Lyrics for Me And Julio Down By The School Yard as interpreted by magicnudiesuit

Me And Julio Down By The School Yard Lyrics
The mama pajama rolled out of bed
And she ran to the police station
When the papa found out he began to shout
And he started the investigation
It's against the law
It was against the law
What the mama saw
It was against the law

The mama looked down and spit on the ground
Everytime my name gets mentioned
The papa said oy if I get that boy
I'm gonna stick him in the house of detention
Well I'm on my way
I don't know where I'm going
I'm on my way I'm taking my time
But I done know where
Goodbye to Rosie the queen of Corona

See you, me and Julio
Down by the schoolyard
See you, me and Julio
Down by the schoolyard
Me and Julio down by the schoolyard

In a couple of days they come and
Take me away
But the press let the story leak
And when the radical priest
Come to get me released
We was all on the cover of Newsweek
And I'm on my way
I don't know where I'm going
I'm on my way I'm taking my time
But I don't know where
Goodbye to Rosie the queen of Corona

See you, me and Julio
Down by the schoolyard
See you, me and Julio
Down by the schoolyard
See you, me and Julio
Down by the schoolyard

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bakert
04-29-2002

Rated 0 
Very thorough discussion of this song and its meaning at:

http://www.medialab.chalmers.se/guitar/me.and.julio.html



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soapy
11-16-2004

Rated 0 
I always feel like what they saw was someonthing sexual. Maybe it's about homosexuality in a time and place where it was an extreme taboo? In some way I don't need to know what happened to really love this song.

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punkrockchick217
11-16-2004

Rated 0 
perhaps it's ethnic differences?

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getjet
01-18-2005

Rated 0 
i believe it is just "see me and julio" not "see, you, me and julio"

i always thought this was a song about a homosexual relationship, that the writer's parents figured out about, so they send him away.

i also thought maybe it could be that the writer is white and julio isnt, and maybe they are friends, so that causes him to be sent away.

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rationalevil
01-23-2005

Rated 0 
homosexuality sounds more paul simonian

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pinkfuzzyslipper
02-03-2005

Rated 0 
The first time I heard this song was in The Royal Tenenbaums when Royal took his grandkids out without their fathers permission. So I relate the meaning more to doing oddball things that also happen to be illegal.

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catisinmybrain
02-28-2005

Rated 0 
yeah, that's where i heard it too. i thought it was cute and appropriate for the scene (the boys doing mischeivious things), but i see how it can be a reference to homosexuality

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A Lack Of Color
03-14-2005

Rated 0 
I recieved this knowledge from a music encyclopedia, so its a bit more specific.

Two boys getting caught masturbating by a teacher.

thats the winning answer

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Jinx
05-12-2005

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Actually, the winning answer seems to be from Paul Simon himself, who said he "didn't know" what the mama saw, or what they were doing at the school yard.

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CT82
09-03-2005

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goodbye to rosie the queen of corona....

they no longer needed from female's what they could get from each other?

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DJacques75
01-09-2006

Rated 0 
Although I personally like the homosexuality interpretation, I think the speaker and Julio used to have sex with Rosie at the schoolyard. Paul Simon has never given any indication of being a homophobe, but he also doesn't have much of a track record on tackling gay themes. I can't picture him writing about that.

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The Milkman
02-17-2006

Rated 0 
He's smoking weed. Julio is his dealer. You know, puffing the cheeba. Go by the seesaw, smoke a J.

"It's against the law"

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JK22
06-18-2006

Rated 0 
Everythings about weed if you think hard enough :0

And when the radical priest
Come to get me released
We was all on the cover of Newsweek

I'm guessing the gay thing is right. He was really looking forward in time though with the priest reference.

Also he has to leave so it must be something society truly frowns upon. The rosie thing is getting me nowhere?

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thelesserthreat
07-09-2006

Rated 0 
Rosie the QUEEN of Corona... queen being the key word if you're going to use the homosexual interpretation; most of you have probably heard it used as a name for a very obviously gay and often slightly feminine man. Rosie might be a flamingly gay friend or even an alternate identity of one of the boys.

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crazymanmichael
07-19-2006

Rated 0 
Paul Simon has said in a number of interviews that he really has no idea what "the mama saw" down by the schoolyard, that the song was just a piece of fluff that he wrote for the hell of it (he apparently liked the sound of "me and Julio"). Whether he's being truthful here or not, who knows...

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Meansnadatome
07-20-2006

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Wow, i went to the link suggested by bakert, and was amazed at just how defensive Paul Simon seemed to the line of questioning. And fair enough, it's the songwriters right to leave the interpretation up to the listener and not have to explain what can often be a sensitive topic...

Anyway, my interpretation is that it is a song about a sexual activity between the narrator (perhaps Paul himself) and Julio, e.g. as has been suggested, mutual masturbation, gay sex, a threesome etc.

I'm prepared to go even further and suggest that the line "and when the radical priest came to get me released" is actually a bit of a clever play on words - read "and when the radical priest came to get me release", as in "sexual release" aka orgasm. Nice old innuendo there...

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mj_williams
10-31-2006

Rated 0 
You're all wrong. It's a song written about Juarez Sanchez, the teenage kid who worked with Julio Coelho in Mexico in the 60's. Juarez was like a slave to Coelho. They abused kids in the schoolyards, and when Juarez's parents found out about it, they tipped off the cops ie 'started the investigation'. As for the priest, Julio had connections in the church and tried to get the boy released from 'the house of detention' because they had fallen in love by then. As for ‘rosie, the queen of corona’ that’s a saying in Mexican which means virginity. Juarez is saying goodbye to his virginity, ie, he has slept with Julio. Suppose maybe you have to be Mexican to get it.

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edguidry
12-30-2006

Rated 0 
See I always assumed Julio was marijuana. At the time, drugs were very big on college campuses, hence down by the schoolyard. Homosexuality was not a cause in the 60's like it is now, so I think it's really unlikely he would write a song about it. Pot is the obvious explanation to me.

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sbroxmysox1991
03-04-2007

Rated 0 
edquidry, what the hell?

but see, one time, at a paul simon concert, he explained the meaning. it's actually about him and his old neighbor, julia, who he had a relationship with, and they liked to go down to the schoolyard and sit on the swings. to make the song more rhythmic, he changed her name to julio.

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redsox3133
03-26-2007

Rated 0 
idk what the song means but what i do know is that there are like 8 wrong words in there its not papa its coper which is y she goes to the police station also its seeing me and julio down by the school yard not see you me and julio

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hgrindrod
04-15-2007

Rated 0 
I think it's about a lot of things that seemed to be relevant to the time, but he sums them up by creating characters, and refers them to a well known story line - Romeo and Juliet.

On a basic level, the writer is Romeo, Julio is Juliet, Rosie the Queen of Corona is Rosaline, and the Radical Priest is Friar Laurence. We know he is caught doing something bad, and we know he is "on his way" but he doesn't know where he's going - sounds a bit like exile. Romeo is exiled for murder, but I think that is irrelevant to this song. Paul has used this story to refer to other things that were relevant to him.

Firstly, Julio is a boy's name. That suggests that he is talking about the illegality of homosexuality, and how society would not allow the chracter to be with his lover. The cheery nature of the music makes of mockery of this - possibly shows Paul's disgust at homophobia. Goodbye to Rosie? Well, Romeo forgets about Rosaline when he sees Juliet - the character leaves women, when he realises that he is gay. Corona is, from what I hear, an area in NYC, which draws familiarity with the modern city/world, where a woman was an appropriate partner for a man, not another man.

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Sir_Larrikin
04-17-2007

Rated 0 
MJ_Williams, that was hysterical. Nice.

I adore the Romeo and Juliet connections that HGRINDROD made. I never even THOUGHT of that - and it makes so much sense. I always took it to mean homosexuality - but I never drew the other connections. Like a modern retelling of R&J with gay characters. Wow.

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blb1984
06-11-2007

Rated 0 
To me is sounds like maybe they were dealing drugs "down by the schoolyard" yet, upon reviewing the lyrics and thinking about it, perhaps its is about a homosexual relationship. either way great song.

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philthethrill
06-12-2007

Rated 0 
This song is clearly about homosexuality. Rosie (pink) the queen of Corona (male organ) is a metaphor for the female reprodoctive organ.

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bear_hug20
08-18-2007

Rated 0 
I'm really laughing right now...

At the first time I listened to it, I thought of it right away, that it is about homosexuality, and as I went down all the comments, it justified what I have on my mind.

thought I can say, it is a really good song, can dance with it. :D

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