| Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard | |
| Cover: | PAUL SIMON me and julio.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Paul Simon |
| Album: | Paul Simon |
| B-Side: | Congratulations |
| Released: | May 1972 |
| Recorded: | 1971 |
| Length: | 2:44 |
| Label: | Columbia |
| Prev Title: | Mother and Child Reunion |
| Prev Year: | 1972 |
| Next Title: | Duncan |
| Next Year: | 1972 |
"Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" is a song by American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was the second single from his second, self-titled studio album (1972), released on Columbia Records.
In a July 20, 1972 interview for Rolling Stone, Jon Landau asked Simon: "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."[1]
Simon described the song as "a bit of inscrutable doggerel" in an October 2010 interview,[2] while the "radical priest" has been interpreted as a reference to Daniel Berrigan,[3] [4] [5] who was featured on the cover of Time on January 25, 1971,[6] near when the song was written. The song mentions "Rosie, the queen of Corona", referring to Corona, a neighborhood in Queens near where Simon grew up.[7]
Record World said that the "effervescent tune tells of growing up absurd in Queens, N.Y." and called the song "a sheer delight."[8]
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.[9]
In 1988, Simon released a music video for the song to promote his greatest hits compilation Negotiations and Love Songs. The video was filmed at Mathews-Palmer Park in Hell's Kitchen, which was standing in for Halsey Junior High School in Forest Hills, Queens, the neighborhood in which Simon grew up and met Art Garfunkel in high school. Many of the children featured in the video were from that same school; Kia Jeffries, who sang on Simon's The Rhythm of the Saints album and cast the video, had attended as well.
It features an introduction by hip hop MC's (and then-fellow Warner Bros. Records label mates) Big Daddy Kane and Biz Markie. Main Source member Large Professor also makes a cameo towards the end.[10] 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 player Mickey Mantle, and football coach-commentator John Madden giving tips to young athletes.
German singer Peter Rainford covered the song in 1973, releasing the single entitled as "Lady Pyjama" in Germany and The Netherlands.[11] It was translated into German and arranged by Uli Roever.[12]
The song appears in a montage in the 2001 film 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, in The Simpsons episode "Holidays of Future Passed", within the film The Muppets, and in the trailer for Missing Link.[13] [14] [15] [16]
In 1977, Simon himself performed the song on Sesame Street.[17]
The song plays in the second episode of Saturday Night Live, during a Weekend Update segment where Simon plays basketball. It was also featured in an SNL skit paying homage to Wes Anderson as a trailer of a horror film (titled The Midnight Coterie of Sinister Intruders) in his distinct style.[18]
Simon performed the song with Stephen Colbert on the September 11, 2015, episode of The Late Show.[19]
| Chart (1972) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (Go-Set)[20] | 40 | |
| Canada (RPM) Top Singles[21] | 6 | |
| Canada MOR Playlist (RPM)[22] | 12 | |
| New Zealand (Listener)[23] | 7 | |
| UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[24] | 15 | |
| US Easy Listening (Billboard) | 9 | |
| US Cash Box Top 100[25] | 7 |