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Once, when disputing the urban myth that Puff, the Magic Dragon held hidden meaning, Peter Yarrow asked, in rightful indignation, "What kind of mean-spirited SOB would write a children's song with a covert drug message?" Yarrow, who co-wrote the song with Leonard Lipton as a Cornell University student in 1959, was frustrated then, and still is.

With the publication of a children's picture book adaptation of the song, Yarrow must once again dispute the allegations that Puff is a coded allusion to dope-toking.

"It's absurd," Yarrow says from New York. "I mean, you had a song that clearly says 'a dragon that lives forever but not so little boys, painted wings and giant wings make way for other toys.' "

Yarrow, who reads and performs today at Casa Loma in Toronto, has dealt with the wrong associations to Puff for decades, his rebuttals not always believed. As well, during the Vietnam War, Puff, the Magic Dragon was used as nickname for fire-spitting gun ships.

"What can you do?" he asks. "You can't control that stuff, but you can refuse to contribute to the imbecility of it all."

Yarrow comments on Meet the Parents, the 2000 comedy with more than a few memorable scenes. One of them has a hapless Ben Stiller riding in a car with his fiancée's domineering father, played by Robert De Niro. When the classic Peter, Paul and Mary song comes on the radio, Stiller explains that "Puff" refers to smoking marijuana, to which De Niro responds that "Puff is just the name of the boy's dragon."

The question of whether or not the song has a druggy subtext is old news - Newsweek magazine first raised the point back in 1965 with an article dismissed by Yarrow as "yellow journalism nonsense" - but the movie caused new problems. Yarrow had a contract with Canadian animators Nelvana that prevented him from using - or granting permission for anybody else to use - the song in a way that sullied Puff's reputation. According to Yarrow, the filmmakers didn't have consent to use the song in the manner they did.

"Who wants to give permission for something that makes people snicker at the song," Yarrow says, "rather than be engaged in a sincere way."

Yarrow engages with a book that would seem a long time coming. The song, long cherished by children and parents for its autumn-misty images and tale of innocence lost, fits naturally for illustration.

Yarrow had been approached to do such a book in the past, but resisted until he began performing Puff with his daughter Bethany and Canadian cellist Rufus Cappadocia (the duo Bethany & Rufus).

"Originally, I went on tour with them as a sound engineer, but eventually I was invited on stage," says the 69-year-old folk artist. "The people loved it, and I loved it. Who wouldn't want to sing with their daughter?"

The cautious take on the song differed from the original sing-along version; Yarrow, intrigued by the new interpretation, sensed an analogy. In the book, after Little Jackie Paper outgrew the magical dragon, Puff is befriended by a young girl. Just as Puff the dragon never grows old, Puff the song doesn't age either.

"I am, now, passing on the world of Puff to her," as Yarrow explains it.

The recording with Yarrow and Bethany & Rufus is included on a four-song CD that comes with the children's book.

The song has been done before: Marlene Dietrich's Paff, Der Zauberdrachen is Yarrow's favourite cover. More recently, Toronto's Broken Social Scene contributed a Puff cut on See You on the Moon!, a 2005 compilation from Canadian indie rock label Paper Bag Records.

In the liner essay with that album, it's noted that "most of the time kids are far more intelligent than the adults surrounding them."

Yarrow doesn't see intelligence, exactly, as the issue. "Children are unencumbered cognitively, in terms of being able to think without preconceived notions."

As well, there's a youthful sensibility at work, according to Yarrow. "They aren't escaping from emotions or hiding from vulnerabilities."

Of course, it's that adult search for escape that often leads to drug use. "That's what's so sweet about children," says Yarrow. "It's that they're real."

Peter Yarrow performs and reads tomorrow, 1 p.m., at Casa Loma (416-923-1171).

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Drug check

Puff, the Magic Dragon isn't the only popular song misinterpreted as being stoner-centric.

Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds (1967): The initials spell LSD, but John Lennon always maintained the song arose from a picture painted by his son Julian.

Eight Miles High (1966): The Bryds's soaring classic was banned by many radio stations. Written primarily by Gene Clark, it refers to the band's plane trip to London.

Mr. Tambourine Man (1965): The second verse includes the line "Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin' ship," but the tambourine man Bob Dylan wrote about was a session musician. B.W.