THE DIFFERENCE A WORD CAN MAKE

I have just been listening, after a long break, to a Paul Simon compilation that includes the 1972 song Me and Julio down by the Schoolyard.

      ‘Me’ and Julio, spotted doing something illegal, are reported and arrested.  I recalled that when Paul Simon had been asked by Rolling Stone magazine what it was that the MaMa saw he had no idea, but probably “something sexual”.  Remembering that, I decided to check out the opinions of a few bloggers.  Fascinating!

     Those focusing simply on the title see ‘Me’ and Julio in some sort of homosexual encounter.   But, in fact, the lyrics say, “you, me and Julio, down by the schoolyard.”  That one little word indicates the presence of a third person.

     So who is this ‘you’?   Fairly obviously, Rosie, the Queen of Corona, who is mentioned in the previous line.

     Does that mean that the homosexual argument collapses?  Not a bit of it, say its advocates (those, that is to say, who have conceded the extra presence).  A ‘queen’ is a flagrant homosexual.  It’s about a homosexual threesome.

     Well, yes, that can be a meaning of ‘queen’.  But ‘queen’ can also be a word for a significant female (as in ‘Dancing Queen’) or a female ruler.  The current Queen of England, for instance, is a woman.  “The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts…”   The Queen on a chess board.  The Queen Bee.  The Queen Alien in Aliens.  And so on.

     More prosaically, Corona is a district in the New York borough of Queens.  Paul Simon is presumably indulging in some sort of pun.  Rosie, our queen (as in favourite girl) of the district of Corona in the Borough of Queens.

 

My own reading.  Early in the morning (hence, MaMa Pajama rolling out of bed) Rosie, ‘Me’ and Julio are engaged in some sort of clandestine sexual activity.   (Not clandestine enough, because they are spotted.) Because what is happening is illegal, (and also happening in the schoolyard) both boys are probably under age.  Maybe Rosie is too.  That would account for the disgust of the MaMa and PaPa.  Rosie’s parents?  Julio’s?  Or just concerned citizens?

 

What does it matter?   In terms of the song, not at all.  Who cares?  But attention to data might matter in a real-life situation: a rape trial, say.

        Two people? Three?   Hell, it’s just a piece of fiction.   But it’s also worrying evidence of careless reading if some of those choosing to comment on the song cannot even work out how many there are involved. 

 

 

APPENDIX

These gems did not fit into the above, but are too good not to be commented on.

 

1. (My personal favourite, this.)  We should look through the 1972 copies of Newsweek, and see which one has the kids on the cover.  It has eluded this particular interpreter that if the kids are fictional (and Paul Simon says they are), then the reference to Newsweek is fictional also.

 

2.  A devotee of the gay-twosome theory (you  have to hand it to these guys; they just never give up) explains away the “you” as follows:

“See you, me and Julio down by the schoolyard” should be understood as ‘See you,’ ie ‘Goodbye, everybody.’

   That does have a certain plausibility if you simply look at the words.  However, it does not square with the way Paul Simon sings the line: the pause does not come after ‘you’, but after ‘Julio’.

 

3. It must be an anti-war protest because the kids get the support of a radical priest, and no priest would support sex or drugs.

     Really?  This commentator obviously hasn’t come across the sort of priests I have.  Radical priests, in fact, have been the victims of their own success.  Having hauled biblically-forbidden things like fornication and homosexuality into the cultural mainstream, and with paedophilia well on the way towards respectability, where do they go next?   Necrophilia?   Incest?    Sex with sheep?

 

4.  Other interpretations of ‘corona’.

a.        Since ‘corona’ means the end of the penis, Rosie is a prostitute: expert at giving head.

b.      Since a ‘Corona’ is a cigar…  Then, as for explanation a: except Rosie is also a Cuban.

c.       Since ’Corona’ is a beer, Rosie is a champion at downing them.  Before they get started, the kids have Coronas; so the song is about under-age drinking as well as about under-age sex.

d.      Since ‘corona’ means an aura round the Sun, Rosie (she must be Mexican, since Julio knows her) is an Aztec sun goddess.  After all, the Sun is rosy isn’t?  The parents are mad because Rosie is a Mexican.  It’s the race war:  a new version of West Side Story.  (My own invention, by the way.  I’d like to add it to one of those chat lines; only someone would be certain to take me seriously.)