In which the incredibly eager Bwog staffer Sam Azanza discovers another mystery in Barnard’s history… Why does our Alma Mater song sound almost exactly like Puff the Magic Dragon? Here henceforth is their amateur lyrical analysis.

There’s a college on a hilltop

That’s very dear to me,

Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the sea

Peter, Paul, and Mary should’ve sung our song.

And a certain group of students

With ties of comrad’rie,

And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honahlee

So we’ll sing to dear old Barnard,

And loyal be and true,

Little Jackie paper loved that rascal puff

As we show to coming classes

How we love the white and blue.

And brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff oh

There will always be a fondness

For the good old days of yor,

Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the sea

And we’ll sing to dear old Barnard

As in memory we see

And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honahlee

When the day has come for parting

And college days are o’er,

Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the sea

The college on the hilltop

Where our classmates used to be.

And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honahlee

Considering “College on the Hilltop” came out in 1904, did “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” released in 1963, plagiarize it? Probably not on purpose. There tends to be a lot of overlap in the music industry. My real question is, has anyone else noticed this similarity?

“Puff,” although a seemingly innocent song, is actually a metaphor for drug abuse. It’s interesting how a melody can change the entire energy of a song; our mind automatically considers the tune a happy one without regard to the lyrics. Well, I guess “College on the Hilltop” doesn’t speak of all-nighters and stress culture either.

Peter, Paul, and Mary via Wikimedia Commons