Well, you'll never guess who I saw riding her bike today
She was wearing hiking boots and a mini skirt
She had a license plate that read Cinderella
So I guess that's who it must have been
So I asked her about her evil stepmother
Said she locked her up behind the cellar door
She was tired of scrubbing floors and doing the dishes
Said that cleaning stuff was quite a bore
Well I saw Puff the Dragon down on Main Street
He was standing on a corner, smoking a cigarette
I asked him about his home on the seashore
About his lighthouse, and if he had any regrets
About leaving the sand and the ocean
Standing on the side of the street and smoke his stuff
He said that it would take some getting used to
But that he really, he really likes the trains
I was walking with my brother down the Prairie Path
When all of a sudden much to our surprise
There was a flash of brilliant color amidst the foliage
And out of the bushes flew a Mighty Mouse
He was hot on the trail of an evil villain
His job to serve justice at any cost
The next thing I knew he turned to Pete and I
And he said, hey boys, I think I'm lost
-Whipple Tree Band
2 comments:
This is a fine song - fine in the Hugh Hewitt sense, meaning 'really great'. Best of all, it's written by a Wheaton band and features some Wheaton places (Main Street, trains, Prairie Path). HOWEVER. To the best of my knowledge, Puff did not have a lighthouse. He lived by the sea, and when Little Jackie Paper came no more, he sadly slipped into his cave, not his lighthouse. I think they're conflating Puff with Elliot from Pete's Dragon. But much, MUCH more annoying is the 'Pete and I' in the Mighty Mouse verse. It should be 'Pete and ME'. This makes me crazy.
But it's still a fine song.
It's easy to mix Puff and Elliot. Perhaps Elliot really _is_ Puff, just in a different stage of life. Maybe it's normal in dragon culture to change your name when you get a new little boy; I think there's even textual evidence of that in Pete's Dragon. I find it likely that when the dragon in the song gets a new boy who likes trains, his name will change again. But he might have to give up smoking.
I also find it likely that I will use the verb "conflate" on a regular basis now that I know what it means.
Even distinguished Wheaton grads make occasional grammar mistakes. They just aren't all lucky enough to have them immortalized in a fine song.
And it is a fine song. It's a shame the harmonica solo can't me reproduced in quote form.
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