Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard

[Spoke]

@LMM

And Simon is definitely a writer identified with New York, and a former resident, or near-resident, of the neighborhood in question.

And I don’t doubt he is also referencing that neighborhood. That’s why it’s a double entendre.

[Coelacanth_Soup]

Related question:

What musical instrument is it that makes the sort of whistling monkey hoot-hoot-hoot-hoot on this song?

[Marley23]

@Coelacanth Soup

Its often the case that lyricists (and poets) write words that have no concrete meaning even to themselves.

Paul McCartney, anyone?

[susan]

Given the eara, I assumed it was draft card burning.

P.S. [hijack]Coelacanth Soup?? That’s just wrong. [/hijack]

[susan]

That would be “era.”

[Cicero]

@LMM

I always thought the singer was sleeping with the underage Rosie, gets caught, has to run away rather than go to the house of detention, agrees to meet his friend Julio down by the schoolyard, and is saying goodbye to Rosie, the queen of Corona.

That’s the way I always thought of it. Then again, I didn’t disect it much at all.

[Cicero]

@Coelacanth Soup

Isn’t there a hot dog/papaya stand in Queens named Queen of Corona or King of Corona or Corona King that has benn around since the 50’s?

Its often the case that lyricists (and poets) write words that have no concrete meaning even to themselves. They write for the sounds of the words themselves and for the visceral emotion that phrase elicits. The resulting ambiguity ends up being more than a side-effect, however, by adding more mystery, depth, absurdity, or profundity to the piece as a whole.

You took the words right out of my mouth- how did you know that I was going to say that?

And ‘Blinded By The Light’ springs to mind.
:wally

[Gatopescado]

@Coelacanth Soup

Related question:

What musical instrument is it that makes the sort of whistling monkey hoot-hoot-hoot-hoot on this song?

I don’t know what it is called but I saw some in Brazil. It looks like a gord, or hollowed out shell/drum, with a stretchy membrane over the open end. The “player” sticks his hand into the membrane and by moving it in and out (it was actually bloody obscene! Much like a “fisting” scene in a porno I once saw! ) creates this strange sound. Seemed to be pretty common in Samba music.

Hope that helps. Maybe you can find a better answer out on the web, complete with pictures.

[Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew]

@gatopescado

I don’t know what it is called but I saw some in Brazil. It looks like a gord, or hollowed out shell/drum, with a stretchy membrane over the open end. The “player” sticks his hand into the membrane and by moving it in and out (it was actually bloody obscene! Much like a “fisting” scene in a porno I once saw! ) creates this strange sound. Seemed to be pretty common in Samba music.

I believe that’s a cuica.

[vanilla]

We always used to hear Stop The Love You Save by the Jackson 5 and hear the lyric “Oh its a homo”

Also ABC, “jesus gonna show you how to get an A”

sorry.
carry on.

[BrainGlutton]

I would like, even more, to hear Simon explain the lyrics to “You Can Call Me Al,” “The Obvious Child,” “Baby Driver,” and “Keep the Customer Satisfied.”

If he can. As Coelocanth Soup pointed out, lyricists sometimes don’t understand their own lyrics.

[fishbicycle]

Scoot down the road, what’s my number?
I wonder how your engines feel.
Shine a light.

Um…yeah!

[BrotherCadfael]

@BrainGlutton

I would like, even more, to hear Simon explain the lyrics to “You Can Call Me Al,” “The Obvious Child,” “Baby Driver,” and “Keep the Customer Satisfied.”

If he can. As Coelocanth Soup pointed out, lyricists sometimes don’t understand their own lyrics.

Our LP of “Keep the Customer Satisfied” had a rather bad scratch on it. To this day, I can’t hear the refrain without my head supplying the skip: “Keep the Customer Satisisfied, Satis-Satisfied, Satis-Satisfied , Satis-Satisfied (Bump) Satisfied!”

[C_K_Dexter_Haven]

ltfire, we do not permit quoting entire lyrics of copyrighted songs, and I have therefore deleted them. “Fair usage” allows quoting stanza or so, but not the entire song.

Far better is to provide a link to an online site that has permission to reproduce the lyrics.