Ventilator Blues

I think it's funny how literally some people take Rolling Stones' songs. They think Bitch is about an actual "bitch," or that Ventilator Blues is about a room lacking ventilation in Keith Richard's basement. Sure, that's what the books say, but you'll get much more out of the song if you don't go for the low-hanging fruit and really analyze what you're hearing.

The song is about growing old and dying. In this case, a ventilator means a breathing machine, not ventilation for a basement. Listen...

Lyrics:

"When your spine is cracking and your hands, they shake, Heart is bursting and you butt's gonna break." [--meaning: When your body is breaking down--]

Your woman's cussing, you can hear her scream, You feel like murder in the first degree. [--meaning: When love has grown old and spiteful--]

Ain't nobody slowing down no way, Ev'rybody's stepping on their accelerator, [--people are ignoring their age, living faster / harder--]

Don't matter where you are, Ev'rybody's gonna need a ventilator. [--but, eventually, everyone is going to grow old and die--]

When you're trapped and circled with no second chances, Your code of living is your gun in hand. [--When you're too old to change the past or yourself--]

We can't be browed by beating, we can't be cowed by words, Messed by cheating, ain't gonna ever learn. [--you're too old to be brow-beaten, intimidated, or suckered--]

Ev'rybody walking 'round, Ev'rybody trying to step on their Creator. [--Everyone disrespects their parents / elders--]

Don't matter where you are, ev'rybody, ev'rybody gonna Need some kind of ventilator, some kind of ventilator. [--but, eventually, you're also going to grow old and need a ventilator--]

What you gonna do about it, what you gonna do? Gonna fight it, gonna fight it?" [--Will you?--]

Then, the song doesn't really end, but transitions into "Just Wanna See His Face." That means these songs are linked.

"That's all right, that's all right, that's all right. Sometimes you feel like trouble, sometimes you feel down. Let this music relax you mind, Let this music relax you mind. Stand up and be counted, can't get a witness. Sometimes you need somebody, if you have somebody to love. Sometimes you ain't got nobody and you want somebody to love Then you don't want to walk and talk about Jesus, You just want to see his face. You don't want to walk and talk about Jesus, You just want to see his face."

[---To me, this implies that the character speaking in Ventilator Blues is either making or has made his final peace.---]

:)

so is it about the Lord?

Sure would seem to fit considering what follows.

Course i heard it was a song about the recording conditions.......they had one fan, and the whole place was just miserably hot.

Yes the weather was hot and it was just one of those days where you feel like your going to loose it. Keith said an actually ventilator grille inspired him to write this song with Jagger.

To me this song has a couple meanings, First I am sure that it may have been inspired by how hot it was and one fan but actually the song is brilliant. To me it is saying that everybody has a vice or habit that they have to use as their ventilator, maybe it's drugs,drink,Pepsi,candy,aspirin,coffee, God,It can be anything. Video game,instrument a person's acceptance,whatever. It is all mind over matter but the one thing we all need is air or we are dead. Cool play on words. Mick has always been such an under rated lyricist I think.

Thought it finished with

Don' fight it! Don' fight it!

Good simple bluesy song...slips right into the next one - like a lot of Exile.

I always assumed it was "gut's gonna break"

Seems to catch the feel of the song more.

"butt's gonna break" just doesn't sound like a great line which makes me think that's not it. Every reference in the internet says the same thing - "butt's gonna break". I don't know if Mick Jagger or Keith Richards have weighed in on this anywhere. What if (just a wild guess), it's ... "When your spine is cracking and your hands they shake; Heart is bursting and your butts DON'T break..." as in cigarette butts. I know that's a long shot and now that I've written it out it looks stupid. But I guess my thinking is that since you're hands are "shaking", you can't put your cigarettes out or something. OK. so maybe that's lame but "butts gonna break"?!? Why wouldn't he have used the word 'ass' and somehow rearranged the line. One more thing: Why would your "butt" be "breaking" just because there's no "ventilation" in the basement? I'm wanting to cover this song and so I'm trying to crack this code.

Whadda y'all think?

For me the song is about being pissed off with hard work and needing to let out the frustration somehow. At the end he asks what you going to do about it? Making it personal, saying its up to you to vent how you need.

The first stanza describes a person in a vile situation, and the lyrics about no one slowing down means no one is available to help, it requires self reliance. Then he mentions the ventilator which I have misheard as mental aid and friend later at different times. Then there is the issue of moral fiber in the code of living, and the fortitude not be browbeaten or cowed. Then he mentions our creator, which is kind of a gospel reference, god is a kind of ventilator, a moral compass. Then he says fight it, don't succumb to the degradation.