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Visions of Johanna

January 01, 1970

"Visions of Johanna" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan on his 1966 album Blonde on Blonde. Several critics have acclaimed "Visions of Johanna" as one of Dylan's highest achievements in writing,[2][3] praising the allusiveness and subtlety of the language.[4][5] Rolling Stone included "Visions of Johanna" on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 1999, Sir Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, listed it as the greatest song lyric ever written.

"Visions of Johanna"
Song by Bob Dylan
from the album Blonde on Blonde
ReleasedJune 20, 1966 (1966-06-20)
RecordedFebruary 14, 1966
GenreFolk rock[1]
Length7:30
LabelColumbia
Songwriter(s)Bob Dylan
Producer(s)Bob Johnston

Dylan first recorded the song in New York City in November 1965, under the working title of "Freeze Out", but was dissatisfied with the results. When the Blonde on Blonde recording sessions moved to Nashville in February 1966, Dylan attempted the composition again with different musicians, and decided to release this performance. All of the alternate versions of the song have been officially released, but some only on a limited edition collectors set: many of them are November 1965 or later 1966 studio outtakes, and two others are live performances from his 1966 world tour.

Numerous artists have recorded cover versions of the song, including the Grateful Dead, Cat Power, Marianne Faithfull, Chris Smither, and Robyn Hitchcock.

Sources edit

Scholar Laurence Coupe has argued that the identity of the title character "echoes" Jack Kerouac's Visions of Gerard (written 1956, published 1963), and the song as a whole, like the novel, "would seem to be about the hunger for beatific experience—the hope that the sacred realm might yet be glimpsed within the profane. Johanna, like Gerard, represents the salvation that comes out of suffering. But unlike Kerouac, Dylan depicts this possibility as tauntingly remote—a cause of suffering in itself."[6]

Recording edit

Clinton Heylin places the writing of "Visions of Johanna" in the fall of 1965, when Dylan was living in the Chelsea Hotel with his pregnant wife Sara. Heylin notes that "in this déclassé hotel…the heat pipes still cough", referring to a line from the song.[7][8] Greil Marcus reports that when the song was first released, "the story was that the song had been written during the great East Coast blackout of November 9, 1965."[9]

 
Dylan performs with The Band on their 1974 tour. Dylan's first attempt to record "Visions of Johanna" in 1965 was backed by members of this group, known in their earlier incarnation as The Hawks.

Dylan first recorded this song, backed by The Hawks, in the CBS New York recording studio, on November 30, 1965, announcing his new composition with the words: "This is called 'Freeze Out'."[10] Andy Gill notes that this working title captures the "air of nocturnal suspension in which the verse tableaux are sketched...full of whispering and muttering."[11] According to Marcus, Dylan introduced the song in live performances in 1966 with the words, "Seems like a Freeze Out."[9] In an early live performance in December 1965 in San Francisco, Dylan also suggested a possible title as "Alcatraz to the 9th Power Revisited".

Some of the New York recordings were uptempo and contain in the fifth verse the additional line "He examines the nightingale's code". Historian Sean Wilentz, for his book Dylan In America, listened closely to full studio tapes of the Blonde on Blonde sessions, and describes how Dylan guided the New York backing musicians through fourteen takes, trying to explain how he wanted "Visions of Johanna" played. At one point, Dylan says: "It's not hard rock, The only thing in it that's hard is Robbie." Analyzing the evolution of the song in the New York recording session, Wilentz writes that Dylan "quiets things down, inching closer to what will eventually appear on Blonde on Blonde—and it is still not right."[10] Several complete takes of the song[12] were recorded on November 30, including one with an uptempo rock beat, containing harpsichord accompaniment, and another with a march-like tempo, which was released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack in 2005.[13]

 
Visions of Johanna
Describing "Visions of Johanna" as "Dylan's most haunting and complex love song and his finest poem", Robert Shelton suggests that Dylan "constantly seeks to transcend the physical world, to reach the ideal where the visions of Johanna become real".[14]
Problems playing this file? See media help.

"Visions of Johanna" fell into place when Dylan was persuaded by his producer, Bob Johnston, to move the recording sessions to Nashville, Tennessee. During his first day in the CBS Nashville studio, on February 14, 1966, the Blonde on Blonde version of the song was recorded. In an interview with Andy Gill, Al Kooper has said that he and guitarist Robbie Robertson became sensitive to the nuances of Dylan's vocal.[11] Kooper added that "it's very important what Joe South's bass is doing in that"; Kooper described it as "this throbbing...rhythmically amazing bass part".[11] Other backing musicians were Charlie McCoy, guitar, Wayne Moss, guitar, and Kenneth Buttrey on drums.[15]

Live performances and studio outtakes edit

 
Dylan plays a song to Allen Ginsberg during the Rolling Thunder Revue of 1975. Ginsberg's poetic technique has been cited as an influence on Dylan at the time he wrote "Visions of Johanna".

Dylan first performed "Visions of Johanna" in public on December 4, 1965, at the Berkeley Community Theatre. Present at this concert was Joan Baez, who believed the lyrics referred to her. She said, "He'd just written 'Visions of Johanna', which sounded very suspicious to me...he'd never performed it before and Neuwirth told him I was there that night and he performed it."[16] Heylin suggests that if Dylan performed it for anyone that night it was Allen Ginsberg, who was also present. Heylin argues Dylan considered Ginsberg to be an important influence on his songwriting at this juncture, and was keen to showcase the song for the Beat poet.[16]

All live versions of the song recorded during Dylan's 1966 tour of England have been released. Dylan's performance of the song at London's Royal Albert Hall on May 26, 1966, appeared on Biograph, released in 1985. Asked by Cameron Crowe, for the liner notes for Biograph, how he could remember the words of such a complex song in live performance, Dylan responded, "I could remember a song without writing it down because it was so visual."[17] A performance of the song recorded at the Manchester Free Trade Hall on May 17, 1966, was released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966 in 1998.[18] In addition, a May 6, 1966, performance of the song, recorded in Belfast, was included on Live 1962-1966: Rare Performances From The Copyright Collections, released in 2018.

On November 11, 2016, Legacy Recordings released a 36-CD boxed set, The 1966 Live Recordings, which comprises every known recording of Bob Dylan’s 1966 concert tour.[19] The recordings commence with the concert in White Plains, New York on February 5, 1966, and end with the Royal Albert Hall concert in London on May 27. The set contains 18 live performances of "Visions of Johanna", all featuring Dylan solo on acoustic guitar.[20] (The May 26, 1966, performance was included on the separately released album The Real Royal Albert Hall 1966 Concert.)

The "Visions of Johanna" studio recording sessions were released in their entirety on the 18-disc Collector's Edition of The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966 on November 6, 2015, with highlights from the November 30, 1965, outtakes appearing on the 6-disc and 2-disc versions of that album.[21] The 18-disc version contains 14 takes of "Visions of Johanna" recorded in New York on November 30, 1965, and 4 takes of the song recorded in Nashville on February 14, 1966, the last being the Blonde on Blonde version of the song.[21]

Interpretation edit

Noting how popular "Visions of Johanna" remains among "hardcore Dylanophiles," Andy Gill suggests 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".[11] Gill writes that the song begins by contrasting two lovers, the carnal Louise, and "the more spiritual but unattainable" Johanna. Ultimately, for Gill, the song seeks to convey how the artist is compelled to keep striving to pursue some elusive vision of perfection.[11]

Clinton Heylin has described what he construes as the strange circumstances surrounding the song. Written around the time of Dylan's marriage to Sara Lownds, Heylin describes it as "one of the oddest songs ever written by a man who has just tied the knot and is enjoying a brief honeymoon in the city".[7] Noting that the song is an elegy for a past lover, Heylin speculates that "it is awfully tempting to see Johanna as his muse," who, in the song, is "not here". For Heylin, the triumph of the song lies in "the way Dylan manages to write about the most inchoate feelings in such a vivid, immediate way".[7]

Dylan critic Michael Gray also praises the subtlety of the song. Gray acknowledges that it is difficult to say what this song is "about", since it is at once indefinable and precise. For Gray, its principal achievement lies in the way it confuses categories, using language to be simultaneously serious and flippant, delicate and coarse, and mixing up "abstract neo-philosophy and figurative phraseology".[22]

Robert Shelton called "Visions of Johanna" one of Dylan's major works. He writes that Dylan's technique of throwing out "skittering images" evokes "a mind floating downstream"; these "non-sequential visions" are the record of a fractured consciousness.[14] Shelton argues that the song explores a hopeless quest to reach an ideal, the visions of Johanna, and yet without this quest life becomes meaningless. He suggests that the same paradox is explored by Keats in his "Ode on a Grecian Urn".[14]

Mike Marqusee situates the song in New York City, "a flickering, electric, ghostly, cityscape".[23] Dylan describes himself stranded in a fog of detachment which provides a haven, and at the same time is pained by a piercing clarity: an unmediated response that is "too concise and too clear". For Marqusee, Dylan describes his predicament, suspended between freedom and slavery, yet hungry for an authentic experience. Johanna and Louise are objects of desire and yearning. "It is their elusiveness and unreality that's the point."[23]

Guitarist and critic Bill Janovitz also emphasizes the urban, unreal quality of "Visions of Johanna", calling it a "sprawling epic". "The journey takes Dylan through lofts, the D train, a museum, empty lots, and through snippets of overheard conversation, as well as a discussion with some 'little boy lost', who 'takes himself so seriously', and who is 'so useless and all/muttering small talk at the wall'." For Janovitz, this could "possibly be a swipe at a critic".[24]

Literary critic Christopher Ricks, in his study of Dylan's work, pinpoints the emotional effect of these same lines:

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

Ricks writes that the phrase "and all" turns a mood of helplessness into a sense of "aggression and baffled anger".[25]

Trying to unravel the mystery of the song, Greil Marcus writes that the song is concerned with internal questions, rather than external ones: "Line by line, 'Blowin' in the Wind' is pious, or falsely innocent—isn't it obvious that whoever wrote "Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail / Before she sleeps in the sand?" already knows the answer, assuming he, or anyone, can actually bring themselves to care about such a precious question? But 'Visions of Johanna' is asking different sorts of questions. Such as: Where are you? Who are you? What are you doing here?" Evoking the drugged, urban milieu of the song, Marcus writes of "People wandering from one corner of a loft to another, doped, drunk, half-awake, fast asleep, no point to the next breath, let alone the next step." For Marcus, "'Visions of Johanna' makes a narrative solely out of atmosphere."[9]

Legacy edit

The song has been described by several critics as a masterpiece.[7][10][11] In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine placed the song at No. 404 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time,[26] commenting that Dylan "never sounded lonelier than in this seven-minute ballad, cut in a single take on Valentine's Day 1966." (When Rolling Stone updated their list in 2010, the song dropped to No. 413, and then it was moved up to No. 317 in 2021.)[27][28] In 1999, Britain's Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, chose it as his candidate for the best song lyric ever written. Motion praised "the concentration and surprise" of Dylan's lyrics, and said that, although he distanced himself from some of the singer's views about women, the "rasp of his anger" was a part of his greatness.[29] In 2017, the International Observer named the song the second best ever recorded,[30] stating, "The 24 year old Dylan was beginning to realize that no matter how many perfect songs he wrote he could not achieve immortality through his art as he perhaps once believed, because even if people were still listening to the music in 500 years, he would still be dead." In 2020, during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Bruce Springsteen cited "Visions of Johanna" as one of his three favorite Dylan songs (along with "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Ring Them Bells").[31] In an interview with The Independent in 1992, cult British musician Robyn Hitchcock described the song by saying "it's pretty much the reason I'm a singer".[32] Commenting on the song in a 1985 interview, Dylan said, "I still sing that song every once in a while. It still stands up now as it did then, maybe even more in some kind of weird way."[17]

Cover versions edit

 
Jerry Garcia recorded "Visions of Johanna" both as a solo artist and as a member of the Grateful Dead. Jerry, a non lyricist for the most part, brought out the beauty of the melody of Dylan's compositions.

The Grateful Dead played "Visions of Johanna" in concert a number of times between 1986 and 1995,[33] and both they and Jerry Garcia solo each released a live version on record.[34][35] There is also a 16-minute studio version of the song on Jerry Garcia's All Good Things Redux, a bonus CD provided with the All Good Things box set of Garcia's studio recordings.[36]

Other artists who have covered the song include Cat Power, Marianne Faithfull,[37] Robyn Hitchcock,[38] Lee Ranaldo,[39] Chris Smither,[40] former Flamin' Groovies guitarist Chris Wilson,[41] Julie Felix,[42] Maggie Holland,[43] and Old Crow Medicine Show. The jazz trio Jewels and Binoculars, who named themselves after a phrase from "Visions of Johanna",[44] recorded an instrumental treatment of the song on their album The Music of Bob Dylan.[45] Foreign language versions of the song include a recording by Jan Erik Vold, Kåre Virud and Telemark Blueslag in Norwegian,[46][47] Gerard Quintana's and Jordi Batiste's version in Catalan,[48] Steffen Brandt's in Danish,[49] and Ernst Jansz's in Dutch.[50]

Footnotes edit

  1. ^ "Visions of Johanna by Bob Dylan - Track Info | AllMusic". AllMusic.
  2. ^ "10 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2018-06-04.
  3. ^ "Bob Dylan: 30 greatest songs". The Telegraph. 2015-07-24. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2018-06-04.
  4. ^ . American Songwriter. 2009-04-24. Archived from the original on 2018-07-18. Retrieved 2018-06-04.
  5. ^ "Visions of Infinity « Jonny Thakkar". www.jonnythakkar.com. Retrieved 2018-06-04.
  6. ^ "'Vision music': Bob Dylan via Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg" by Laurence Coupe in Beat Sound, Beat Vision: The Beat Spirit and Popular Song (Manchester University Press 2012). Quoted in "Same Song Different Readings: Bob Dylan’s ‘Visions of Johanna’" by Laurence Coupe, Pop Matters. 15 June 2022. Accessed 29 November 2023.
  7. ^ a b c d Heylin 2009, pp. 273–279
  8. ^ Visions of Johanna (Bobdylan.com)
  9. ^ a b c Marcus 2008
  10. ^ a b c Wilentz 2009, pp. 110–113
  11. ^ a b c d e f Gill 1998, pp. 97–99
  12. ^ Heylin 2009, p. 277
  13. ^ Gorodetsky 2005
  14. ^ a b c Shelton 2011, p. 225
  15. ^ Björner 2011
  16. ^ a b Heylin 2009, p. 275
  17. ^ a b Crowe 1985
  18. ^ Glover 1998
  19. ^ Lewis, Randy (September 27, 2016). "All of Bob Dylan's 1966 live shows in 36-CD box set due Nov. 11". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  20. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (November 11, 2016). "The 1966 Live Recordings". allmusic.com. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
  21. ^ a b "Bob Dylan - The Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series Vol. 12". Retrieved 2016-12-02.
  22. ^ Gray 2000, pp. 154–155
  23. ^ a b Marqusee 2005, pp. 206–207
  24. ^ Janovitz
  25. ^ Ricks 2003, pp. 487–488
  26. ^ 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (2004): 401–500
  27. ^ 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (2010): #413 "Visions of Johanna"
  28. ^ "Visions of Johanna ranked #317 on Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs List". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  29. ^ Thorpe 1999
  30. ^ . www.intobserver.com. Archived from the original on 2017-07-16. Retrieved 2017-06-14.
  31. ^ "Can You Guess Bruce Springsteen's Favorite Bob Dylan Songs? - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
  32. ^ "Why Bob Dylan's Song "Visions of Johanna" Made Robyn Hitchcock a Singer".
  33. ^ Visions of Johanna (Dead.net)
  34. ^ Ruhlmann
  35. ^ Planer: Garcia Plays Dylan
  36. ^ Planer: All Good Things Redux
  37. ^ Thompson
  38. ^ Downing
  39. ^ Bush
  40. ^ Whitman
  41. ^ Second Life: Overview
  42. ^ Julie Felix: Discography
  43. ^ Getting There: Overview
  44. ^ Ratliff 2008
  45. ^ Layne
  46. ^ Björner 2003
  47. ^ Stein Regn
  48. ^ Sense reina ni as
  49. ^ Baby Blue—Bob Dylan Gendigtet: Overview
  50. ^ Dromen Van Johanna

References edit

  • "Baby Blue—Bob Dylan Gendigtet: Overview". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-10-16.
  • Björner, Olof (2003-01-28). "It Ain't Me, Babe: Covers sorted by song name: V". Bjorner.com. Retrieved 2011-11-21.
  • Björner, Olof (2011-06-03). "The 6th Blonde On Blonde session, produced by Bob Johnston". Bjorner.com. Retrieved 2011-09-27.
  • Bush, John. "Outlaw Blues, Vol. 2: Review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-11-20.
  • Campbell, Al. "Blues on Blonde on Blonde: Review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-10-16.
  • Crowe, Cameron (1985). Biograph (booklet). Bob Dylan. New York: Columbia Records.
  • Downing, Brian. "Robyn Sings: Review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-10-16.
  • . Ernstjansz.com (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2011-10-17.
  • . Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2008-06-25. Retrieved 2011-11-11.
  • . Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2011-11-06. Retrieved 2011-11-11.
  • "Getting There: Overview". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-10-16.[permanent dead link]
  • Gill, Andy (1998). Classic Bob Dylan: My Back Pages. Carlton. ISBN 1-85868-599-0.
  • Glover, Tony (1998). The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert (booklet). Bob Dylan. New York: Columbia Records.
  • Gorodetsky, Eddie (2005). No Direction Home: The Soundtrack—The Bootleg Series Volume 7 (booklet). Bob Dylan. New York: Columbia Records.
  • Gray, Michael (2000). Song & Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan. Continuum International. ISBN 0-8264-5150-0.
  • Heylin, Clinton (2009). Revolution In The Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan, Volume One: 1957–73. Constable. ISBN 978-1-84901-051-1.
  • Janovitz, Bill. "Visions of Johanna: Song Review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-11-01.
  • . Knibbworld.com. Archived from the original on 2012-06-08. Retrieved 2011-10-16.
  • Layne, Joslyn. "Jewels and Binoculars—The Music of Bob Dylan: Review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-10-16.
  • Marcus, Greil (2008-06-21). "Bob Dylan's Dream". The Guardian. Retrieved 2011-11-07.
  • Marqusee, Mike (2005). Wicked Messenger: Bob Dylan and the 1960s. Seven Stories Press. ISBN 978-1-58322-686-5.
  • Planer, Lindsay. "All Good Things Redux: Review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2013-10-05.
  • Planer, Lindsay. "Garcia Plays Dylan: Review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-10-16.
  • Ratliff, Ben (2008-04-23). "Dylan Without the Lyrics, Just the Melodies in Mind". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-10-24.
  • Ricks, Christopher (2003). Dylan's Visions of Sin. Penguin/Viking. ISBN 0-670-80133-X.
  • Ruhlmann, William. "Fallout from the Phil Zone: Review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-10-16.
  • "Second Life: Overview". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-10-16.[permanent dead link]
  • . Musicaglobal.com (in Catalan). Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2011-11-08.
  • Shelton, Robert (2011). No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan, Revised & updated edition. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1-84938-911-2.
  • "Stein Regn". Recordheaven.net (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2011-11-21.
  • Thompson, Dave. "Rich Kid Blues: Review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-10-16.
  • Thorpe, Vanessa (1999-10-03). "Laureate gives laurels to Dylan". The Observer. Retrieved 2011-07-29.
  • . Bobdylan.com. Archived from the original on 2011-10-24. Retrieved 2011-11-05.
  • "Visions of Johanna". Dead.net. 21 March 2007. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
  • Whitman, Andy. "Leave the Light On: Review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-10-16.
  • Wilentz, Sean (2009). Bob Dylan In America. The Bodley Head. ISBN 978-1-84792-150-5.


External links edit

  • Lyrics of "Visions of Johanna"

January 01, 1970
visions, johanna, song, written, performed, dylan, 1966, album, blonde, blonde, several, critics, have, acclaimed, dylan, highest, achievements, writing, praising, allusiveness, subtlety, language, rolling, stone, included, their, list, greatest, songs, time, . Visions of Johanna is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan on his 1966 album Blonde on Blonde Several critics have acclaimed Visions of Johanna as one of Dylan s highest achievements in writing 2 3 praising the allusiveness and subtlety of the language 4 5 Rolling Stone included Visions of Johanna on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time In 1999 Sir Andrew Motion Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom listed it as the greatest song lyric ever written Visions of Johanna Song by Bob Dylanfrom the album Blonde on BlondeReleasedJune 20 1966 1966 06 20 RecordedFebruary 14 1966GenreFolk rock 1 Length7 30LabelColumbiaSongwriter s Bob DylanProducer s Bob Johnston Dylan first recorded the song in New York City in November 1965 under the working title of Freeze Out but was dissatisfied with the results When the Blonde on Blonde recording sessions moved to Nashville in February 1966 Dylan attempted the composition again with different musicians and decided to release this performance All of the alternate versions of the song have been officially released but some only on a limited edition collectors set many of them are November 1965 or later 1966 studio outtakes and two others are live performances from his 1966 world tour Numerous artists have recorded cover versions of the song including the Grateful Dead Cat Power Marianne Faithfull Chris Smither and Robyn Hitchcock Contents 1 Sources 2 Recording 3 Live performances and studio outtakes 4 Interpretation 5 Legacy 6 Cover versions 7 Footnotes 8 References 9 External linksSources editScholar Laurence Coupe has argued that the identity of the title character echoes Jack Kerouac s Visions of Gerard written 1956 published 1963 and the song as a whole like the novel would seem to be about the hunger for beatific experience the hope that the sacred realm might yet be glimpsed within the profane Johanna like Gerard represents the salvation that comes out of suffering But unlike Kerouac Dylan depicts this possibility as tauntingly remote a cause of suffering in itself 6 Recording editClinton Heylin places the writing of Visions of Johanna in the fall of 1965 when Dylan was living in the Chelsea Hotel with his pregnant wife Sara Heylin notes that in this declasse hotel the heat pipes still cough referring to a line from the song 7 8 Greil Marcus reports that when the song was first released the story was that the song had been written during the great East Coast blackout of November 9 1965 9 nbsp Dylan performs with The Band on their 1974 tour Dylan s first attempt to record Visions of Johanna in 1965 was backed by members of this group known in their earlier incarnation as The Hawks Dylan first recorded this song backed by The Hawks in the CBS New York recording studio on November 30 1965 announcing his new composition with the words This is called Freeze Out 10 Andy Gill notes that this working title captures the air of nocturnal suspension in which the verse tableaux are sketched full of whispering and muttering 11 According to Marcus Dylan introduced the song in live performances in 1966 with the words Seems like a Freeze Out 9 In an early live performance in December 1965 in San Francisco Dylan also suggested a possible title as Alcatraz to the 9th Power Revisited Some of the New York recordings were uptempo and contain in the fifth verse the additional line He examines the nightingale s code Historian Sean Wilentz for his book Dylan In America listened closely to full studio tapes of the Blonde on Blonde sessions and describes how Dylan guided the New York backing musicians through fourteen takes trying to explain how he wanted Visions of Johanna played At one point Dylan says It s not hard rock The only thing in it that s hard is Robbie Analyzing the evolution of the song in the New York recording session Wilentz writes that Dylan quiets things down inching closer to what will eventually appear on Blonde on Blonde and it is still not right 10 Several complete takes of the song 12 were recorded on November 30 including one with an uptempo rock beat containing harpsichord accompaniment and another with a march like tempo which was released on The Bootleg Series Vol 7 No Direction Home The Soundtrack in 2005 13 nbsp Visions of Johanna source source Describing Visions of Johanna as Dylan s most haunting and complex love song and his finest poem Robert Shelton suggests that Dylan constantly seeks to transcend the physical world to reach the ideal where the visions of Johanna become real 14 Problems playing this file See media help Visions of Johanna fell into place when Dylan was persuaded by his producer Bob Johnston to move the recording sessions to Nashville Tennessee During his first day in the CBS Nashville studio on February 14 1966 the Blonde on Blonde version of the song was recorded In an interview with Andy Gill Al Kooper has said that he and guitarist Robbie Robertson became sensitive to the nuances of Dylan s vocal 11 Kooper added that it s very important what Joe South s bass is doing in that Kooper described it as this throbbing rhythmically amazing bass part 11 Other backing musicians were Charlie McCoy guitar Wayne Moss guitar and Kenneth Buttrey on drums 15 Live performances and studio outtakes edit nbsp Dylan plays a song to Allen Ginsberg during the Rolling Thunder Revue of 1975 Ginsberg s poetic technique has been cited as an influence on Dylan at the time he wrote Visions of Johanna Dylan first performed Visions of Johanna in public on December 4 1965 at the Berkeley Community Theatre Present at this concert was Joan Baez who believed the lyrics referred to her She said He d just written Visions of Johanna which sounded very suspicious to me he d never performed it before and Neuwirth told him I was there that night and he performed it 16 Heylin suggests that if Dylan performed it for anyone that night it was Allen Ginsberg who was also present Heylin argues Dylan considered Ginsberg to be an important influence on his songwriting at this juncture and was keen to showcase the song for the Beat poet 16 All live versions of the song recorded during Dylan s 1966 tour of England have been released Dylan s performance of the song at London s Royal Albert Hall on May 26 1966 appeared on Biograph released in 1985 Asked by Cameron Crowe for the liner notes for Biograph how he could remember the words of such a complex song in live performance Dylan responded I could remember a song without writing it down because it was so visual 17 A performance of the song recorded at the Manchester Free Trade Hall on May 17 1966 was released on The Bootleg Series Vol 4 Bob Dylan Live 1966 in 1998 18 In addition a May 6 1966 performance of the song recorded in Belfast was included on Live 1962 1966 Rare Performances From The Copyright Collections released in 2018 On November 11 2016 Legacy Recordings released a 36 CD boxed set The 1966 Live Recordings which comprises every known recording of Bob Dylan s 1966 concert tour 19 The recordings commence with the concert in White Plains New York on February 5 1966 and end with the Royal Albert Hall concert in London on May 27 The set contains 18 live performances of Visions of Johanna all featuring Dylan solo on acoustic guitar 20 The May 26 1966 performance was included on the separately released album The Real Royal Albert Hall 1966 Concert The Visions of Johanna studio recording sessions were released in their entirety on the 18 disc Collector s Edition of The Bootleg Series Vol 12 The Cutting Edge 1965 1966 on November 6 2015 with highlights from the November 30 1965 outtakes appearing on the 6 disc and 2 disc versions of that album 21 The 18 disc version contains 14 takes of Visions of Johanna recorded in New York on November 30 1965 and 4 takes of the song recorded in Nashville on February 14 1966 the last being the Blonde on Blonde version of the song 21 Interpretation editNoting how popular Visions of Johanna remains among hardcore Dylanophiles Andy Gill suggests 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 11 Gill writes that the song begins by contrasting two lovers the carnal Louise and the more spiritual but unattainable Johanna Ultimately for Gill the song seeks to convey how the artist is compelled to keep striving to pursue some elusive vision of perfection 11 Clinton Heylin has described what he construes as the strange circumstances surrounding the song Written around the time of Dylan s marriage to Sara Lownds Heylin describes it as one of the oddest songs ever written by a man who has just tied the knot and is enjoying a brief honeymoon in the city 7 Noting that the song is an elegy for a past lover Heylin speculates that it is awfully tempting to see Johanna as his muse who in the song is not here For Heylin the triumph of the song lies in the way Dylan manages to write about the most inchoate feelings in such a vivid immediate way 7 Dylan critic Michael Gray also praises the subtlety of the song Gray acknowledges that it is difficult to say what this song is about since it is at once indefinable and precise For Gray its principal achievement lies in the way it confuses categories using language to be simultaneously serious and flippant delicate and coarse and mixing up abstract neo philosophy and figurative phraseology 22 Robert Shelton called Visions of Johanna one of Dylan s major works He writes that Dylan s technique of throwing out skittering images evokes a mind floating downstream these non sequential visions are the record of a fractured consciousness 14 Shelton argues that the song explores a hopeless quest to reach an ideal the visions of Johanna and yet without this quest life becomes meaningless He suggests that the same paradox is explored by Keats in his Ode on a Grecian Urn 14 Mike Marqusee situates the song in New York City a flickering electric ghostly cityscape 23 Dylan describes himself stranded in a fog of detachment which provides a haven and at the same time is pained by a piercing clarity an unmediated response that is too concise and too clear For Marqusee Dylan describes his predicament suspended between freedom and slavery yet hungry for an authentic experience Johanna and Louise are objects of desire and yearning It is their elusiveness and unreality that s the point 23 Guitarist and critic Bill Janovitz also emphasizes the urban unreal quality of Visions of Johanna calling it a sprawling epic The journey takes Dylan through lofts the D train a museum empty lots and through snippets of overheard conversation as well as a discussion with some little boy lost who takes himself so seriously and who is so useless and all muttering small talk at the wall For Janovitz this could possibly be a swipe at a critic 24 Literary critic Christopher Ricks in his study of Dylan s work pinpoints the emotional effect of these same lines 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 dd dd dd Ricks writes that the phrase and all turns a mood of helplessness into a sense of aggression and baffled anger 25 Trying to unravel the mystery of the song Greil Marcus writes that the song is concerned with internal questions rather than external ones Line by line Blowin in the Wind is pious or falsely innocent isn t it obvious that whoever wrote Yes n how many seas must a white dove sail Before she sleeps in the sand already knows the answer assuming he or anyone can actually bring themselves to care about such a precious question But Visions of Johanna is asking different sorts of questions Such as Where are you Who are you What are you doing here Evoking the drugged urban milieu of the song Marcus writes of People wandering from one corner of a loft to another doped drunk half awake fast asleep no point to the next breath let alone the next step For Marcus Visions of Johanna makes a narrative solely out of atmosphere 9 Legacy editThe song has been described by several critics as a masterpiece 7 10 11 In 2004 Rolling Stone magazine placed the song at No 404 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time 26 commenting that Dylan never sounded lonelier than in this seven minute ballad cut in a single take on Valentine s Day 1966 When Rolling Stone updated their list in 2010 the song dropped to No 413 and then it was moved up to No 317 in 2021 27 28 In 1999 Britain s Poet Laureate Andrew Motion chose it as his candidate for the best song lyric ever written Motion praised the concentration and surprise of Dylan s lyrics and said that although he distanced himself from some of the singer s views about women the rasp of his anger was a part of his greatness 29 In 2017 the International Observer named the song the second best ever recorded 30 stating The 24 year old Dylan was beginning to realize that no matter how many perfect songs he wrote he could not achieve immortality through his art as he perhaps once believed because even if people were still listening to the music in 500 years he would still be dead In 2020 during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Bruce Springsteen cited Visions of Johanna as one of his three favorite Dylan songs along with Like a Rolling Stone and Ring Them Bells 31 In an interview with The Independent in 1992 cult British musician Robyn Hitchcock described the song by saying it s pretty much the reason I m a singer 32 Commenting on the song in a 1985 interview Dylan said I still sing that song every once in a while It still stands up now as it did then maybe even more in some kind of weird way 17 Cover versions edit nbsp Jerry Garcia recorded Visions of Johanna both as a solo artist and as a member of the Grateful Dead Jerry a non lyricist for the most part brought out the beauty of the melody of Dylan s compositions The Grateful Dead played Visions of Johanna in concert a number of times between 1986 and 1995 33 and both they and Jerry Garcia solo each released a live version on record 34 35 There is also a 16 minute studio version of the song on Jerry Garcia s All Good Things Redux a bonus CD provided with the All Good Things box set of Garcia s studio recordings 36 Other artists who have covered the song include Cat Power Marianne Faithfull 37 Robyn Hitchcock 38 Lee Ranaldo 39 Chris Smither 40 former Flamin Groovies guitarist Chris Wilson 41 Julie Felix 42 Maggie Holland 43 and Old Crow Medicine Show The jazz trio Jewels and Binoculars who named themselves after a phrase from Visions of Johanna 44 recorded an instrumental treatment of the song on their album The Music of Bob Dylan 45 Foreign language versions of the song include a recording by Jan Erik Vold Kare Virud and Telemark Blueslag in Norwegian 46 47 Gerard Quintana s and Jordi Batiste s version in Catalan 48 Steffen Brandt s in Danish 49 and Ernst Jansz s in Dutch 50 Footnotes edit Visions of Johanna by Bob Dylan Track Info AllMusic AllMusic 10 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs Rolling Stone Retrieved 2018 06 04 Bob Dylan 30 greatest songs The Telegraph 2015 07 24 ISSN 0307 1235 Retrieved 2018 06 04 The 30 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs 12 Visions of Johanna American Songwriter American Songwriter 2009 04 24 Archived from the original on 2018 07 18 Retrieved 2018 06 04 Visions of Infinity Jonny Thakkar www jonnythakkar com Retrieved 2018 06 04 Vision music Bob Dylan via Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg by Laurence Coupe in Beat Sound Beat Vision The Beat Spirit and Popular Song Manchester University Press 2012 Quoted in Same Song Different Readings Bob Dylan s Visions of Johanna by Laurence Coupe Pop Matters 15 June 2022 Accessed 29 November 2023 a b c d Heylin 2009 pp 273 279 Visions of Johanna Bobdylan com a b c Marcus 2008 a b c Wilentz 2009 pp 110 113 a b c d e f Gill 1998 pp 97 99 Heylin 2009 p 277 Gorodetsky 2005 a b c Shelton 2011 p 225 Bjorner 2011 a b Heylin 2009 p 275 a b Crowe 1985 Glover 1998 Lewis Randy September 27 2016 All of Bob Dylan s 1966 live shows in 36 CD box set due Nov 11 Los Angeles Times Retrieved September 28 2016 Erlewine Stephen Thomas November 11 2016 The 1966 Live Recordings allmusic com Retrieved December 2 2016 a b Bob Dylan The Cutting Edge 1965 1966 The Bootleg Series Vol 12 Retrieved 2016 12 02 Gray 2000 pp 154 155 a b Marqusee 2005 pp 206 207 Janovitz Ricks 2003 pp 487 488 500 Greatest Songs of All Time 2004 401 500 500 Greatest Songs of All Time 2010 413 Visions of Johanna Visions of Johanna ranked 317 on Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs List Rolling Stone Retrieved 23 September 2021 Thorpe 1999 The International Observer s 100 Greatest Songs of All Time www intobserver com Archived from the original on 2017 07 16 Retrieved 2017 06 14 Can You Guess Bruce Springsteen s Favorite Bob Dylan Songs YouTube www youtube com Retrieved 2021 01 06 Why Bob Dylan s Song Visions of Johanna Made Robyn Hitchcock a Singer Visions of Johanna Dead net Ruhlmann Planer Garcia Plays Dylan Planer All Good Things Redux Thompson Downing Bush Whitman Second Life Overview Julie Felix Discography Getting There Overview Ratliff 2008 Layne Bjorner 2003 Stein Regn Sense reina ni as Baby Blue Bob Dylan Gendigtet Overview Dromen Van JohannaReferences edit Baby Blue Bob Dylan Gendigtet Overview Allmusic Retrieved 2011 10 16 Bjorner Olof 2003 01 28 It Ain t Me Babe Covers sorted by song name V Bjorner com Retrieved 2011 11 21 Bjorner Olof 2011 06 03 The 6th Blonde On Blonde session produced by Bob Johnston Bjorner com Retrieved 2011 09 27 Bush John Outlaw Blues Vol 2 Review Allmusic Retrieved 2011 11 20 Campbell Al Blues on Blonde on Blonde Review Allmusic Retrieved 2011 10 16 Crowe Cameron 1985 Biograph booklet Bob Dylan New York Columbia Records Downing Brian Robyn Sings Review Allmusic Retrieved 2011 10 16 Dromen Van Johanna Ernstjansz com in Dutch Archived from the original on 2016 03 03 Retrieved 2011 10 17 500 Greatest Songs of All Time 2004 401 500 Rolling Stone Archived from the original on 2008 06 25 Retrieved 2011 11 11 500 Greatest Songs of All Time 2010 413 Visions of Johanna Rolling Stone Archived from the original on 2011 11 06 Retrieved 2011 11 11 Getting There Overview Allmusic Retrieved 2011 10 16 permanent dead link Gill Andy 1998 Classic Bob Dylan My Back Pages Carlton ISBN 1 85868 599 0 Glover Tony 1998 The Bootleg Series Vol 4 Bob Dylan Live 1966 The Royal Albert Hall Concert booklet Bob Dylan New York Columbia Records Gorodetsky Eddie 2005 No Direction Home The Soundtrack The Bootleg Series Volume 7 booklet Bob Dylan New York Columbia Records Gray Michael 2000 Song amp Dance Man III The Art of Bob Dylan Continuum International ISBN 0 8264 5150 0 Heylin Clinton 2009 Revolution In The Air The Songs of Bob Dylan Volume One 1957 73 Constable ISBN 978 1 84901 051 1 Janovitz Bill Visions of Johanna Song Review Allmusic Retrieved 2011 11 01 Julie Felix Discography Knibbworld com Archived from the original on 2012 06 08 Retrieved 2011 10 16 Layne Joslyn Jewels and Binoculars The Music of Bob Dylan Review Allmusic Retrieved 2011 10 16 Marcus Greil 2008 06 21 Bob Dylan s Dream The Guardian Retrieved 2011 11 07 Marqusee Mike 2005 Wicked Messenger Bob Dylan and the 1960s Seven Stories Press ISBN 978 1 58322 686 5 Planer Lindsay All Good Things Redux Review Allmusic Retrieved 2013 10 05 Planer Lindsay Garcia Plays Dylan Review Allmusic Retrieved 2011 10 16 Ratliff Ben 2008 04 23 Dylan Without the Lyrics Just the Melodies in Mind The New York Times Retrieved 2011 10 24 Ricks Christopher 2003 Dylan s Visions of Sin Penguin Viking ISBN 0 670 80133 X Ruhlmann William Fallout from the Phil Zone Review Allmusic Retrieved 2011 10 16 Second Life Overview Allmusic Retrieved 2011 10 16 permanent dead link Sense reina ni as Musicaglobal com in Catalan Archived from the original on 2016 03 04 Retrieved 2011 11 08 Shelton Robert 2011 No Direction Home The Life and Music of Bob Dylan Revised amp updated edition Omnibus Press ISBN 978 1 84938 911 2 Stein Regn Recordheaven net in Norwegian Retrieved 2011 11 21 Thompson Dave Rich Kid Blues Review Allmusic Retrieved 2011 10 16 Thorpe Vanessa 1999 10 03 Laureate gives laurels to Dylan The Observer Retrieved 2011 07 29 Visions of Johanna Bobdylan com Archived from the original on 2011 10 24 Retrieved 2011 11 05 Visions of Johanna Dead net 21 March 2007 Retrieved 2011 10 26 Whitman Andy Leave the Light On Review Allmusic Retrieved 2011 10 16 Wilentz Sean 2009 Bob Dylan In America The Bodley Head ISBN 978 1 84792 150 5 External links editLyrics of Visions of Johanna Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Visions of Johanna amp oldid 1220693182, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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