The Late Great Johnny Ace lyrics

I was reading a magazine

And thinking of a rock and roll song

The year was 1954

And I hadn’t been playing that long

When a man came on the radio

And this is what he said

He said, “I hate to break it

To his fans

But Johnny Ace is dead”

Well, I really wasn’t

Such a Johnny Ace fan

But I felt bad all the same

So I sent away for his photograph

And I waited till it came

It came all the way from Texas

With a sad and simple face

And they signed it on the bottom

“From the Late Great Johnny Ace”

It was the year of the Beatles

It was the year of the Stones

It was 1964

I was living in London

With the girl from the summer before

It was the year of the Beatles

It was the year of the Stones

A year after JFK

We were staying up all night

And giving the days away

And the music was flowing

Amazing

And blowing my way

On a cold December evening

I was walking through the Christmas tide

When a stranger came up and asked me

If I’d heard John Lennon had died

And the two of us

Went to this bar

And we stayed to close the place

And every song we played

Was for the Late Great Johnny Ace

• Artist:Paul Simon
• Album:Hearts and Bones (1983)