Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard

"Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard"
Single by Paul Simon
from the album Paul Simon
A-side	"Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard"
B-side	"Congratulations"
Released	May 1972
Format	7" (45 rpm)
Recorded	1971
Genre	Soft rock, Adult contemporary
Length	2:44
Label	Columbia
Writer(s)	Paul Simon
Paul Simon singles chronology
"Mother and Child Reunion" 1972 "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" (1972) "Duncan" (1972)

"Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" is a song by American singer-songwriter Paul Simon from his 1972 self-titled album.

Lyrical subject

The song is about two boys who have broken a law, although the exact law that has been broken is not stated in the song and has become a matter of some debate. When "the mama pajama" finds out what they have done, she goes to the police station to report the crime. The boys are later arrested, but released when a radical priest intervenes. The protagonist of the song had to say goodbye to "Rosie, the Queen of Corona".

It is possible, however, that the name "Rosie, the Queen of Corona" reflects that the events of the song took place in Corona, Queens.

Debate

Some believe the incident in the song refers to an arrest at an antiwar protest on a college campus (the "schoolyard"), with the "radical priest" (who appeared with the singer of the song "on the cover of Newsweek") being either Philip or Daniel Berrigan, priests noteworthy for their antiwar activity during the Vietnam War. It has been said also that the "radical priest" could be the Rev. William Sloane Coffin, chaplain from Yale University, upon whom the Scot Sloan character in Doonesbury was based.

In a July 20, 1972 interview for Rolling Stone, Jon Landau asked: "What is it that the mama saw? The whole world wants to know." Simon replied "I have no idea what it is... Something sexual is what I imagine, but when I say 'something', I never bothered to figure out what it was. Didn't make any difference to me." This implies that Paul Simon left the crime up to the imagination of the listener, allowing each person who listens to the song to draw their own conclusion from their own thoughts and experiences. This has not stopped speculation on a definite interpretation: Truman Capote said that he believed the protagonist and Julio were involved in a homosexual relationship, which was then illegal in many states; other commentators have detected references to recreational drug use, and believe that the mother saw the boy buying drugs. Most recently, in October 2010, Simon described the song as "a bit of inscrutable doggerel."

Video

In 1988, Simon released a video for the song to promote his greatest hits compilation Negotiations and Love Songs. The video features an introduction by hip hop emcees (and then-fellow Warner Bros. Records label mates) Big Daddy Kane and Biz Markie. The video depicts adults interacting with the youth of an inner-city schoolyard. It shows Simon playing basketball and baseball with the children, and it also features basketball player Spud Webb, baseball legend Mickey Mantle, and football coach-commentator John Madden giving tips to young athletes.

Performances by other artists

• Simon and Garfunkel performed the song as a duet during their 1981 concert in Central Park; this version also appears on the live album of the concert.

• The punk rock cover band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes covered "Me and Julio" on their 1997 album, Have a Ball.

• Jack Johnson also covered this song in a medley following the song "Sexy Plexi", available on the J.O.T.C. bootleg compilation.

• Dave Matthews Band covered the song live a handful of times in 1992, 1993, and 2001.

• Wheat quotes "Me and Julio" in their song "Body Talk (Part 2)".

• In 2003, the band !!! released a single called "Me and Giuliani Down by the School Yard", a play on the title of this song, referring to Rudolph Giuliani.

• Other artists who have performed this song live include Pat McGee Band, Julie Doiron, and Peter Bjorn and John during a session for Morning Becomes Eclectic.

• New York singer/songwriter Jesse Malin covered this song on his April 7, 2008 covers album On Your Sleeve.

• Andy Hull of Manchester Orchestra has covered the song.

• Grant-Lee Phillips covered the song in an episode of Gilmore Girls.

• It appears on Streetlight Manifesto's cover album, 99 Songs of Revolution: Volume 1.

• A version of the song was included on a compilation of Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra titled "Greatest Hits of the '70s".

In popular culture

The song appears in a montage in the 2001 movie The Royal Tenenbaums directed by independent filmmaker Wes Anderson. It also appears in the film A Home at the End of the World, over the opening credits of Maid in Manhattan, within The Muppets, and during the opening credits in Real Women Have Curves.

In 1975, when Paul Simon hosted Saturday Night Live, the song was used as a background in a video of Simon playing basketball against Connie Hawkins.

Simon himself performed the song on Sesame Street.

Canadian musician Sam Roberts performed a shortened version of the song on the Kids' CBC program "Mamma Yamma," altering some of the lyrics to fit the scene he was in.

In the ninth episode of the twenty-third season of simpsons "Holidays of Future Passed". The song is used during the Kwik-E-Mart attack by cyborg-snake.

Charts

Chart (1972)	Peak Position
Australian Singles Chart	40
Canadian Singles Chart	19
Dutch Singles Chart	26
Irish Singles Chart	19
UK Singles Chart	15
US Hot 100 Singles Chart	22

References