Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard

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B-side
  
"Congratulations"

Format
  
7"

Genre
  
Pop rock folk rock

Released
  
May 1972

Recorded
  
1971

Length
  
2:44

"Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was the second single from his second self-titled studio album (1972), released on Columbia Records.

Contents

Lyrical subject

The song is about two boys ("Me and Julio") who have broken a law, although the exact law that has been broken is not stated in the song. When "the mama pajama" finds out what they have done, she goes to the police station to report the crime. The individuals are later arrested, but released when a "radical priest" intervenes.

The meaning and references in the song have long provoked debate. 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 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: commentators have detected references to recreational drug use, and believe that the mother saw the boy buying drugs. More recently, in October 2010, Simon described the song as "a bit of inscrutable doggerel.", while the "radical priest" has been interpreted as a reference to Daniel Berrigan, who featured on the cover of Time on January 25th, 1971, near when the song was written.

The percussion sound in the song, unusual for American pop, was created with a Cuica, a Brazilian friction drum instrument often used in samba music.

Video

In 1988, Simon released a video for the song to promote his greatest hits compilation Negotiations and Love Songs. The video filmed at Halsey Junior High School, in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City. This was the same neighborhood within which Simon grew up and met Art Garfunkel in high school. Many of the children featured in the video were from that same school.

It features an introduction by hip hop emcees (and then-fellow Warner Bros. Records label mates) Big Daddy Kane and Biz Markie. Main Source member Large Professor also makes a minor cameo towards the end. The video depicts adults interacting with the youth of an inner-city schoolyard. It shows Simon playing basketball and stickball 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.

Personnel

  • Paul Simon - vocals, acoustic guitar, whistling
  • David Spinozza - acoustic guitar
  • Airto Moreira - percussion
  • Russell George - bass
  • Mick Jagger - whistling

    • Performances by other artists

  • Simon and Garfunkel performed the song as a duet during their 1981 benefit concert in Central Park; this version also appears on the live album of the concert that was released in 1982, The Concert in Central Park.
  • 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".
  • fun. cover this song occasionally in concert, most notably at Bonnaroo 2012.
  • New York Voices covered the song on their album The Songs of Paul Simon.

    • The song appears in a montage in the 2001 movie The Royal Tenenbaums directed by 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, The Simpsons episode "Holidays of Future Passed", within the film The Muppets, and during the opening credits in Real Women Have Curves.

    Simon himself performed the song on Sesame Street, along with a girl who backed him up singing "Dance dance dance all right/dance dance dance all right/Everybody dance," etc.

    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.

    The song plays in the second episode of Saturday Night Live, during a Weekend Update segment where Simon plays basketball.

    Simon performed the song with Stephen Colbert on the September 11, 2015 episode of The Late Show.

    References

    Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA