Growing up as teens and then young adults in the late 60s and early 70s, many of us became pop music fans because of the rich tapestry of the pop music scene, from folk and soul to rock and rock 'n roll, from the Mersey beat to the Motown sound.
The advent of the cassette tape meant we could bypass the expensive vinyl records and stash up on cheap cassettes. We could even walk into a record shop, select the vinyl albums we wanted but could not afford, and the shop would put the songs onto the cassettes for a fraction of the album's price.
Copyright? Huh, what's that? Those were the days.
But a number of pop musicians came to be associated with drugs. It was the hippy anti-Vietnam War protests era, and certain songs and the long hair sported by many of the male singers came to labelled -- here in Singapore -- as "yellow culture" derived from the "morally decadent West".
And so we woke up one morning (okay, it was probably over a period of time) to find out that certain favourite songs were now banned! I can recall only two. One was "Puff the Magic Dragon", a whimsical and folksy musical sketch of the friendship between a boy and a magically transformed toy dragon. It was first made popular in the mid-1960s by Peter, Paul and Mary. Before I explain why this song of childlike innocence was banned, here are the lyrics:
Puff the Magic Dragon
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee.
Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal Puff,
And brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff. Oh!
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee,
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee.
Together they would travel on a boat with billowed sail
Jackie kept a lookout perched on Puff's gigantic tail.
Noble kings and princes would bow whenever they came,
Pirate ships would lower their flag when puff roared out his name. Oh!
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee.
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee.
A dragon lives forever but not so little boys
Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys.
One grey night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more
And Puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar.
His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain,
Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane.
Without his life-long friend, Puff could not be brave,
So Puff that mighty dragon sadly slipped into his cave. Oh!
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee.
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee.
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Here, on YouTube, is the original Peter, Paul and Mary 1966 concert version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wik2uc69WbU
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So why was the song banned here? It was claimed that it was about "puffing the magic drag-in" ie smoking pot. Sheesh!
The other song I remembered that was banned was the Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". Again, why? Because within the song, the culture cops intoned, was reference to the hallucinogen LSD.! [The BBC, it seemed, also banned it!]
Here are the facts (but note Paul McCartney's take) about this 1967 musically exquisite song penned by John Lennon for the album "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band":
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=120
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Finally, young people today will likely find it ridiculous but there was a time, in the 1970s, when males with long hair were served last at government counters:
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