Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard

Submission for your approval: a novel and original observation, by a solver of cryptic crosswords.

....................RoMeo and Juliet - the epitome of doomed, romantic, young, passionate and foolish love
goodbye to RO.....O...........siE - subtraction of the letters
.........................Me and Julio.. = gay lovers wordplay.

It took me about 35 years to light upon this observation, as well as the detail that Papa threatened to send his boy to the women's prison over in Greenwich Village.

So, make of my evidence what you will.
Paul's voice sings the sentences, and the sum speaks for itself.

From schoolyard tryst to LGBT marriage, it feels like the bookends to an era.
Hooray for New York equality! and bring on a more perfect union.

For what you think it's worth, spread the word.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Women's_House_of_Detention
1932-1974 @ 10 Greenwich Avenue

Regarding "Oy": Richard Nixon wasn't Jewish, he was Quaker. Perhaps you remember—back when SNL was funny—Dan Aykroyd's Nixon saying to Belushi's Kissinger, "Down on your knees, Jewboy"? On the other hand, Rhymin' Simon is Jewish. On the other, other hand, _oye_, "listen" [imperative] en Español, is a common opening word in Spanish/Spanglish sentences, perhaps "oy" is a contraction? On the other, other, other hand mebbe Paul Simon needed a single syllable word that rhymed with "boy."

P.S.: For the record, I'm for the underage, heterosexual, Catholic angle, with the Mama and the Papa being Rosie's parents. Interesting as the gay and pot angles are, they require too much explanation.

P.P.S: Cuíca?! There's an instrument that makes that sound?! In high school, we always used to do that part of the song by whistling air in and out of puckered lips with the tongue and jaws, like the apes in that Farside cartoon.

Debating whether 'Me and Julio' is grammatically-correct is patently contemptible.

RickAlan in Tulsa: The guy I hung out and discussed music with when this song came out would agree with you. I am still not sure and may never be, but at the time I thought they were gay. I do feel that the McNamara/Ellsberg interpretation is kind of stretching things. What Peter in Newark and Carmen in Boca Raton describe is I think more plausible.

I lived in Queens, NY as a child and lived this song. This has to do with racial differences. Queens had been occupied by primarily Italian and Jewish. The old timers were uncomfortable with the mixing of different races and were moving away. If you were white and hung out with someone not of your race, the old timers had an issue with it, "stick him in the house of detention". The younger generations didn't see color, "seein' me and Julio down by the school yard". Corona is an area of Queens. Not the beer. Nobody discussed Corona Beer because it was not popularly sold in the USA yet. Paul Simon lived in Queens and was leaving the area as many of the Jewish race. Rosie was a popular name and could have been Hispanic or Italian, "Goodbye to Rosie". Paul Simon was leaving Queens, NY.

Paul Simon once said he stole home plate (a very difficult task) during a high school baseball game (and his life was downhill after that, indicating the difficulty). So, how did a Jewish kid make the high school baseball team if the neighborhood had so many Hispanics and Blacks in it?

It also appears there is some confusion about the line "See you, me and Julio...". Is it referring to three people being "seen" or does "see you" mean "goodbye"? The title is "Me and Julio" not "You, Me and Julio". And Paul sings the line as if to say "See ya, me and Julio...". In the live YouTube on this page he sings "I'll see you, me and Julio...". I'll see me? What's the consensus?

I like this song. I love Simon and Garfunkel. This isn't one of my favorites by them, though. 8/10

Hey guys....The correct meaning of this song was mentioned at their Concert in Central Park: The story is: Jackie Kennedy asked Paul Simon to meet her at some park in D.C. to discuss something for JFK and was caught by someone in the media and that person (whose name was Leo) from the media took it too far. Me and who Leo (Me and Julio?).

To me, it sounds like smoking marijuana. "I'm on my way, but I don't know where I'm going" mama spitting on the floor when her name is mentioned, (Mary Jane) Rosie the Queen of Corona simply could have been a drug dealer they were getting the weed from. "It was against the law" was true back then. Daddy putting him in the house of detention could be because he was a straight edge abiding to what society told them to.

Did someone say the name "Julio" as a reference to a race? what race? are you saying that Julio which sounds like a name from Spain, means big lips, or Black skin, or is it white race with red hair, or yellow skin, like other people who speak Spanish, or are you talking about Hollywood Stereotypes? tell us, how are the Julios, do they usually speak Spanish like Julio Iglesias? is he from a Special race? so they are talking about his race? the White one? im confused, the other day we asked a girl where she was from (nationality), she said: im Jewish!!! are people getting more stupid these days? change the world by changing the obtuse way of thinking, US people!
- Peter, New York, NY

The name Julio while being a Spanish name, does not mean the person was born in Spain, nor that they are white. Most Spanish speakers are not caucasian, due to forced conversion, invasion, and inter breeding of the Spanish "missionaries" and the natives of South, Centeral and North America.
Spanish people in Europe are Caucaian, Hispanic and Latino people are not necessarily so, they actually could be black, or brown, or white, or a mixture.

Forget the meaing, I want to know if anyone else hears a chimpanzee in the bckground? And it sounds like a pigeon right at the end (coo, coo coo)... It sems like a heard an interview with Simon once when he said there was some pigeon recordings in some of his songs.

On the Demo of the song(it's on youtube) He sings some different lyrics on verse 3. He starts with "oh the radical priests come and get me released and it's all on my video tape. Rolled out of bed went up the stairs and made it out the fire escape. Well im on my way..... goodbye to rosie my radical lady. So there are some more clues for you song philosophers.

For me the discussion here only proves how great a song it is. Songs can have more than one meaning. A truly great song opens it's self up to many people from varied back grounds and can touch them all deeply in many differing ways. It is a testament to Paul that so many people love this song for so many reasons.
For me, the song is not about what they did, but how the person telling the story deals with the consequences of their action. The line in the chorus, " .... I'm taking my time but I don't know where." is the meaning of the song. He knows he has done something real bad ( must have been bad if it made the cover of News Week) and he is "owning" up to and taking the punishment. It does not matter what has been done it is a morality play about taking responsibility for ones own actions, in my humble opinion.

I believe that this song is about a racial issue, not a homosexuality act. However, it is a good song.

The song, as many contemporary "officially literary" works (poems, novels etc) can be read at more levels and plays with putting together different "strata" of interpretation - political, sexual etc. In other words, almost all sentences in it can be read both sexually and politically. Paul Simon took great care in writing it and had fun too. Sorry for my English, I'm Old-European.

No, no, no people, get a clue; the song is about them smoking weed down by the schoolyard; all this stuff about Rosie and Queens and Corona have nothing to do with the subject as I'm sure I've met tons of Rosie's in Queens over the years...they got caught smoking weed!

Corona is also the name for the tip of the penis, So was this about oral sex with a minor

I think Marisol's answer is the best. There hasn't been enough attention brought to the fact that Paul Simon is from Queens! Corona is not just a street name (though Corona ave is in Queens), but an entire neighborhood very close to where Paul grew up. And there is also Corona park...which could be where him and Julio were 'hanging out' with Rosie...most likely doing the quasi-innocent (due to age) sex acts. Also possible that he is referencing Roosevelt Ave as Rosie because it leads right into Corona, Queens. The Corona "beer" answers are just silly.

The use of 'me' is correct. I think the source of confusion is that it's only a fragment of a sentence. But there's still enough context to tell that the word 'me' is used as a direct object, not a subject. So Paul Simon was correct in using the accusative form (me) rather than the nominative (I).

This was from Paul's first solo album after S&G split. Paul was concerned about how audiences would react to him singing without Art, so he sang this (and many other tracks) twice and had it mixed to sound like two-part harmony, in an attempt to replicate the S&G "sound". He also did that on his follow-up album as well.

I lived in Corona (Lefrak City on the L.I.E.)at the time (the last years of the Lindsay admin in NYC. The public schools, and notoriously IS 61 in Corona were shut down in 1969 on and off, first due to Al Shanker's UFT strike against the city, then by a student (8th graders!) protest against the War in Vietnam.

The neighborhood was in the Daily News constantly as a ground of confrontation between latino (including many new South American immigrants who did not get along with the local Puerto Rican kids) and black gangs on Junction Blvd, and confrontations between the older Italian homeowners that were laying down in front of bulldozers to stop the City from building more "affordable" housing.

The most common name at IS61 was Rosa or Rosita, and at least one Julio I knew then (from the Philippines, actually), was arrested for running across the L.I.E. on dares to dodge traffic.

One event from those days did end up in Newsweek and on the radio/TV the weird teacher led move by parents at PS206 across the road in Rego Park to through throw away their toy guns as a sign of their willingness not to become violent.

The fact is that nearly everything that is talked about in the song is a compression of actual events and reportage of the neighborhood from 1967 to 1969.

The radical preacher was the leader of the Ocean Hill Brownsville citizens revolt against the NYC School Chancellors to fight for local autonomy in school boards. The issue revolved around the flushing of poor teachers into the poorest districts of NYC, Bed Stuy and Corona among them.
I think the guy's name was Winston Bone.

It pays to have been there. The truth is more interesting than the inspired guesses. I grew up knowing I had lived the song, and so did the few white kids in Corona at the time.

The issue was not homosexual: no one cared in Corona. It was racial, and the Romeo and Juliet angle is precisely right.

David from Charleston is correct. Would wouldn't say "See I down at the schoolyard". Unless of course, your a rasta.

Did someone say the name "Julio" as a reference to a race? what race? are you saying that Julio which sounds like a name from Spain, means big lips, or Black skin, or is it white race with red hair, or yellow skin, like other people who speak Spanish, or are you talking about Hollywood Stereotypes? tell us, how are the Julios, do they usually speak Spanish like Julio Iglesias? is he from a Special race? so they are talking about his race? the White one? im confused, the other day we asked a girl where she was from (nationality), she said: im Jewish!!! are people getting more stupid these days? change the world by changing the obtuse way of thinking, US people!

That's why the song says: "see you, me and Julio", by the way. The characters in the song are us, and we are them. We were all young once and should be capable of empathizing with the predicament of youngsters whose love might lead them to violate "the law of the land".

To summarize, the song is a plea from "God" - speaking through Paul Simon - for understanding and forgiveness of young lovers whose actions may be a violation of human laws but nevertheless an innocent expression of their essential humanity.

There were "radical Priests", sympathetic to homosexuality and gay rights, when Simon wrote the song. One such was Paul Shanley of Boston:
"Shanley, once a long-haired, jeans-wearing "street priest" who worked with Boston's troubled youth...argued for acceptance of homosexuality and pushed for gay rights. He called himself a "sexual expert" and advertised his counseling services in the alternative press." Sadly, Shanley turned out to have been also a sexual predator.
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." So the song IS about young lovers, whether gay or straight, caught in a sex act but - even Paul Simon himself doesn't know exactly what was going on. People need to understand that Paul Simon believes his best songs were sort of delivered, whole & complete, into his consciousness by a divine agency. In other words, a divine "muse" was speaking through him and his music, rather than Paul Simon sitting down and saying "I think I'll write a song about young lovers".

I actually didn't realise there was so much debate about the song's meaning until I reached this site. I always read it as an underage sex act that was witnessed by mama. The verses talk of the two families reaction to it. Rosie is the queen of corona, either the place or the act of oral sex. Me is the narrator. Julio is what the narrator has named his penis. Paul himself has said it's about a sex act. Me and Julio is the narrator and his dick, simple as that.

Very interesting thread.
My vote is with the underage sex explation.
I suspect the person telling the story, and his friend Julio were experiencing early experimental adolesent sex with Rosie.
Corona I have heard was slang at the time in some communities for oral sex. Much as we might use the term Blow Job today. It refers to the Corona, a fat cigar that you obviously suck on to get pleasure from smoking, just as Rosie was doing with their manhood. That she was rather good at it made her the "Queen of Corona" - She may well have been the local prostitute!
Some have said this would not have been enough to cause all that fuss, maybe not today, but 30-odd years ago, the world was a different place, add a strict catholic family to that and Boom, there you have it, a mixture of disgust, andger and shame from the families.
Of course I could be just as wrong as the rest of these comments :))

THANK YOU HAnk! I agree this song is political in nature. Paul had to be thinking about an antiwar theme that had to be buried in metaphores and rhyming with the melody so it got airplay. All the circa 1970 issues are touched. Boomers breaking from their raised-during-the depression, WWII veteran parents. Churches fracturing over whether to support the war effort in Viet Nam or not. Pot smoking. College Campuses becoming hotbeds of discontent (Schoolyard), running to dodge the draft or get into college so you didn't have to go, (Think Bill Clinton). Paul seems above the puerile thoughts expressed here. He probably laughs every time he hears a new theory.

sorry, "radical PRIEST"

OK WOW...Everything written here(if any one even reads this) about gay sex is wrong. In the song Simon sings, "The radical will come and get me released." The church is against homosexuality. Why on earth would a radical anti - gay man release someone for being gay. That also (for the most part) eliminates drug use. That is why I believe that this song is very political, and is opposing the war. "Julio," I don't feel, is meant to be a name of race, simply one that fits with the flow of the song.

i love this song its a cool song because of the tone in it and the volume it has. i love how it goes fast in the first part and just keeps on goin in the all song. you should tell one of the stations to play it on the radio someday on 104.7
thanks!

A plethora of interpretations! The narrator is male/female... Rosie/Corona is girl/beer, street in NYC/masturbation...Against the law is RE dope/sex -gay/sex-hetero-underage... mama pajama is woman/J Edgar Hoover(?!!)/McNamara...radical priest is...whoever... & etc... Looks like P. Simon didn't want to reveal the song's meaning, if it even has one. Maybe the lyrics are the roaming thoughts of a singer/poet having fun with metaphors (i.e. multiple streams of thought merging to appear like a consistent storyline). Perhaps Simon just wants us to concentrate on the song's upbeat mood and sing/whistle along to it.

I love the way people try to read too much meaning into things. If you listen to the lyrics straightforward, I think you'll hear what the song is really about. Clue #1: You'll notice there little "whooping" sounds throughout the song. They're pretty constant throughout, but near the end of the song they become rather drawn out and begin to sound more like gradually slowing down female sex noises to a climax. Clue #2: Rosie is the queen of Corona - Corona is a beer. So what did Mama saw? Me & Julio down by the schoolyard with drunken Rosita doing nasty things. Julio probably stereotypically sold his little sister to "Me" for a little taste of Corona. No wonder Paul Simon doesn't want to admit what the song is about.

I agree with George, Baltimore, MD. The metaphoric references are too buried to guess their literal meaning. You're all right (or all wrong). Interpret it any way you like. If P. Simon ain't saying then we ain't gonna know for sure.

A long time ago a friend told me the queen of corona was anal sex, never once thought of it as gay though.

This is what I got out of it... His mother smelled weed. He got it from Julio. He no longer masterbates since he has a new habit now. He can't go home so he runs away. Perhapse some of the political stuff mentioned earlier too. Suppose?

Nevermind...for the record, it's called a "cuica"
From Wikipedia: Cuíca (pronounced KWEE-kah) is a Brazilian friction drum often used in samba music. The tone it produces has a high-pitched squeaky timbre.

I have a technical question about the song. Does anyone know how they made that "monkey sound" in the song? It sounds like "OOOO" like a little squeak at the beginning, and in the instrumental portion. I cannot figure out if it's someone's voice, or an actual instrument. HELP!

A Corona is a type & size of a cigar too. That fits in with the pot smoking motif. I've wondered for years what they got caught doing. What about flag burning or draft card burning? Those were divisive issues back in 1972. A liberal rag like Newsweek would have run with it.

This is a confirmation. In "Me and Julio down by the schoolyard" song, JULIO was a high class peruvian guy. They met each other in the early 70´s. They had a short friendship . JULIO lived in California until 80´s, he married with Margaret O´Brien and death in Lima-Peru in 2005.

All i can really say is after reading all these comments I'm utterly confused and while i think that bestiality thing is repulsive and almost unbelievable that Simon wud write such a cheery song on teh matter, I cant help but agree that at the end of the song you hear what sounds like an animal making sounds of pleasure......ick!!

About grammar: Please read the song lyrics again. In the title, "me" is the correct word, while "I" would be incorrect.

Given the Daniel Ellsberg connection, with which I concur:

"The papa say "Oy, if I get that boy...."

I believe Oy is a Jewish expression...was Nixon Jewish?

Mama Pajama - J. Edgar Hoover - bugged everybody to the point of omniscience - "saw" everything - obsessed with knowing everything about those in power including sex lives - hence the "pajama" reference.

I was in high school when this was released as a single, and it prompted many late-night discussions as to it's meaning....in the end, I decided it was simply Paul Simon playing with words and melodys.

thats funny coming from julio

All the postings about sexual references are stupid. It's about Daniel Ellsberg. The government employee who leaked secret papers on
the Vietnam war to the press. There was an investigation. The "radical priest" is Daniel Berrigan, the anti-war Jesuit who visited
Ellsberg in jail. This event made the cover of Newsweek back in 1970 or 1971. The "mama pajama" is a euphemism I think, for McNamara and the "papa" I think is Nixon. Rosie, Queen of Corona is a reference to a street in NYC. How that enters in I don't know. A school is where you learn, a schoolyard is where kids exchange information. (Pentagon Papers)
Nothing to do with sexual activity, it's all political. You have to know the political climate at the time. I lived it.

Hello! Rosie the Queen of Corona is Roosevelt Ave, running through Corona Queens, the neighborhood adjacent to Forest Hills where Paul Simon grew up. He's going to jail or gonna be on the run so it seems that he's saying goodbye to his hang outs. Hello!

Dude i think this song is about weed. Me and Julio down by the school yard doing something illegal. The parents are angry everytime they hear mention of HER name, that is Mary Jane.Woo.

Another possiblilty for "Queen of Corona" is that Corona is a well-known street in Brooklyn. Just a thought.

Could thsi not be about an underage heterosexual relationship? Seems to be to be talking about a boy and girl who's families don't approve of the relationship. His mama "gets mad and spit on the ground each time HER name is mentioned" while her papa "says when I catch that boy gonna put HIM in a house of detention." Its against the law becouse they're still at school, so the narrtor has to say goodbye to his girlfriend (Rosie the queen of Corona?)down by the school yard where they used to meet with thier friend Julio, and go on the run. It would also explain the poor grammer - they were always cutting class! Although the use of the present tense to describe the realtionship, not the past tense, hint the young couple will continue to "see" each other.

The concensus here is that the song refers to, at least, a homosexual act that the narrator's mother witnesses. This makes sense with the rest of the song. As for "Rosey, Queen of Coronas," that seems rather obvious, if one takes it in a bawdy context...let us remember the rest of the song, after all. The narrator is captured, and is waiting to be "taken away," he is a minor, going to the "house of detention" (at his father's request" it's soemthing so tawdry as to make the "cover of Newsweek"...the song is tongue in cheek and fun, but it is obviously hinting at someting sexual...I doubt masturbation or smoking marijuana would generate such disgust amongst the narrator's own family, as being caught with a school mate engaged in homosexual activity.

OMG! Rosie--- the Queen of Corona Rosie is his HAND... she is the queen of corona (crown in Spanish) This song is about masturbation... about a circle jerk

the song title isn't necessarily bad grammar i mean a person would say "this is a picture of me and julio down by the schoolyard" (just an example). and yes that is proper grammar.

I think this song is about alchoholism. Rosie The Queen of Corona is refering to the person that got the narrator and Julio the beer. (Corona)

Why doesn't someone just ask Paul?

The music video also featured Spud Webb as a geeky basketball player who trounces the local kids as well as John Madden attempting to give advice to the other players.

I think its about when Paul Simon was a kid, when racism was more prevalent than it is today. The name "Julio" is a reference to race. He was hanging out w/ a hispanic boy named Julio, which would have been a big deal back when Paul Simon was a kid. Paul Simon used to be married to Carrie Fisher(when she was attractive), so why would it be about homosexuality(or beastiality for that matter,you sick f**k).

rosie queen of corona, refers to corona in queens new york. this song i belive is about homosexuality

I can't believe no one has put this together. Julio is his dog. You can even hear Julio's moans of pleasure at the tail of the song. Rosie Queen of Corona is the hand he no longer needs...since he's discovered Julio as his partner. Beastiality is a pretty sick topic. No wonder Paul doesn't come clean about it. Listen with this scenario in mind and it all makes perfect sense.
RAW-Tulsa

The song was heard in the movie The Royal Tenenbaums when Royal took his grandchildren out on an afternoon of reckless fun.

I haven't heard the song recently but if you know that Jackson Brown song rosie "rosie you're allright, you wear my ring, etc.." cleary rosie is his own hand talking about masterbating, so I'm thinking "rosie queen of corona" also reference to masturbation rosie -we know what the corona is..did mama see a little masturbation party?

I believe "Rosie Queen of Corona" is a reference to female private parts; the guy in the song is gay.

Great, fun song. Perfectly fits into a scene in The Royal Tenenbaums.

The CBC just ran a profile of the top ten "gay" referential songs of all time and this was high on the list. I have to agree. They pointed to the fact that in 1972, when this song was written, homosexual activity was illegal in the US in many areas. The priest would certainly have to be "radical" to side with the gay community due to the explicit anti-gay message in the Bible, whereas marijuana use was merely illegal. But the true giveaway was the fugitive having to say goodbye to "Rosie, the Queen of Corona" due to his actions; say no more...

I was really relieved to find that I'm not the only one who's spent valuable time puzzling about what this song is about. I have considered the marijuana, gay and rape possibilities in the past. I have to say I come down on the side of the pot explanation. I discount the rape possibility because, one, I don't like it, and, two, I can't see a radical priest coming to get two rapists released and all of them winding up on the cover of Newsweek. It's hard to choose between the pot and gay explanations, but I lean towards the pot because, hey, it was the 70s and as we learn from "Late In The Evening," Paul Simon was the sort who would find himself underage in a funky bar and would step outside to smoke himself a j. The "against the law" reference also leads me to the pot conclusion, though homosexual contact has been, regretably in my view, illegal in some times and places and may in any case not be literally true but rather a reflection of Mama Pajama's attitude. But the song does say "it was against the law" not "she thought it was against the law." My two cents...

Assuming the verb of the song title is "to be", the grammarically correct name would be "Julio and I (are) down by the schoolyard". Since there is no verb, you can't really define the title gramatically anyways.

However, later in the song the lyrics change to "Seeing me and Julio down by the schoolyard". Therefore, with a verb you can analyze the sentence and in this case, the placement of either of the words "Julio" or "me" doesn't matter. "(The people of the town are) seeing me and Julio down by the schoolyard." Stop arguing about it =P.

This song is not about rape! The narrator is gay, and his mom walks in on him and his boyfriend, Julio, engaged in sexual activity.

I don't intentially mean to be this dark, it's just the image (disturbing) I get when I think about the lyrics:

Mama woke up one morning and saw a young boy (the main character) and Julio raping a young girl behind the school that she lives near. She is disgusted everytime she thinks about it, and thus, spits on the ground every time her name is mentioned; it's not directed towards the victim, but the atrocity she survived. The boy and Julio are also very young, but were tried as adults and are currently in jail waiting for their sentence.

The only thing is, it has this happy-go-lucky feel to the song which is in complete contradiction to my interpretation. I try not to think about the words when I listen to the song or it ruins it for me. I hope I didn't ruin it for any of you...

Just wondering if anyone else has seen the odd parallels between "Me and Julio . . ." and Romeo and Juliet. Consider the following: Rosie Queen of Corona = Rosaline of Verona, the radical priest = Friar Lawrence, Julio = a gender-bending Juliet. Throw in the possibe theme of love/ lust thwarted by short-sighted adults and I think you have some strange coincidences. Correct me if I'm off my rocker.

Who's "Rosie, the queen of Corona"???? Anyone???

Daniel Ellsberg wasn't a priest.
Maybe you're thinking of Daniel Berrigan,
a priest who poured pigs' blood on government
papers in protest of the Viet Nam war.

I'd always assumed this song was about marijuana. Hence "Me and Julio down by the schoolyard" becomes "Marijuana down by the schoolyard," It makes slightly more sence why Mama Pajama "rolled" out of bed, and it makes a little more sense exactly what was "against the law." Also, there's that bit towards the end - "I don't know where I'm going," although "I'm taking my time," a common sentiment among long-term users of the drug.

There's a funny SNL skit with this song playing, as the background of Paul Simon playing a game of 1:1 with Connie Hawkins of the Atlanta Hawks. The height difference between the two is partially what makes it so comical. I wonder if they attemted to get Dr. J(Julius Irving), which would be more fitting?

David is correct. So, if we wanted to be grammatically correct it would be "Julio and me Down By the Schoolyard." But that would just be weird.

"Julio and I..." would be INCORRECT - "see you, me and Julio down by the schoolyard". Break that down to "see me down by the schoolyard" not "see I down by the schoolyard".

The "radical preacher" in the lyric is a reference to Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame. The leaking of the "Pentagon Papers" was one of the top news stories of 1971 and even made the cover of Newsweek.