Visions of Johanna

"A song that never really ends, about a girl he's never really gonna find, in a place that he'll never really leave."

"[a song] about being eternally, existentially, stuck in the same place."

yep.

Best song ever wrote and played in my view. KNow everything about it might post it one day. ONe of Dylans Favs as well.

This song is about the difference between imagined love, the singer's ideal, and what he really finds in the world. Of course, it is in the frame work of the romantic ideal - as if God's love came to us that way of necessity. Stanza 1 - He wants to love and be loved, so he settles for someone he can have, as opposed to what he envisions. Stanza 2 - There's always hookers and sluts, but he wants someone he "loves", so he'll just have to take Louise. You get the idea he has an actress or TV personality in mind - or maybe the electricity is all in his mind. Anyway, he's clearly lost in his fantasy.

3 - Hey, how can this other guy be her true love, when I am? He can't quite seem to solve the puzzle, although the answer is that this girl isn't really Johanna either.

4- Women have these same issues, and, what's worse, they get fat, grow facial hair and become ugly and one day you're at the Louvre with them and realize your not in love with them after all! What you can imagine is always going to out do what is real. And, you can never have it. Not if you live forever. Instead, living forever in separation from what you desire would probably really suck, since life really just goes down hill.

5- People are all trying to game one another in this thing they call love. They leach off one another for affection, all the while looking for something better, even when they point that out to you. And, in case you haven't noticed, you can look everywhere, Jesus symbols and all, and you ain't gonna find Johanna. However, and here's the hard part to swallow, he claims that belief in Johanna is what is really real, that it represents faith, and it is the only thing that is enduring. Skeleton keys open all the doors, and he's saying that this song has opened the door that shows you that "Beauty is truth and Truth is Beauty". As a born-again Christian, I disagree that that is all you know on earth, and all you need to know. But I think it's a great and powerful song, nonetheless.

Opening line - His creative drive. The songs he can't get out of his head.

He's the lover. Louise is a distraction (his rational side). Johanna is an unachievable ideal (his irrational side). Not a girl, but greatness.

blindman's bluff - the game of creating art. The key to the ideal/art, being illusive.

The insanity is his creative side, like Van Gogh. The irrational as opposed to the rational. Johanna not there - doubting his ability to achieve true greatness. Louise is like a mirror, being less than, and revealing that about himself. The "Visions" have taken his place - obsessed by it.

Little boy lost....etc - the artist/himself. He's being a bit facetious. Taking a stab at himself. Farewell kiss - again he can't catch her/it.

Inside the museums, Infinity goes up on trial (what a line!) But Mona Lisa musta had the highway blues, You can tell by the way she smiles This whole stanza bringing into question many things regarding these issues - the museums and who decides what the ideal is? What a masterpiece is? Are they in the hotel with him (or da Vinci) when he's driven mad my his creativity? Do they have the right to then judge it, after all he's been through? There's a bit of pride here (and rightfully so). That's what Mona's (da Vinci) smirking about. Mona Lisa is also a nice metaphor - she's alluring and mysterious, like that creative ideal, never achieved. She symbolizes the ideal, a masterpiece by all standards, yet never fully understood. Bob likes to fancy himself the same. Modona "not showing" later in the song is the same thing, an unachieved ideal.

"Name me someone that's not a parasite", "We see this empty cage now corrode", "He writes ev'rything's been returned which was owed" and "While my conscience explodes" - All art comes from somewhere. Takes influence. Things being returned which were owed and his conscious exploding mean the things he rips off, however he's uncomfortable about it. He's obsessed with the ideal, the perfect song, art, etc.

OOOOOR....the song could be a drug induced rant. Nah!!!!! He deserves more credit than that.

If Bob DID (like some here were begging for) explain this or any other song, it would for sure be a disappointment. He knows that. That's why he doesn't tell. Picasso never engaged in the details of what cubism was about, he knew not to. And for christ's sake, this is "poetry", it's interpretive. That's the point. If he wanted to say something specific he'd write an essay.

I would love for Mr. Dylan to just stop being so closed and tell us how he came up with this song. Is it ramblings of a drug induced night? Is it about someone? Or was he just playing with words? What ever it is about or not, it is simply grandiose!

"The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face" Holy fuck! What a line, what a line.

Agreed. Not to be esoteric or anything, but what I was getting at was that this is the closest Dylan ever got to attaining meaning through Keatsian/or Rimbaudian synesthesia... that is to say, the imagery coupled with the sounds of the words (as opposed to the words themselves alone) provoke the listener to create meaning. I did not say it was 'about a painting' (although it may be so, in part)... I said that it IS a painting.

Years later, around the time of 'Blood on the Tracks', Dylan said that he had finally learned to 'recreate consciously what [he] used to be able to do unconsciously' with his writing.

Much of this song was created unconsciously.

Well, if you go the museum, you will see jelly-faced women, and they likely will have signs of material wealth (jewels) hanging from their heads. Binoculars makes me think of another activity I see these people at viewing art, that is where infinity goes up on trial - plays/opera. He menans to label them as common people dressed up like they should be something more who are merely observing the action of the meaningful characters. Of course, the most meaningful character, Joanna, doesn't even appear. In fact, you are supposed to wonder if she even exists. So, you are supposed to compare these women to the Mona Lisa - who you desire, and they desire to be. you can react as you see fit - cry, laugh, sneer at the absurdity of it all........

I think the song is about wanting something you can't have and everything around you reminds you of it.

1 Stanza- if you read over it, it's metaphors for emptiness: lights flickering in the opposite hall, the heat pipes are making noise, and the country music station. Country music is mostly sad and depressing; when he says there's nothing to turn off, he means there's nothing that he hasn't heard or felt for himself.

2 Stanza- The girls playing blindman's bluff is kind of like the women are just playing around with men without the men knowing it, so in a way they're blind. He refers to Louise as the mirror. When he looks at her, he see's his misery in her because she reminds him of Johanna. Electricy is powerful and something hard to explain. He can't really explain the look on Louise's face.

3 Stanza- He's talking to Johanna's boyfriend and everytime he mentions her to him he trys to change the subject. He's useless to him.

4 Stanza- the museum is his memories. Johanna makes his good times hurt to remember.

5 Stanza- People let go of the things they once loved, and it's upsetting. "The harmonicas play the skeleton keys and the rain And these visions of Johanna are now all that remain." Music takes you anywhere you want to go and it controls the way you feel sometimes, but really the memory of Johanna is all that he has left.

-increase the peace

"The harmonicas play the skeleton keys and the rain"

Since is the conclusion to the song I am feeling it is an image of the entire song wrapped into one phrase. The harmonicas representing himself, the skeleton keys representing the accessibility to the Louise figure directly relating to the ghost of 'lectricity howls in the bones of her face, and the rain of course, which Louise is daring him to defy but can't, and all that's left is the elusive Johanna.

I tend to interpret Dylan in a somewhat literal or straightforward way, with the theory that just about everything he writes is about him - egocentric.

Stanza 1: Dylan is alone in a shabby room with Louise. She's emotionally fragile and needy - she'll turn on the waterworks at the slightest offense. So he finds himself once again entwined with her, trying to make love but he's distracted. He hears the sounds of the quiet room and soft country music but he's bored. There's nothing to turn off -- except Louis. He would turn her off if he could. His mind is utterly conquered by thoughts of his lost love -- Johanna.

Stanza 2: While making love with Louise his mind is disengaged. Outside his window he hears the sounds and laughter of the ladies of the night. He imagines them playing games to see who will take the key to the room where a guest awaits. He hears them laughing about their conquests. The night watchman breaks it all up and questions his sanity and theirs. Dylan's mind returns to to his room. Louis -- she's OK. At least she's near. But she's delicate. She's insecure and tries too hard to please, trying to become what he wants, what he needs. Like a mirror, she's not real. Not genuine. The harder she tries the more he's reminded that Johanna's not here. But in the electricity of their passion, he sees Johanna light up in the bones of Louise's face. Dylan has been transported to another place. He's making love with Johanna.

Stanza 3:

"Little boy lost" -- he refers to himself -- the character he's created called Bob Dylan. He acts tough, a man of sorrow and reckless wisdom. Every time he's forced to bring up her name he's reminded of her farewell kiss. How dare he (Dylan) act like nothing's wrong, making small talk and ignoring his true feelings. He's two people in one, but Johanna knew his true self. How can he explain the emptiness he feels. He loses sleep pining away for her.

Stanza 4: Dylan visits an art museum and everything seems like a joke. Some things don't deserve to be immortalized. Who decides what should last forever? If salvation means we live forever maybe we shouldn't. We're no more worthy than these ridiculous paintings. Mona Lisa agrees. She's been around and knows the score. She's still not sure why she's hanging around. What's more ridiculous, the absurd women in the paintings or the mule-faced woman adorned with jewelry staring at the artwork with the help of binoculars? Life seems so distorted and cruel without Johanna.

Stanza 5: Another evening with Louise -- the countess who's pretending to care for him. He's the peddler, selling words, songs, ideas. He casts a pearl of wisdom before her --commenting on the parasitic nature of humanity -- but she's not listening. Rather she's frustrated that she can't capture his attention. After all, she's undressing, preparing for another night of passion and he's not looking at her! Indeed his mind is elsewhere. He's still waiting for Madonna to return. His existence corroding like an empty cage, the stage where she once held the limelight is empty and vacant. Without her the fiddler (Dylan) has no one to play for. He is ready to move on, close books, and hitchhiking out of town on the back of a fish truck.

As the rain falls he pulls out his harmonica and begins to play. Perhaps there's hope. His songs are like skeleton keys: they're bound to open up new doors down the road.