To counter the Existentialist view that humans have no essence but into this world are born and alone, Dylan calls upon Swedenborg’s vision that we are all ‘inflowed’ by pre-existing, shades and spirits, in varying degrees, some dark and some light: the ghosts of electricity howl in the bones of her face. The part about the pipes was most likely about the literal heating pipes of the Chelsea. A monthly update on our latest interviews, stories and added songs, Running 7:31, "Visions Of Johanna" is one of more mysterious Bob Dylan songs. I do enjoy hearing all of the opinions too though. The harmonica plays the skeleton keys of the rain is incredibly beautiful and echos the first lines where Louise holds a handful of rain. âThe ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face/Where these visions of Johanna, have now taken my place.â Johanna is fully revealed to be the spiritual, incorporeal, eternal energy of the human being, as contrasted with Louise, the physical, sensual, and comparatively mundane. You’ll find some notes about our latest posts arranged by themes and subjects on the home page. Louise’s pimp turns up. Little Boy Blue is the substitute. It was covered by Michel Montecrossa and The Chosen Few, Zimmermen, Lee Ranaldo, Stephen Inglis and other artists. Just as in ‘Rhapsody on a Windy Night’ night-time is the setting for ‘Visions of Johanna’, and here too the light produces distortions which cause the world to be viewed in an insightful way. “Ain’t it just like the night to play tricks when you’re tryin’ to be so quiet?” is surely the most atmospheric opening line of any popular song ever written, and it takes us directly into this cold dark world of isolation and dislocation. At the end of the review is my favourite live electric version too. In fact the narrator’s outlook is unduly pessimistic . Anyone who knows me, knows of my Dylan “addiction” & I love reading about him & all things Dylan. These days it takes a lot to stop me dead in my tracks while thinking about “Visions” but that happened when I found the recording below. The girl Louise, previously presented as a happy lover, is now represented as bones inhabited by an unhappy spirit – reminding us of Eliot’s skeletal imagery used to present a world whose secret is that it is dead. And now try this – the remarkable reworking of the song by Dylan on stage. Considered among Dylan's greatest works, Dylan referred to it as his favorite song on the album which captured that "thin, wild mercury sound". Kooper went on to become a successful producer and worked on some of Lynyrd Skynyrd's most famous tracks. It is these questions that, I think keeps bringing us back to Visions over and over and over again. One of the things that make Dylan so great as say Bruce is that you cannot tie his greatest songs to a specific time. And the fact that Christ’s blood ‘once flowed’ suggests that it isn’t doing so any more. It’s curious that when the fiddler writes on the fish truck that ‘everything’s been returned which was owed’ the narrator’s conscience explodes. Yet the narrator sees only a representation of sadness. Johanna is the ideal (of a more authentic existence) that might be perceived from this or some other “egoless” perspective, yet can not be maintained or possessed permanently. http://bobdylan.com/songs/abandoned-love/ âVisions Of Johannaâ is a song that captures the feeling of being pushed to the edge of an emotional brink. Awake and in dreams. In the ruins of your balcony But if we want to translate the music into something we can write about where better to start than with the end. I can’t understand why people think it’s so mysterious ! The song – poem describes it all in The fiddler, he now steps to the road. How does he manage that? âThis lowly Irish bard would proudly carry his baggage. He ponders museum pieces. The narrator has to ‘mount’ his stairs, again reminding us of Calvary, and also perhaps the Sermon on the Mount. Bob was the bass player and lyricist for the first two Ozzy Osbourne albums. It would seem it is the visions, rather perhaps than the reality itself, which are impressing themselves on the narrator because we are told âJohannaâs not hereâ. We'll never know for sure, and it seems Dylan intended it that way. This was nine days before recording the final, definitive version recorded in Nashville. Considered among Dylan's greatest works, Dylan referred to it as his favorite song on the album which captured that "thin, wild mercury sound". Louise, Johanna, and Little Boy Lost, three characters in search of a home, a real world, a way of talking to each other, a way of being. If you are interested in Dylan’s work from a particular year or era, your best place to start is Bob Dylan year by year. Even though he’s left the Madonna (Joan/Johanna), and reassures himself that everything is paid that was owed, he’s appropriately haunted. And these visions of Johanna that conquer my mind In the empty lot where the ladies play blindmanâs bluff with the key chain And the all-night girls they whisper of escapades out on the âDâ train We can hear the night watchman click his flashlight Ask himself if itâs him or ⦠Verse 3. Johanna is the feminine form of the name John, meaning "God's gracious gift". Bob pays and leaves. But back to those extra lines; they were seemingly added later in the recording process and subtle changes were made as time went by. I’ve had times in my life when that error makes the recording near impossible to listen to. This may refer to Christ’s successful redemption of the world, but equally could be presumption on the part of the fiddler. Madonna, if taken as a representation of Christ rather than Mary, can also be taken to represent hope. He did not find the politically answers there. Where are the Visions of Louise? And now back to the original article, which itself started with the finding of a video of Visions. Babette earlier mentioned “Abandoned Love” and I think that is tied in with “Visions” and Download speeds at the time were so slow it took around 75 minutes to download the track. He sees a woman, perhaps a prostitute, who is poor and ageing, ‘the border of her dress … torn and stained with sand’. Tombstone Blues (1965) part VIII Ninety Nine Years, After the tour: the creation of a new style of songwriting, Scorsese and Dylan: A Match Made in Fantasy, Untold Dylan: “I’ll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours”. That Johanna's not here. We see this empty cage now corrode Now I am sure everyone else has known it forever, but I can be a bit slow on these things… so I’m adding the link to the Australia 1966 recording right at the start because hearing it in 2018 for the first time in a long old time I was just blown away by it. Visions of Gerard is a novel by American Beat writer Jack Kerouac. In a lot described as ’empty’, ‘ladies’ resort to playing a mere children’s game, and prostitutes try to escape their miserable reality by indulging in escapist fantasy. And yet all of these images are hung on three chords and such a simple tune. Throughout my (almost) 43 years, I’ve always explored here & there finding ‘new’ Dylan recordings to fall in love with. Andy Gill is quoted in the Wiki article on the song as suggesting it is the enigmatic quality of the song that is responsible for its popularity—’forever teetering on the brink of lucidity, yet remaining impervious to strict decipherment”. Then she’s a lover, then the narrator himself (‘she seems like the mirror’), perhaps in that that he recognises his lot in hers. William H. from New York, Ny This Song--Visions of Johanna--is about Joan Baez primarily and the thoughts he has, the visions he has which revolve around her and their musical and intimate relationship. He just wants to find Johanna – maybe his wife – who should not have those strong politically ideas. For the first of these she is a source of sensible encouragement to the narrator to refuse to resort to (‘defy’) drugs (‘a handful of rain’) as a means of overcoming the horror of being ‘stranded’ – unable to escape our lot. Equally open to contradictory interpretation is the fiddler’s ‘everything’s been returned which was owed’. She was burnt at the stake. I think of how Bob played with names to cover his tracks. The title is based on a Southern expression meaning "at my wit's end. “Ain’t it just like the night to play tricks when you’re trying to be so quiet?” And as I have said for years in talking to my students and indeed anyone else who doesn’t get up and wander off because “he’s going to lecture us on Dylan again”, “just how much atmosphere do you want in a song?”. http://bobdylan.com/songs/absolutely-sweet-marie/. I knew a girl, or should I say she once knew me circa early 70’s. Johanna is death; Louise is reality; “The one with the moustache” is Salvador Dali. I luv Phil Jacobs interpretation of this song best in the comments here. Here's an excerpt that I thought should be released on its own. Psychedelic Furs lead singer Richard Butler cites this as the song that had the most influence on him. Little boy lost is a reference to Brian Jones who use to date his wife,just as he sang in another song about Brian Jones,your dancing child in his Chinese suit ,you know I spoke to him ,I took his flute,ah Mr Zimmerman was one jealous man. You walk, you look, you wonder who on earth these odd characters are, and what they are doing here, and then remember some of them might be looking at you, wondering exactly the same. Meanings and history of the name Johanna. In the song “Absolute sweet Marie” he uses the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliette. But that doesnât mean that his lyrics canât withstand close reading. Dylan thinks about himself (Little Boy Lost) as the ‘serious’ artist on tour. ", "Burning Down The House" by Talking Heads was inspired by chant band members heard at a P-Funk show where the crowd yelled, "burn down the house... burn down the house.". Even lovers of art will not find “salvation.”. See more ideas about Joan baez, Joan, Visions of johanna. There appears to be hope, though, despite the world’s appearing so devoid of hope. These things exist beyond any concept of time. The moon, already described as feeble, morphs into a another , or perhaps the same, lonely woman – ‘A washed-out smallpox cracks her face’ – with unpleasant memories of a seedy existence. All the characters in this song are really specific. And probably will do for a long time yet. But ultimately, it is always the fact that Dylan expresses in words the feelings that the people in the story can’t express in words that makes it so wonderful. We’re told ‘Mona Lisa must have had the highway blues / you can tell by the way she smiles’. I think key words are “mirror” and “conscience explodes”. Overall she can be taken to represent good sense, love, understanding and kindness. “The river whispers in my ear” as opposed to “Ain’t it just like the night…”. He claims the song was written during the East Coast blackout that hit New York and seven other states on November 9, 1965. Ed Sheeran's "Bloodstream" was written after an experience taking MDMA during a wedding celebration in Ibiza, and it's basically about all the feelings that he got from that time. This is one of my fav songs ever & definitely my fav on this record. Outside things appear to be no better. Deconstructive or any other) commentary welcome. This is Dylan’s reply to Eliot. We don’t know, and it doesn’t matter what is happening, nor at which time it is happening. Somehow, now, Dylan is singing to me about the loss of a highly inspirational lady, even though the words are still about Louise and Johanna. Visions of Johanna venne registrata inizialmente nelle sessioni di New York, con il titolo provvisorio di Freeze Out ("congelato"). Several of the videos have now vanished, and I’m working on finding new ones. The song was first recorded on November 30, 1965, in Columbia's Studio A. The sense of isolation from “normal” reality, the existential angst and eerily vivid imagery all lead me to this view. This website /bloggo-space rocks! The irrational as opposed to the rational. Perhaps the best way to do this is to demonstrate the richness of what many consider his greatest song, Visions Of Johanna, from the album Blonde On Blonde. I think there is also the point that here we have one of the earliest songs in which Dylan forgets about any of the normal sequences of events. Written in the first two weeks of 1956, while staying with his sister Caroline in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Kerouac's novel would not be published until 1963. As to the two women in the song – now presumably in their sixties – what are they up to? Little Boy Lost seems to represent inner conscious as it seems to be speaking to itself “muttering small talk to the wall while I’m in the hall”, that’s the mind speaking while staring (spacing out) at a wall in the hall. He identifies with Mona Lisa; who has the highway blues and a painted mustache (like one of the jelly-faced women). “I can’t sing ‘John Johanna’ (anymore) ’cause it’s his story an’ his people’s (soc) story…” (Old trad. Please also see the Old Crow Medicine Show version reviewed – I think you might enjoy that. 12. Like my best moments with Dylan, I remember an intuitive experience to this song. Johanna is not here, but the Visions of Johanna are all that remain. And Madonna, she still has not showed It was a spooky occasion to say the least. And I think of that now, and my dear friend Kati, who I spent that evening with, who sadly passed away unexpectedly earlier this year, and my sadness remembering that, becomes entangled with my thoughts of the mists surrounding that song. Then, around 1963 none at all. If Johanna is taken to represent the world as it is â reality â then the visions of Johanna are the world as it now appears to the narrator. Someone had lent me ‘Blonde on Blonde’ and I was playing it on an incredibly crappy old record player with the vacuum cleaner going. The Chelsea Hotel has long been a New York City landmark, but even back then it was kind of dumpy. From another song: Abandoned-love Jelly-faced women so zonked they couldn’t even find their own knees; weird mocking visions of jewels and binoculars. It just makes the most sense to me & tells the complete story; just as Bob says his songs are easy for him to remember because the words tell a story. Jun 16, 2018 - "I have been true to the principles of nonviolence, developing a stronger and stronger aversion to the ideologies of both the far right and the far left and a deeper sense of rage and sorrow over the suffering they continue to produce all over the world." Part of the songwriter’s skill is to force our decisions. In the end he doesn’t accept it because his negative visions are ‘all that remain’. On the other hand if you would like to write for this website, please do drop me a line with details of your idea, or if you prefer, a whole article. I have the sense that this song was strongly influenced by the psychedelic experience. This article updated most recently 4 March 2020. And that in turn suggests that the narrator’s conscience is rebelling against his presumption. Email Tony@schools.co.uk, And please do note The Bob Dylan Project, which lists every Dylan song in alphabetical order, and has links to licensed recordings and performances by Dylan and by other artists, links back to our reviews. Sample lyrics: "A decade flew past her and there on the page, she read that the prince had returned to the stage," "Most of the sour grapes are gone from the bough, ghosts of Johanna will visit you there.". Read More » People seem to be missing the idea that “Visions of Johanna are taking my place” It seems that Louise is “with” Johanna while “Little boy blue” is entwined with her. Verse 5. Your email address will not be published. After all these years I still don’t know. She is still running the show. You can also see details of our main sections on this site at the top of this page under the picture. 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