"The Late Great Johnny Ace" is a song by Paul Simon, which appears on his 1983 Hearts and Bones album.
[1] The song initially sings of the rhythm and blues singer Johnny Ace, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot injury in 1954.
The album version features a one-minute coda composed by Philip Glass, performed with strings, clarinet, and flute;[6] Marin Alsop, the violinist on that session, was later to become the conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
Near the end of the performance, an audience member rushed the stage, causing Simon to pull away from the microphone.
Halfway through, Simon stopped the song when one of the strings on the guitar was caught by a fret and almost broke, and the host quickly took the show to commercial.