Watch Stephen Colbert and ‘Paul Simon Tribute Band’ Perform ‘Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard’

Stephen Colbert spent nearly a decade playing a conservative pundit named "Stephen Colbert." Now that he's being himself as the host of CBS' The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, which debuted this week, he's making his guests pretend to be someone suspiciously close to themselves. Last night (Sept. 11), Paul Simon brought his band to the Ed Sullivan Theater to perform "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard."

Except that's not the whole story. As Colbert explains in the video above, "I’ve always wanted to do the whistling solo to ‘Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard.’ So I called Paul Simon [...] and I said, ‘Can I do that?’, and he said, ‘I will not do that with you.’"

Instead he found a Paul Simon tribute band he had seen at a friend's barbecue called "Troubled Waters" to come on the show and play the 1972 hit. Of course, it was the real Simon, who went along with the joke. “He seems like a jerk. He seems like a huge jerk,” Colbert said, to which the singer concurred after being prodded to do so by the host. Somewhere, the members of Los Lobos were nodding in approval.

The host then showed off a flyer for the band listing Troubled Waters' shows including a local pool hall, a high school "FUNraiser" and a canceled gig at the Rosen Bar Mitzvah before launching into the song. Colbert, a talented singer who regularly performs with his guests, danced along, whistled the solo and sang the final verse with Simon.

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This Day in Rock History: September 12