I agree with replaceablehead in that Patti's book basically rules out any connection to heroin use, but that doesn't necessarily mean there aren't any images of rape and suicide in the song. And she didn't actually say that her LSD trip sparked/drove the overall shape and meaning of the song.. I think it just sparked much of the imagery used in the song (imagery which is used to convey a message). To me, the song is about transcendence. The "coiled snakes" of Hermes guide young Johnny through the major transitions in his spiritual life: from his darkest point to his most enlightened state, then finally on to his death. Patti specifically noted in the book that Land has "wild-boy imagery fused with the stages of Hendrix's death".
More importantly, I don't think it matters who Johnny is.. it's more about what he represents, which is many people and many things. He represents youth. He holds the ideals of America and freedom in his heart. He represents all the strange goodness that came out of the 60's.. a goodness that couldn't live on forever (as marked by the deaths of many of its most esteemed figures, like Hendrix). He also represents someone who has been beaten down spiritually by the human world around him. This is most obvious during the initial scene described in the song where Johnny is pushed against a locker and raped by another boy (an image likely born out of Patti's fears with respect to Robert Mapplethorpe and his hustling). This is also made especially clear in more recent performances of Land, where an extended intro is given.
Johnny transcends from a depressed, low-functioning spiritual state to an extremely enlightened state where he indulges in dance (shown in the verses taken from Land of a Thousand Dances), sex ("dig your baby sister"), and drugs ("fill my nose with snow"). These things all make him feel free from the society that constantly beats him down spiritually. There is also new freedom found in the realization that there is no God to judge us, and we must judge our own actions ("there is no land but the land, no sea but the sea.. no keeper of the key.. except the one who seizes possibilities"). But ultimately, Johnny can't do it.. he continues to see life as full of holes and pain.. so he slits his throat and kills himself (as he transcends toward death), which is what the final part is really describing imo. It's sad, but also not sad in the sense that Johnny did find pure, untainted freedom for at least a short time.
I agree with replaceablehead in that Patti's book basically rules out any connection to heroin use, but that doesn't necessarily mean there aren't any images of rape and suicide in the song. And she didn't actually say that her LSD trip sparked/drove the overall shape and meaning of the song.. I think it just sparked much of the imagery used in the song (imagery which is used to convey a message). To me, the song is about transcendence. The "coiled snakes" of Hermes guide young Johnny through the major transitions in his spiritual life: from his darkest point to his most enlightened state, then finally on to his death. Patti specifically noted in the book that Land has "wild-boy imagery fused with the stages of Hendrix's death".
More importantly, I don't think it matters who Johnny is.. it's more about what he represents, which is many people and many things. He represents youth. He holds the ideals of America and freedom in his heart. He represents all the strange goodness that came out of the 60's.. a goodness that couldn't live on forever (as marked by the deaths of many of its most esteemed figures, like Hendrix). He also represents someone who has been beaten down spiritually by the human world around him. This is most obvious during the initial scene described in the song where Johnny is pushed against a locker and raped by another boy (an image likely born out of Patti's fears with respect to Robert Mapplethorpe and his hustling). This is also made especially clear in more recent performances of Land, where an extended intro is given.
Johnny transcends from a depressed, low-functioning spiritual state to an extremely enlightened state where he indulges in dance (shown in the verses taken from Land of a Thousand Dances), sex ("dig your baby sister"), and drugs ("fill my nose with snow"). These things all make him feel free from the society that constantly beats him down spiritually. There is also new freedom found in the realization that there is no God to judge us, and we must judge our own actions ("there is no land but the land, no sea but the sea.. no keeper of the key.. except the one who seizes possibilities"). But ultimately, Johnny can't do it.. he continues to see life as full of holes and pain.. so he slits his throat and kills himself (as he transcends toward death), which is what the final part is really describing imo. It's sad, but also not sad in the sense that Johnny did find pure, untainted freedom for at least a short time.