much. We all want the same things anyway and it's a free country after all.


It's just nice to know Puff was never a pothead.  Here's more detail on Peter's lovely children's song....

Tom

Jesus Paid It All

This song has a little history behind it for me. First of all, it was the theme song to the 1888 Seventh-day Adventist General Conference at which the doctrine of Righteousness by Faith was emphasized and first became a major element of Adventist preaching. In the late 60s and early 70s of the 20th century, the Righteousness by Faith doctrine experienced a resurgence among Adventist Youth, bolstered by a lot of new religious music, not limited to the pages of the Adventist hymnal and even more youthful enthusiasm.

This song, "Jesus Paid it All", was one of the few numbers I coaxed my public singing shy wife, Sheila to sing with me. We performed it at the Melrose New Mexico SDA church in 1979 and enjoyed a nice potluck afterward. Sheila hasn't sung publicly with me since, although during her college days she toured with the Arkansas-Louisiana Good News Singers.

Fortunately, my daughter inherited her mother's voice and has blessed many a service with her singing which sounds amazingly like her Mom's. I have a couple of surreptitious, videos of the two of them singing together. Sounds like angels.

We still, on occasion, sing this song together over the sink while washing dishes - the only audience the hummingbirds, wrens and chickadees.

Tom King

The Swimming Song

This song is kind of my summer anthem. Five of the best summers of my life were spent as a canoeing instructor, swimming instructor and waterfront direct at Lone Star Camp in Athens, TX. This song by the inimitable Loudon Wainright III, composer of the equally famous "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road".  This versions features the also inimitable Earl Scruggs on banjo.

The song takes me back to the warm green waters of Echo Lake and the golden Texas summers of my youth and young adulthood. Enjoy!

Tom