Dylan Song by Song: "Visions of Johanna" Quiz

Answer: false

The song was first recorded on Bob Dylan's seventh studio album, "Blonde on Blonde," which was released in 1966. "Blonde on Blonde" followed "Highway 61 Revisited" and preceded "John Wesley Harding." The album peaked at number nine on the Billboard Top 200 and at number three on the UK Top 75.

While "Visions of Johanna" is highly rated by critics, this was not one of Bob Dylan's singles from the album, which included "One of Us Must Know," "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35," "I Want You," "Just Like A Woman," and "Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat."

Answer: Sir Andrew Motion

According to a 1999 article in "The Guardian," Britain's Poet Laureate, Sir Andrew Motion, chose the song "as the greatest example of the lyricist's art" and argued the song was "clear evidence of Dylan's brilliant use of language." The poet laureate was quoted as saying, "Most song lyrics rely heavily on their accompanying music; without their music, they're banal, repetitive, nothingy," but Dylan is the "the exception."

Motion was also quoted as saying that Bob Dylan is "one of the great artists of the century." The Nobel Committee seemed to agree. In 2016, they awarded Bob Dylan with the Nobel Prize in Literature "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."

Answer: Allen Ginsberg

According to "Rolling Stone" magazine, Dylan "debuted the song in concert in December 1965, to an audience that included ex-paramour Joan Baez and poet Allen Ginsberg."

At that time, Dylan had just recently married Sara Lownds. "The Guardian" notes that some fans have suggested that the "song was a deliberately obscure way of dealing with his feelings for his former girlfriend, Baez. When he first performed the song publicly, Baez was there, and she has said that at the time she was 'suspicious'."

"American Songwriter" also discusses the theory that the song is a reference to Baez: "Baez may have thought so too. In her 1975 song 'Winds of the Old Days,' there are several allusions to her relationship with Dylan, including . . . 'Most of the sour grapes are gone from the bough, ghosts of Johanna will visit you there.'"

Others argue that if Dylan was trying to impress anyone with the song, it would have been the beat poet Allen Ginsberg, whose work he admired, and who was also in the audience that night. Dylan has cited Ginsberg as being an influence on his own work. Ginsberg described Dylan's songs as containing "chains of flashing images," which is particularly on evidence in "Visions of Johanna."

Answer: Louise

The narrator is "entwined" with his lover Louise, but he can't get Johanna out of his mind:

"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."

"Rolling Stone" magazine quotes U2's Bono as saying, "It's extraordinary. He writes this whole song seemingly about this one girl, with these remarkable descriptions of her, but this isn't the girl who's on his mind! It's somebody else!" The magazine describes the song as being about the "acute dissection of one woman, the tangible and available Louise, and his longing for an absent ideal."

The "International Observer" points out that Louise, a German name, means "to struggle," while Johanna, a Hebrew name, means "God's grace."

Answer: The country music station

"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."

Dylan pays exquisite attention to detail in setting the scene for this song. "Rolling Stone" magazine ranked "Visions of Johanna" number nine on its list of the "10 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs" and number 404 on its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of all time."

Versions of "Vision of Johanna" have been included on numerous Bob Dylan albums, including "Biograph," "The Bootleg Series" volumes 4, 7, and 12, "Live 1962-1966 - Rare Performances," and "The Original Mono Recordings."

Answer: The night watchman

"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."

Again, Dylan continues the scene-setting detail. In "Song and Dance Man III," Michael Gray compares Bob Dylan's writing in these verses to that of Charles Dickens, arguing that the "atmosphere" in these lines "rebounds incisively off phrases" such as "the empty lot," "out on the D-train," and "all-night girls." Because of this, "that night-watchman comes across as vividly as a character in Dickens. That 'click' that Dylan provides him with is precisely the kind of tiny detail that is a large part of Dickens' touch."

Answer: electricity

"The ghost of 'lectricity howls in the bones of her face
Where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place."

This line may be implying that the narrator had a greater chemistry (electricity) with his old love (Johanna) than with his current one (Louise).

According to The Official Bob Dylan website, "Visions of Johanna" has been played live over two hundred times since its release on "Blonde on Blonde."

Answer: William Blake

"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."

In these lines, Bob Dylan may be, consciously or unconsciously, alluding to the title of William Blake's poem "Little Boy Lost," which was included in his "Songs of Innocence." The poem reads:

"'Father, father, where are you going
O do not walk so fast.
Speak father, speak to your little boy
Or else I shall be lost.'

The night was dark no father was there
The child was wet with dew.
The mire was deep, & the child did weep
And away the vapour flew."

In "Songs of Experience," Blake had "Little Boy Found."

Answer: infinity

"Inside the museums, Infinity goes up on trial
Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while."

Michael Gray points out that this song "can focus one minute on the coughing heat-pipes....and the next minute on casual speculation about museums. Since Johanna is so much the centre of everything, the outer circumferences are all equitably regarded and rendered: all seen dispassionately as equally significant and insignificant."

Answer: Mona Lisa

The Mona Lisa is a portrait painting by Leonardo da Vinci. Her mysterious smile in the painting has often been the subject of commentary. French poet Théophile Gautier described it thus: "One is moved, troubled ... repressed desires, hopes that drive one to despair, stir painfully." Dylan says it more simply: "Mona Lisa musta had the highway blues, / You can tell by the way she smiles."

The Madonna is mentioned elsewhere in the song:

"And Madonna, she still has not showed
We see this empty cage now corrode
Where her cape of the stage once had flowed."

Answer: knees

"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.'"

The song then continues:

"Oh, jewels and binoculars
Hang from the head of the mule
But these visions of Johanna
They make it all seem so cruel."

"American Songwriter" suggests that U2 "perhaps unintentionally" echoes the line "these visions of Johanna make it all seem so cruel" in their song "So Cruel."

Answer: parasite

"The International Observer" ranked this song number two on its lists of "The 100 Greatest Songs of All Time."

"Rolling Stone" magazine calls this song "a tour de force, a breakthrough not only for the writer but for the very possibilities of songwriting. An extended, impressionistic account of a woozy New York City night, rich in pictorial detail and erotic longing."

Answer: conscience

The song concludes:

"The harmonicas play
The skeleton keys and the rain
And these visions of Johanna
Are now all that remain."

Michael Gray writes that this is "a beautiful line: the connection between harmonica sounds and skeletons is a flash of real imaginative genius and fiery intuitive observation."

Answer: The Hawks

"The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965-1966," which was released in 2015, contains the 14 takes recorded in New York on November 30, 1965.

According to "Rolling Stone" magazine, "A November '65 attempt to cut an electric 'Johanna' with the Hawks. . . had run aground after 14 takes. The Hawks were still too much of a bar band; the song's confessional complexity required poise as well as muscle."

Originally formed as The Hawks, a backing band for Ronnie Hawkins, the group that would become known simply as The Band separated from Hawkins in 1964. Bob Dylan recruited them for his 1965 and 1966 tours. They began performing as The Band in 1968. The Band consisted of Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, Robbie Robertson, and Levon Helm.

Answer: The Grateful Dead

A version of the song may be found on "Fallout from the Phil Zone," a compilation of the Grateful Dead's live recordings selected by Phil Lesh, the band's bassist. The Grateful Dead worked with Bob Dylan on a live album, "Dylan & the Dead," which was released in 1989 and contained seven songs written and sung by Dylan with the Dead accompanying.