[Intro]
A D E7 A
[Strophe]
         A                           D                  E7              A 
Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're trying to be so quiet? 
                                   D             E7        A 
We sit here stranded, though we're all doing our best to deny it 
        E                                    E7       A 
And Louise holds a handful of rain, tempting you to defy it 
       D                         A 
Lights flicker from the opposite loft, 
   D                             A 
in this room the heat pipes just cough, 
    D                           A 
the country music station plays soft, 
                                            E7 
but there's nothing, really nothing to turn off 
         A          D     E7   A 
Just Louise and her lover so entwined, 
          D             A         E7         A    D E7 A 
and these visions of Johanna that conquer my mind.
[Strophe]
             A                         D           E7             A 
In the empty lot where the ladies play blind man's bluff with the key chain 
                              D              E7                A 
And the all night girls, they whisper of escapades out on the "D" train 
       E 
We can hear the night watchman click his flashlight, 
                                                A 
ask himself if it's him or them that's really insane 
   D                                A 
Louise, she's all right, she's just near 
      D                           A 
She's delicate and seems like the mirror 
             D                                A 
But she just makes it all too concise and too clear, 
                   E7 
that Johanna's not here 
    A                    D            E7           A 
The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face, 
            D             A             E7       A     D E7 A 
where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place.
[Strophe]
     A                   D                E7     A 
Now, little boy lost, he takes himself so seriously 
                           D             E7       A 
He brags of his misery, he likes to live dangerously 
         E                                                    A 
And when bringing her name up he speaks of a farewell kiss to me 
     D                A 
He's sure got a lotta gall, 
   D                 A 
to be so useless and all, 
D                           A 
muttering small talk at the wall, 
                 E7 
while I'm in the hall 
    A                          D       E7  A 
Oh, how can I explain, it's so hard to get on? 
          D             A                  E7          A    D E7 A 
And these visions of Johanna, they kept me up past the dawn.
[Strophe]
           A        D        E7         A 
Inside the museums, infinity goes up on trial 
                            D              E7           A 
Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while 
         E                                                                 A 
But Mona Lisa must have had the highway blues, you can tell by the way she smiles 
        D                    A 
See the primitive wallflower freeze, 
         D                     A 
when the jelly faced women all sneeze, 
         D                           A                      E7 
hear the one with the mustache say, "Jeeze, I can't find my knees" 
    A                     D             E7          A 
Oh, jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule 
          D            A                  E7          A    D E7 A 
But these visions of Johanna they make it all seem so cruel.
[Strophe]
    A                         D                 E7                  A 
The peddler now speaks to the countess who's pretending to care for him 
         A 
Saying' "Name me someone that's not a parasite, 
            D             E7         A 
and I'll go out and say a prayer for him." But like Louise 
E 
always says, "Ya can't look at much, can ya man?" as she, herself,  
   A 
prepares for him 
      D                        A 
And Madonna, she still has not showed 
            D                 A 
We see this empty cage now corrode 
          D                          A 
Where her cape of the stage once had flowed 
    D                            A 
The fiddler, he now steps to the road, 
          D                                    A 
he writes everything s been returned which was owed, 
       D                           A                           E7 
on the back of the fish truck that loads while my conscience explodes 
       A                D        E            A 
The harmonicas play the skeleton keys and the rain, 
          D             A            E7         A 
and these visions of Johanna are now all that remain.
[Outro]
D E7 A