The Late Great Johnny Ace

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, yeah, yeah, yeah

Are there songs dealing with flashbulb memories? This one does. Look at the amount of detail related in the lyric leading up to Johnny Ace's death: Reading a magazine, thinking about a song, the year, radio broadcast. We all have flashbulb memories, and usually there is great significance attached. As we will see, our hero isn't especially a fan of Johnny Ace - so why does he remember this so well?

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, yeah, yeah, yeah

So our hero is not really a fan, but the death hits him enough to send for a memento. I assume our hero is roughly the same age as Paul Simon himself, so in 1954 he would have been 12-13 or so. Hadn't been playing music for long? What our hero is expressing indirectly is Ace's death reminds him that he, too will be dead one day. After all, here's a young, popular musician who died young; our hero is an aspiring musician himself.

It was the year of The Beatles It was the year of The Stones It was nineteen 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 J.F.K. We were staying up all night And giving the days away And the music was flowing amazing And blowing my way

It happens just like this: at a young age, we realize that the end will come one day, we grieve for ourselves for a while, then we move on and live. Our hero cannot describe with much specificity what is going on in his life - even a flashbulb event like the Kennedy assassination gets just a quick nod - because good things are happening and happening fast. 1964 is specified, but he can't get a handle on it beyond just mentioning a few noteworthy and general events.

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, yeah, yeah, yeah

The stranger was obviously a musician and the bar had an open mike. Because they played for Johnny Ace, I'm guessing that Ace's death had hit the stranger the same way back in 1954, and Lennon's death had had a similar impact on our hero and the stranger. But look at how youth copes in the former case and experience copes in the latter: in an early stage of the journey, our hero brooded upon one musician's death. Present day (in the song, of course), he mourns by bonding with another person.

A sort of "denial into acceptance" story here, I think.

This is strictly autobiographical – this is Paul Simon talking about himself, not a bit of fiction to it.

Paul Simon explains how three times in his life were linked together, with the first two thematically linked to the third.

Johnny Ace (a stage name, of course) was someone Simon didn't know that well, but noted with sadness and got to know a bit after his death.

The Beatles (and Stones) were more Simon's time, and obviously great inspirations to him.

The third event, in 1980, is what Simon really wanted to comment upon – how he felt when he heard the news about John Lennon's death. The two earlier passages are the setup for it. In this case, unlike the 1954 case, Simon cared very deeply about the deceased, and his death was untimely and shocking. Now, a capable and celebrated musician himself, Simon's response was to go to a bar – obviously anywhere he arrived would welcome him – and play music to console himself and honor Lennon. And he feels that the stage name of the older musician, "Johnny Ace," is appropriate for Lennon, in the sense of an ace, as in cards, being the highest ranking member of a set.

That's the payoff of the song, to give John Lennon that name, the affectionate "Johnny" instead of his given name, and "Ace" to proclaim his greatness. The first portion of the song warmly remembers the man who had that as his stage name, but at the end of the song, it's Lennon who is remembered by Simon as the late, great Johnny Ace.