Visions of Johanna (Live, Philadelphia, March 18, 1995)

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 nothin', really nothin', 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

Blind man bluff with the keychain

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

A little boy lost, he takes himself so seriously

He brags of his misery, he likes to live dangerously

And when bringin' her name up, he speaks of her farewell kiss to me

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

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

How can I explain? 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"

Mona Lisa must have 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"

Jewels and binoculars hag 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 pretendin' to care for him

Sayin', "Name me someone that's not a parasite, and I'll go out, and say a prayer for him"