Visions of Johanna

DO NOT READ THE FOLLOWING UNLESS YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE SONG IS REALLY ABOUT.

Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're tryin' to be so quiet?

Pre-WWII. America is attempting neutrality. Hitler and the Japanese won't allow it. "Night" - this was a dark time in history.

We sit here stranded, though we're all doin' our best to deny it

The ordinary American citizen. Depression = stranded. The american attitude does just that - deny it.

And Louise holds a handful of rain, temptin' you to defy it

Louise is the promise of escape from depression by means of war. She's tempting America to see what happens if she doesn't go to war. Isolationism is dangerous.

Lights flicker from the opposite loft

Lights like lightning flickering. The opposite loft from America would be Europe. The war is raging on in Europe.

In this room the heat pipes just cough

Again, America struggling to "stay warm". The imagery is important here. It screams of struggling America.

The country music station plays soft But there's nothing, really nothing to turn off

What else could "country music station" be related to than America. Are there any other countries that remind you of "country music station" more that America?

Just Louise and her lover so entwined

Her lover being all those that have fallen into her arms. Remember what Louise was?

And these visions of Johanna that conquer my mind

These visions of Johanna - it's hard to say. It's a concept most of us find hard to grasp. A world we've never known. A kind of peace beyond imagination. There is no known time or place that has possessed "Johanna".

In the empty lot where the ladies play blindman's bluff with the key chain

The "empty lot" = Atlantic Ocean. "ladies" and their bickering. "Blindman's bluff" was what they called the Sub game in the atlantic. That with all of Hitler's U-boats and such. It is refered to as "Blind man's bluff". Look it up if you like.

And the all-night girls they whisper of escapades out on the "D" train

I'm going to leave this line for someone else to fill in. Come on, give a shot.

We can hear the night watchman click his flashlight Ask himself if it's him or them that's really insane

Who's insane. Me, the American, No. No the Nazi's. No. The English, french, .... Hell, I don't know.

Louise, she's all right, she's just near

Yea, war to save ourselves from Depression or recession. It's been done throughout history, why stop now?

She's delicate and seems like the mirror

Louise is delicate indeed. Tread lightly when playing with war.

But she just makes it all too concise and too clear That Johanna's not here

Of course she's not. We've yet to see Johanna.

The ghost of 'lectricity howls in the bones of her face

I can't stop thinking that this image was supposed to make me think of the dead. Ghost, bones, howls. It is the dead soilders after the war.

Where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place

Has bob lost himself to the idealogical thoughts. Is he so entwined with Johanna now that it's all his life's about. I think this is the most personal line in the song.

Now, little boy lost, he takes himself so seriously

The little boy is the new world after the war. Everythings different and America and Russia don't think it's a game. They're playing for all kinds of prizes. Europe mostly, we all know the ending.

He brags of his misery, he likes to live dangerously

Yes, Nuclear war is dangerous.

And when bringing her name up He speaks of a farewell kiss to me

Now the question is: Did the little boy kiss Johanna or Louise. Easy answer: He kissed Louise and by speaking of it he's stating how badly he wants it back and all the glory that comes with it. War at this point will be a way of life to continue the economic prosperity.

He's sure got a lotta gall to be so useless and all

NO SHIT!

Muttering small talk at the wall while I'm in the hall

Yes Bob, there is little a man like yourself can do. Sing to the wall until you're blue in face but you know that you can't change the greed the world's been infected with at this point.

How can I explain? Oh, it's so hard to get on And these visions of Johanna, they kept me up past the dawn

Here we see that he's been thinking of lovely Johanna until the light begins to shine. What is this? Light shining on our world? How has this happened?

Like This: (figure the rest out for yourself you lazy song listeners. This one was easy)

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