Biff, The Friendly Purple Bear

Dick Feller originally wrote "Biff, The Friendly Purple Bear" for Johnny Cash. Cash was going to record a children’s album, and asked Feller to write him a couple of childrens’ songs. Feller then wrote "Friends Of Ranger Ed" and "Biff", but when Cash heard the last mentioned one, he said it was an adults children’s song and a bit too thick. So, Feller recorded the song himself instead – And today this song is one of hist most remembered, and definitely his most requested!

According to Dick Feller himself, "Biff" was like a part two of the song "Him, Jim, Bill And Me", which he had written some years earlier.

"Biff, The Friendly Purple Bear" was also released on CD in 2000, on the compilation "Sunrise, Sunset", which was the ninth of 20 volumes in the "Reflections: Inspirational Words and Music" series released by Reader's Digest Music. Due to the fact that the master with Feller's original recording of the song from 1973 had been blocked from licensing, it is Feller's live recording of the song from 1982 that is to be heard on the CD.

Lyric:
Now, I was a play horse you pull with a string with wheels where my legs should be,
And he was the boy who pulled the toy around the tree house tree
For the longest time there was just us two, the boy and the horse, that was me,
Until the day the Purple bear came to live in the tree house tree
It was early one spring, I was tied by my string,
In the field with the make believe farm,
When around the house, the boy and the bear came marching arm in arm.
"This is Biff," said the boy to me, "He's the friendly purple bear."
And Biff stooped down, and stroked my mane, with a paw of purple hair.
"Biff has come to stay," said the boy, "and pretend with me and you,
And he can do anything that a boy and a toy believe purple bears can do."
And taking the Que., Biff bowed from the waist, then leaped and clicked his heels,
Then down to the ground in three somersaults that ended in four cartwheels,
He whirled and twirled and stood on his head, the boy giggled and slapped his side,
I laughed so hard that wooden tears rolled out of my painted eyes.
So Biff came to stay in the tree house tree and long days came without end,
With a boy and a toy and a purple bear, in serious games of pretend.
I liked the cowboy games with the boy as sheriff and Biff as the bandit king,
That always ended up with all the outlaws in the jail by the long rope swing.
And the great pony race that lasted for days, around the flower bed,
Aaah... that was a tough one, but lucky for us, I won by a wooden head.
And the day we entered the pirates cave, neath the bush on the alley side,
Biff with a sword and a paper hat and a patch across a purple eye.
Well, there was always the danger of outlaws or Indians or creatures from outer space,
And without the courage of the three of us, we might have lost the whole place.
We were bound by the code of the musketeers,
Such golden hours were shared by a freckled face boy, and a wooden horse toy,
And Biff the purple bear.
But as summers passed, the boy grew taller and his voice took a strange new ring.
And his visits were few to the tree house tree, and never to the long rope swing.
Biff the purple bear grew sad as he climbed down the tree house tree,
He shook his head, "I'm afraid," he said,
"He's forgotten you and me. It seems, old wooden friend of mine, we've outlasted his boyhood years."
Then he turned, and was gone across the lawn, in a trail of purple tears.
Now, I've been put to pasture in the old tree house, but at times, I've seen from afar,
A strange tall boy who mows the lawn and tinkers about his old car.
But just today I looked past the house and down the sidewalk I swear…
Came a new little boy…with a wooden horse toy…followed by a purple bear.

Words and Music: Dick Feller  © Sony/ATV Songs LLC Tree Publishing