Know something about this song or lyrics?
Add it to our wiki.
Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're tryin' to be so quiet?
We sit here stranded, though we're all doin' our best to deny it
And Louise holds a handful of rain, temptin' you to defy it
Lights flicker from the opposite loft
In this room the heat pipes just cough
The country music station plays soft
But there's nothing, really nothing to turn off
Just Louise and her lover so entwined
And these visions of Johanna that conquer my mind
In the empty lot where the ladies play blindman's bluff with the key chain
And the all-night girls they whisper of escapades out on the "D" train
We can hear the night watchman click his flashlight
Ask himself if it's him or them that's really insane
Louise, she's all right, she's just near
She's delicate and seems like the mirror
But she just makes it all too concise and too clear
That Johanna's not here
The ghost of 'lectricity howls in the bones of her face
Where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place
Now, little boy lost, he takes himself so seriously
He brags of his misery, he likes to live dangerously
And when bringing her name up
He speaks of a farewell kiss to me
He's sure got a lotta gall to be so useless and all
Muttering small talk at the wall while I'm in the hall
How can I explain?
Oh, it's so hard to get on
And these visions of Johanna, they kept me up past the dawn
Inside the museums, Infinity goes up on trial
Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while
But Mona Lisa musta had the highway blues
You can tell by the way she smiles
See the primitive wallflower freeze
When the jelly-faced women all sneeze
Hear the one with the mustache say, "Jeeze
I can't find my knees"
Oh, jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule
But these visions of Johanna, they make it all seem so cruel
The peddler now speaks to the countess who's pretending to care for him
Sayin', "Name me someone that's not a parasite and I'll go out and say a prayer for him"
But like Louise always says
"Ya can't look at much, can ya man?"
As she, herself, prepares for him
And Madonna, she still has not showed
We see this empty cage now corrode
Where her cape of the stage once had flowed
The fiddler, he now steps to the road
He writes ev'rything's been returned which was owed
On the back of the fish truck that loads
While my conscience explodes
The harmonicas play the skeleton keys and the rain
And these visions of Johanna are now all that remain
We sit here stranded, though we're all doin' our best to deny it
And Louise holds a handful of rain, temptin' you to defy it
Lights flicker from the opposite loft
In this room the heat pipes just cough
The country music station plays soft
But there's nothing, really nothing to turn off
Just Louise and her lover so entwined
And these visions of Johanna that conquer my mind
In the empty lot where the ladies play blindman's bluff with the key chain
And the all-night girls they whisper of escapades out on the "D" train
We can hear the night watchman click his flashlight
Ask himself if it's him or them that's really insane
Louise, she's all right, she's just near
She's delicate and seems like the mirror
But she just makes it all too concise and too clear
That Johanna's not here
The ghost of 'lectricity howls in the bones of her face
Where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place
Now, little boy lost, he takes himself so seriously
He brags of his misery, he likes to live dangerously
And when bringing her name up
He speaks of a farewell kiss to me
He's sure got a lotta gall to be so useless and all
Muttering small talk at the wall while I'm in the hall
How can I explain?
Oh, it's so hard to get on
And these visions of Johanna, they kept me up past the dawn
Inside the museums, Infinity goes up on trial
Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while
But Mona Lisa musta had the highway blues
You can tell by the way she smiles
See the primitive wallflower freeze
When the jelly-faced women all sneeze
Hear the one with the mustache say, "Jeeze
I can't find my knees"
Oh, jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule
But these visions of Johanna, they make it all seem so cruel
The peddler now speaks to the countess who's pretending to care for him
Sayin', "Name me someone that's not a parasite and I'll go out and say a prayer for him"
But like Louise always says
"Ya can't look at much, can ya man?"
As she, herself, prepares for him
And Madonna, she still has not showed
We see this empty cage now corrode
Where her cape of the stage once had flowed
The fiddler, he now steps to the road
He writes ev'rything's been returned which was owed
On the back of the fish truck that loads
While my conscience explodes
The harmonicas play the skeleton keys and the rain
And these visions of Johanna are now all that remain
Lyrics submitted by dreambox, edited by Mellow_Harsher
Track duration: 07:31
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
Two competing planes of consciousness.
"Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're trying to be quiet."
A state of consciousness descends on Dylan. Suddenly it's there, the night playing tricks.
"We sit here stranded, all doing our best to deny it."
The eclipse of God. Dylan falls into spiritual abandonment. The world goes on as though it doesn’t matter, and I suppose in man’s daily affairs, to a large degree, it doesn’t matter. We deny it.
“And Louise holds a handful of rain, temptin' you to defy it”
Some uncertainty about whether is “temptin' you to defy it, or define it.
Both fit.
Rain is life’s slings and arrows, and ultimately the slow process of dying. It will return at the end of the song. Louise is woman and the struggle to live close to her in two dimensions at the same time.
“Lights flicker from the opposite loft”
The words opposite and loft are critical. The light of knowledge. Knowledge of the world, as opposed to spiritual revelation. Both come from a higher level but the one has nothing to do with the other. Man is trapped in the middle.
“In this room, the heat pipes just cough”
“The country music station plays soft”
“But there’s nothing, really nothing, to turn off.”
Lines that represent the immediacy of the situation in the world. There is nothing to turn off. Spiritual revelation burns through the physical reality. What goes on around us is only witnessed by the spiritual consciousness and accepted.
“Just Louise, and her lover, so entwined”
Entwined in relationships, entwined in the world, physically entwined. These must be turned off in the moment of revelation. They become secondary, unimportant, irrelevant in the spiritual encounter.
“And these visions, of Johanna, that conquer my mind”
Dylan’s mind, the mind of the world is conquered and is purely in the encounter with the spirit.
“In the empty lots where the ladies play blind-man’s bluff with the key chain”
Dylan returns to woman. Blind-man’s bluff, man is blind to things of the spirit and lives in a secular game world. With the key chain, the perpetuation of life. Man’s spiritual like has to be carried by his physical existence and perpetuation.
“And the all night girls, they whisper of escapades out on the D train.”
Escapades cheapen the importance and eternal nature of the man/woman relationship that
sustains and creates new life, new spirit. D train may mean death train, but again like the key chain, it is a reference to the continuation of spirit, progression, life and death.
“You can hear the night-watchman click his flashlight and ask himself if it’s him or them that’s insane.”
Dylan is the night watchman. The night of spiritual abandonment. Witnessing the trivialization of the eternal man/woman struggle. How can they miss what is revealed to him? He wonders if he is insane. Am I the only one?
“But Louise is all right, she just near.”
“She’s delicate, and seems like veneer”
Dylan returns to his situation. Louise is all right, near to him.
She is delicate and seems like veneer. Dylan knows that he is playing with fire and in a realm where weaker souls could not withstand the encounter. Louise is delicate and has a worldly veneer that protects her spiritual shallowness.
“And she makes it all to concise and to clear”
“Johanna is not here”
Dylan wants desperately to commune with Louise in the spiritual realm, but she hasn’t made the journey. He is alone.
“Ghost of 'lectricity howls in the bones of her face”
Louise repeats what she has heard and seen by way of media. She fails to internally consider and relate it to her own circumstance and life. The veneer of life. Projecting only what she is not.
“And these visions of Johanna, have now taken my place”.
Dylan is alone. Stripped on the world’s trappings. He feels the abandonment of the world and of God.
“Little boy lost, he takes himself so seriously”
Dylan is little boy lost. He is tortured. He struggles alone, unknown, in a battle that no one else sees.
“He brags of his misery, he loves to live dangerously.”
Dylan understands that the path of revelation that he is walking can lead to ruination in the secular world. He brags only to himself. There is no one there to support or encourage him. There are no “experts” to turn to. The path is his alone. He is not even sure if he should continue on.
“And, when bringing her name up, he speaks of a farewell kiss to me”
He has left Louise behind. Louise cannot follow.
“He's sure got a lotta gall to be so useless and all
Muttering small talk at the wall while I'm in the hall”
A lot here. The Dylan of the world is worthless in the spiritual quest. How the world sees him, his worldly success and fame count for nothing here. There is a wall of separation. He is frozen in the hall of revelation. He doesn’t know why or how to proceed.
“How can I explain? It's so hard to get on”
“And these visions of Johanna, they kept me up past the dawn”
There is no way to explain. He is tortured by his vision and really doesn’t want others to suffer as he does. He is lost, and alone, and engulfed by the consciousness that has descended on him.
“Inside the museums, Infinity goes up on trial”
Dylan knows that others who have gone before have faced what he is now facing. It has been a struggle since the dawn of man’s existence.
“Voices echo this what salvation must be like, after a while”
From Dante, to Milton, to Dostoyevski, to Kafka, the giants have been here, but left no change in the secular world. The world’s interpretation is superficial and shallow. The finger can point to the moon, but it is not the moon.
“But, Mono Lisa must have had the highway blues. You can tell by the way she smiles.”
Can it be a woman who knew? Highway blues, the spiritual experience. But, back in the world, with only a hint of where she has been and what she knows.
“See the primitive wallflower freeze”
“As the jelly-faced women all sneeze”
“Hear the man with the mustache say, ‘Jeeze
I can't find my knees’"
“Jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule”
“And these visions of Johanna, they make it all seem so cruel”
The secular world. A parade of souls only concerned with symbols of status and material accumulation. “Can’t find my knees”, a reference to prayer.
“The peddler now speaks to the countess who's pretending to care for him”
“Saying “Name me someone that's not a parasite and I'll go out and say a prayer for him”"
Dylan sees that the relationship of the secular consciousness and the spiritual consciousness is parasitic. Both inhabit and struggle within the human host.
“But like Louise always says, you can’t look at much can you man, as she herself prepares for Him.”
Louise is right. Consciousness is overwhelming. She cannot take it upon herself. She leaves it to God to resolve.
“And Madonna, she still hasn’t showed.”
The savior has not arrived
“We see this empty cage now corrode.”
The revelation remains trapped in the empty cage of reality.
“The fiddler, now he steps to the road”
Dylan leaves the exalted state to return to the world
“He writes everything’s been returned that was owed”
“On the back of the fish truck that loads while my conscious explodes”
Dylan references Christ. He cannot escape the vision that he has encountered and must now carry it into the world. He carries the encounter without understanding it. His conscious explodes.
“The harmonicas play, the skeleton key in the rain”
Latin harmonicus relating to harmony. He brings the vision into the world even as the skeleton key (remember the ghost of ‘lectricity) plays on in the rain (progression toward death).
“And these visions, of Johanna, are now all that remain.”
The vision will sustain him in life. He will carry it without understanding or being able to explain the mystic encounter.
I don't know how to express how I mean. he's rejecting the pedlar/countess artist/benefactor relationship because he won't be able to use Louise as his muse, but rather whatever the countess desires. To me the reference to the Mona Lisa and the opera and the stage and the fiddler show that he's considering other art forms and comparing himself. He feels that he's coming up short. He's got a harmonica instead of a paint brush and the skeleton keys (musical keys) and he's worried that people won't be listening to harmonica recordings in 300 years time, but the harmonica is all he has.... But he then concludes that it's not the form of expression of art that's important, but the muse itself - which is why it's visions of Johanna that remain (in his mind and in our minds). at that point I think that Johanna represents both the muse and a real muse combined and louise and Johanna are the one person. He's trying to reconcile his muse being a real person.
According to the internet Johanna means "god is gracious" and louise means ~"fame and war or famous warrior."
anyways what i think about this lyrics, one of my all time favourites?
In short i think it's about everyone has a dream partner, someone special, that lives in your mind. Someone who fully understands you, someone who you can love untill eternity. It seems like your 2nd part that fits perfectly with you. Sadly, its a person that only lives in your mind. Johanna. Now there are alot of girls (or men, for the women reading this) who come close to this Johanna figure. And when your in love with someone , your mind shapes the person as this Johanna, she's perfect. however, someday you'll loose intrest and discover that this Louise is not Johanna at all.. she's just a person with bad sides too.
Now the big question is, Is louise worth loving. she seems so small and full of "errors" compared to Johanna.
(Louise, she's all right, she's just near
She's delicate and seems like the mirror
But she just makes it all too concise and too clear
That Johanna's not here)
But the truth is ... You'll never meet Johanna. Shes not there. She doesn't exist.
Thanks for reading !
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.
Verse 1.
Simply describes a group of people sitting in a New York loft apartment (like his own at the time) with the radio playing quietly awaiting an LSD trip to begin. Anyone who has had LSD experience will know the feeling of being 'stranded' in that at the start of a trip you know you will have to go through the whole thing lasting 12-18 hours. There is no early way out. The line "And Louise holds a handful of rain, temptin' you to defy it" refers to the hallucinatory 'rain' or trouble which the LSD will be 'tempting' the drug taker (Bob Dylan) to overcome/deal with. The line "In this room the heat pipes just cough" refers to the heighten sensory perception which LSD gives the taker causing them to notice even the tiniest sounds. The "visions of Johanna" are Bob's dreams/memories of the stronger more physical effects of Heroin. He is saying the LSD induced hallucinations fail to mask his physical desire for Heroine. These are "conquering his mind". He was probably hoping that taking acid would in some way relieve his desire for Heroine. No way...
Verse 2
The ladies (or "all night ladies" because they both will keep the taker up all night!) LSD & Heroine. The two drugs one real the other imagined are playing "blind man's bluff with the key chain" in the empty lot of his mind. The key chain being the way out of this trip. In other words he cannot see any way out of this experience and is at the mercy of these ladies. Louise is Dylan's codeword for LSD. She is just near because he has just taken a tab of acid. She is like the mirror (code for a mind) because as anyone who has ever taken acid knows it is an entirely mental experience. It plays games with your mind. Louise (LSD) merely clarifies to him that Johanna (Heroin) is not there - just her. The "ghost of electricity" actually refers to the physical sensation ones gets when using acid. It feels like you can sense a electric current flowing through the bones of your face. Accurate description oddly enough not poetic license here!
Verse 3
The little boy is clearly Bob Dylan. Under acid you can actually see yourself as if you were another person. You can judge yourself harshly too as he does here. He describes how "he likes to live dangerously!" - well taking class A drugs certainly would qualify. He was probably think "What a mess I am in now". The muttering small talk at the wall is reference to the way when under acid you actually verbalise question/answers to your self. Sometime out loud. Again his craving for heroin is dominating his trip. It would do as when you take acid you would expect your trip to be about what was on your mind before you took it. In this case Heroin.
Verse 4
He is well and truly under the influence of the acid now. The museums represent his memories. The voices would be in his own head - aspects of his own consciousness. He is relating himself to the enigmatic mona lisa whose smile is ambiguous. Like he himself at that time does not know whether he is honestly enjoying his experience but he has to get through it somehow so he is putting on a fake smile. His knees are turning to jelly. He is well under now. The jewels represent ideas, the binoculars visions (or dreams). He means he is experiencing wonderful ideas and hallucinations but at the same time seeing his physical body (the mule) as where these wonderful ideas and visions are coming from. Most acid takers are at some stage of their trip disgusted with their own bodies. All this is going on but still the physical craving for heroin is making a mockery of it and that is why "it seems so cruel".
Verse 5
Dylan himself is raving at his drug (LSD -who he now calls "the Countess" as an insult because the title indicates self importance.) The parasite reference is to himself because he considers his use of both drugs parasitic but at the same time that the drugs are like parasites to him. The "empty cage now corrodes" refers to the fact he is now coming down from the LSD experience. His skeleton keys have got him out once again from a difficult encarceration. Many never get out is has to be remembered. "Everythings been returned which was owed" refers to the fact that you get nothing for nothing with acid
and at the end you give back what you owed. Everything. His conscious feels like it is exploding along with his consciousness no doubt! He feels his own guilt because he plays with these ladies (LSD & Heroin) neither have his best interests at heart.
The final line reminds us that after his acid trip nothing has been done to alleviate his craving for Heroin. Why would it. LSD is a non addictive drug which is actually negatively addicting meaning the more you take it the less likely you are to want to take more.