The music was even harder to pin down. With every swell of that celestial Hammond organ, the mystery became deeper and more delicious. Since then, it has joined an elite group of singles to have sold more than 10m copies worldwide.
Only years later did I realise that it was a lates mashup of sorts, although — like mixing sulphuric acid with nitric acid and a dash of glycerine — it was the combination that was so innovative and explosive. We loved the latter from those humorous and hugely popular Hamlet cigar ads on TV.
So already Johann was cool and catchy to a young mind that could only imagine the pleasures of smoking. Yet they do contain unresolved mysteries, which helps explain why the song has endured so well. Is it about a drug experience, a drug death, or a half-remembered, girl-leaves-boy relationship? Or is it simply about a drunken seduction, the sex having been drowned in metaphors about travelling the seas?
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