¤ milky moon ¤

The Joanna Newsom covers project was called Versions of Joanna
... which is clearly a pun on Visions of Johanna
... which was a song written by Bob Dylan about Nico
... who was a bandmate of (and whose wonderful Lawns of Dawns was arranged by) John Cale
... who cut an album called Church of Anthrax with Terry Riley
... who apparently lived for a while in Nevada City
... which is where Joanna Newsom grew up.

Don't forget the book "Visions of Joanna Newsom"

Joanna Newsom wrote a song called Have One On Me
...Which characterises Lola Montez
...Who was honoured in name by Mount Lola
...Which is in Nevada City
...Where Joanna Newsom was born.

am i doing it right

The Joanna Newsom covers project was called Versions of Joanna
... which is clearly a pun on Visions of Johanna
... which was a song written by Bob Dylan about Nico
... who was a bandmate of (and whose wonderful Lawns of Dawns was arranged by) John Cale
... who cut an album called Church of Anthrax with Terry Riley
... who apparently lived for a while in Nevada City
... which is a city In California
... which is a song written by Joanna Newsom
... whom the covers project was named after

Not to be a pedant, but has there been any confirmation that Visions of Johanna is about Nico?

I could only find a fleeting reference to it on a brief online search. In my head, this has been 'fact' for years, having read it in a book that I can no longer find

One I did find, though, was Richard Witts' "Nico: The Life & Lies of an Icon" (1993) in which he states (p236) "She discovered that other people could inspire her to write about them, just as Lou Reed had written a song about Edie Sedgwick and Bob Dylan had written a song about Edie Sedgwick, and both had written a song about Nico, too. She had already attempte a song about Warhol and another on Julius Caesar: ...'But I think it was not Julius Caesar that is the hero as much as Octavian.'"

The Reed song about Sedgwick is "All Tomorrow's Parties"; I am not sure what the Dylan one is. But the Dylan song about Nico is not stated explicitly. It is true that he wrote "I'll Keep It With Mine" FOR her, but that leaves the door open for "Visions of Johanna" to be ABOUT her.

I left the last part of the book quote in just because "Julius Causar (Memento Hodie)" is such an amazing song - "Marble Index" is often thought of as being just "Frozen Warnings" and "Evening of Light", but the whole album is eerie and amazing.

The context of the book quote suggests that it relates to about 1969 or just before. Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde" (which included "Visions of Johanna") came out in 1966, a time when he and Nico were acquainted, and around the time that he gave her "I'll Keep It With Mine" which she would record for her 1967 'Chelsea Girl' album. Incidentally, it was FIRST recorded as a single by Judy Collins in 1965, and Collins stated that the song was written for her.

paw at the wild wild night
paw at the wild wild night
- the double use of the letter W refers to World War.
- Since she uses this sentence twice it must be the 2nd World War
- The main shipboard observation aircraft used by US during World War II was called Kingfisher
- 'Kingfisher' is the 17th track on HOOM
- the number 17 has wide significance in mathematics, politics, and law
- 'Law' is frequently used in her songs:
- Not informed of the natural law, (No Provenance)
- About the laws of the land, (You and me, Bess)
- Godawful lawlessness? (Soft as Chalk)
- Wrapped in the long arm of the Law, (Kingfisher)
- And you laws of property, oh you free economy (En Gallop)
- the latter being the 3rd track before Swansea,
- which brings us back to 'paw at the wild wild night'.