Anyone know what is meant by the lyrics to this song?
Any Thoughts/comments appreciated.

I know they rehearse this song before every tour, but never play it live. I wonder what the significance of this song is to the boys.

Wasnt it just the heat deep down in the basement of that Nellcote castle? :OS

They must use it to tune up before every tour because it reminds them that they can't fight the lure of the road.

I think the lyrics are from the heart of a bluesman who knows he's about to cave in.

Venting or releasing the frustrations of life ....



ROCKMAN

Felt like I was down there in the Exile of the "miserable" French Riviera
when Taylor cranked out the razorblade slidin' tune off it
that fateful nite in Stockholm in December 2005.. I actually sat
on the stage and felt the thunderin' rock'n roll music enter my
skeleton, soul & libido.. :O)

When your spine is cracking and your hands they shake
Heart is bursting and your butt's going to break
Woman's cussing, you can hear her scream
Feel like murder in the first degree

Ain't nobody slowing down no way
Everybody's stepping on their accelerator
Don't matter where you are
Everybody's going to need a ventilator

When you're trapped and circled with no second chance
Code of living is your gun in hand, we can't be
Browed by beating, we can't be cowed by words
Messed by cheating, ain't going to ever learn

Everybody walking 'round
Everybody's trying to step on their Creator
No matter where you are
Everybody, everybody's going to need somme kind of ventilator

Come down and get it

What you going to do about it? What you going to do?
Going to fight it

what a great track this is. i always associate it with loving cup for some reason. one of the blessed creations of villefranche for sure. the whole feel is of a basement with the 'dont fight it' sentiment. the other stone cold basement track is dead flowers of course.

i used to have a basement studio/house. it was always cold and the rain came in...

couldnt fix the hole. moved out.

i think the last line is "don't fight it"...instead of "going to fight it"

I really like the Live version from their 1st show - Vancover 1972!!

Taylor throws some extra licks in and makes it a great listen!!!

Too bad Jagger didn't like how it sounded and dropped if from the set-list....

MLC

In the night of the 31th may into the 1th june this year I heard at the backside of the Videohouse Studio's in Vilvoorde together with Niels, Daniel and BV a 30 minutes version of ventilator blues. Jagger already left at about 23u00 and they started listening to the CD version. Then a jam, then Bernard on vocals and than Ronny on vocals. They did take after take after take. Then they played it without stopping! At midnight they all began to sing "happy birthday to you" because Ronny became 60!

What a night late may 2007 in Vilvoorde. Only 4 real fans heard it! 40 others where waiting at the gates for a signature. We also got a signature at the gates. ...but only 4 heard ventilator blues.
When Niels said to Ronnie "Thank you for Ventilator blues, man" Ronnie was surprised we knew they played that and answers "You heard that?

Those where the days!

bartfrombrussels
Senior Food Critic IORR

?Remember Vilvoorde?
94 concerts & counting



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-01-07 19:10 by bartfrombrussels.

MCDDTLC Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I really like the Live version from their 1st show
> - Vancover 1972!!
>
> Taylor throws some extra licks in and makes it a
> great listen!!!
>
> Too bad Jagger didn't like how it sounded and
> dropped if from the set-list....
>
> MLC


Some great work by Taylor in this live version - the whole thing just sounds a little clumsy to me though. They should have persevered with it though - great tune.

Baboon Bro Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Felt like I was down there in the Exile of the
> "miserable" French Riviera
> when Taylor cranked out the razorblade slidin'
> tune off it
> that fateful nite in Stockholm in December 2005..
> I actually sat
> on the stage and felt the thunderin' rock'n roll
> music enter my
> skeleton, soul & libido.. :O)

And to see this description of a sensation felt in every fibre of your body by the same guy who, in a separate thread, didn't even mention Taylor's name while mentioning 6 others (incl Stewart, officially not a bandmember) when answering the Q about your favourite Stone...
Strange to say the least.

In 1971 Keith Richards rented Nellcôte in south of France the "Gestapo headquarters during the Second World War complete with swastikas on the floor vents" if you believe what's written in Exile on Main St.: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones by Robert Greenfield.

>> incl Stewart, officially <<

officially a bandmember indeed, up until early may 1963.

some Ventilator commentary from [www.timeisonourside.com]:

We always rehearse Ventilator Blues. It's a great track, but we never play it as well as the original.
Something will not be quite right; either Keith will play it a bit differently or I'll do it wrong.
It's a fabulous number, but a bit of a tricky one. Bobby Keys wrote the rhythm part,
which is the clever part of the song. Bobby said, Why don't you do this? and I said, I can't play that,
so Bobby stood next to clapping the thing and I just followed his timing. In the world of Take Five,
it's nothing, but it threw me completely and Bobby just stood there and clapped
while we were doing the track - and we've never quite got it together as well as that.
- Charlie Watts, 2003


On Ventilator Blues we got some weird sound of something that had gone wrong -
some valve or tube that had gone. If something was wrong you just forgot about it.
You'd leave it alone and come back tomorow and hope it had fixed itself. Or give it a good kick.
- Keith Richards


(by the way, i agree that the last line is "don't fight it" -
timeisonourside.com is brilliant, and the lyrics posted there are what that siteowner hears -
which is better than copying errors from other sites, but there are some odd moments here & there.)

>> if you believe what's written in ... <<

since Greenfiel is only one of many people who state that, i believe it.
i guess it's Andy Johns in Just For the Record who says that when people were freaking
over the swastika-shaped air vents, Keith said: "don't worry - we're here now."
yes they sure were - and they changed the energy of the place for good.

The song seems to have a bit of religious undertone with the line "Everybody's trying to step on their Creator". So do some other songs on Exile like "Shine a Light" and "Just want to see His Face", maybe even more so.

Maybe they were trying to balance things out a bit, having released "...Satanic Majesties.." and "Sympathy for the Devil" in the sixties. Perhaps they were scared they were becoming the poster boys for wacko satanists? (They probably didn't want to be the poster boys for religious freaks either...)

EXILE - Dominique Tarle



ROCKMAN

I wonder which vents are decorated with swastikas.

Photos Dominique Tarlé


Bill Wyman


Mick Taylor


Keith Richards & Mick Jagger


Keith Richards?

Swastika as a decoration aint no special thing.
My great grand mum b. 1891 had one of them sallad plates
with such on, from long before the third Reich.
See for yerselves at Wikipedia.
Symbol was used 2,000 years before ol' Adolph nicked it.

Still; the story with sssoul gave us is a refreshin' &
spritually inspiring one.

Wish I could travel there, to Nellcote '71 in a time machine.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-01-08 13:05 by Baboon Bro.

smile: always good to see Keith with that Flying V! that got stolen in the Nellcote Guitar Heist, right?
anyway these shots seem to be the last sighting of it.

what were the dates of Keith's residence at Nellcote? it's such a monumental & legendary period
that it's somehow strange that it was only a few months. nzentgraf.de gives the recording dates there
as july - november; Keith and Anita had moved in in june i think? and by january 72 they were elsewhere.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-01-08 12:56 by with sssoul.

Thanks for date info, with sssoul!
...Swedish artist Pugh Rogefeldt was a former school class mate
of Bill's wife Astrid & invited to Nellcote & went there once.
Good friend of mine works at P's place.
Might just wanna go there & ask a little something.

with sssoul Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> (by the way, i agree that the last line is "don't
> fight it" -

Don't fight or gonna fight what ?
If it's the ventilator blues, it could be the one or the other.

otherwise, is it "they" ain't gonna ever learn ?
"they" refering to journalists, maybe

>> Don't fight or gonna fight what? <<

to me the "it" is the fact that we live in a world where everybody's gonna need a ventilator.
and i don't hear anything that suggests any reference to journalists. i think the antagonists
are more widespread than that; and the ones who are never gonna learn could be "they" or "we" - or both.

ps: what i wrote above may make more sense when accompanied by the information
that ventilator is a term for a gun, and that's how i've always understood this lyric -
i've just now realized that that might not be an obvious or universal way to understand it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-01-08 17:45 by with sssoul.

with sssoul Wrote:

> what were the dates of Keith's residence at
> Nellcote? it's such a monumental & legendary
> period
> that it's somehow strange that it was only a few
> months. nzentgraf.de gives the recording dates
> there
> as july - november; Keith and Anita had moved in
> in june i think? and by january 72 they were
> elsewhere.

Ehm... If they had waited around till June they may as well have stayed in England. The whole point of leaving the country was that they had to escape from the English tax authorities. Prince Rupert had been appointed as their financial advisor a year earlier and Loewenstein was shocked to discover the state their affairs were in. They were not only flat broke but they were going to be hit with an enormous tax bill for past earnings which they had failed to declare.

So on April 1st 1971 (TAX DAY IS NEARING !), Bill & Astrid and Mick Taylor & Rose fly to Nice.
Charlie Watts and Shirley are already in France, they are staying in a hotel in Cannes until they can move into their rented house at La Borie in Thoiras, near Arles. Mick Jagger travels from Paris to the south of France with Bianca.

Keith is the last one to leave.
On April 5 - THE DAY ON WHICH ENGLISH TAXES ARE DUE - a team from the Rolling Stones office arrives at Keith's house (3 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea) to pack all his belonging into boxes and ship it to France.
The night before Keith has visited Anita in Bowden House, a private hospital in Harrow-On-The-Hill where she was undergoing a detox. Anita has to stay for 10 more days in Bowden House.
So on April 5 1971 Keith gets on a BEA plane to Nice with 18 month old Marlon, accompanied by Jo Bergman and Shirley Arnold from the office.


After gendarmes come knocking at the door in November 1971 it's total chaos. They have to leave France because they can't just wait until Keith and Anita get arrrested and sent to jail until the day of the trial.

On November 29 1971 MJ, KR, Anita, MT, Rose, Jimmy Miller and Andy Johns fly to L.A. where they are joined by CW, Shirley, BW and Astrid.
Keith and Anita will not return to Villa Nellcote again. They leave behind Keith's record collection, Anita's extensive wardrobe, Marlon's toys, their parrot, their dog Okee, Keith's speedboat and his Jaguar E-type.
Keith continues to pay rent on it for another year, this enables him to maintain he resides in France. June Shelley checks on the house's caretaker once a week.
(After their trip to L.A. an assistant collects the Jaguar and delivers it to Geneva/Vevey packed with 100 records, Keith and Anita's clothes, a stereo and Marlon's toys).

Nearly a year later, on Nov 1 1972 Wyman and Wats sit down with a Stones solicitor and two French lawyers in Vence. The result of the raid on Nellcote is that twelve people are charged with illegal use of heroin and other narcotics.
The Stones are recording in Jamaica by then. At a meeting in Kingston on Dec 1 1972 it is decided that everyone except Keith (who could be arrested as soon as he lands in France) will return to Nice the following day to attend the hearing in front of a judge.
On Dec 4, MJ, MT, BW and CW go to the judge's chamber in Nice. After they answer the questions all the charges are dropped, except Keith's and Anita's.
The public prosecutor in Nice issues arrest warrants for Keith and Anita (for drug trafficking).
The case did not come to a a conclusion until Dec 1973. The band's legal advisors had to call in the help of some very expensive French lawyers to get all this resolved.
All the money the band had saved by going to France was lost when Keith got busted. It was spent on huge bribes to the government and lawyer's fees. They (the 5 bandmembers) each paid an equal share of these costs.
On Oct 15 1973 Keith and Anita are found guilty of the use, supply and trafficking of cannabis. The sentence: One year (suspended) and a fine. Bobby Keys reveives a four month suspended sentence and a fine.
On Dec 18 1973 the court of appeal in Aix-en-Provence uphold's Keith's conviction. He and Bobby Keys are barred from French territory for two years.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 2008-01-08 17:20 by Lightnin'.

thanks for all that, Lightnin. i was asking when Keith moved into Nellcote, not when he left England.
do you have that detail in your Detail File?

I think the lyrics came out of a stay at Nellcote that could be claustrophobic at times. That damp basement and the whole being together in a small room. Maybe Mick was there for a long haul at times and became claustrophobic from it (Would explain him not being there for long periods at times).
The "Everybody's stepping on their accelerator" line could be about all those people doing drugs. And the line after: "Don't matter where you are, everybody's gonna need a ventilator". Even if Mick wasn't at Nellcote for some periods, he would still feel the whole album making/Nellcote/The people he was with in Nellcote looming over his head. Also the "Ventilator" line is Mick wanting some fresh air (I.e. Not wanting to be in a damp basement all the time).

JumpingKentFlash

The same day. Jo Bergman drives him from Nice airport straight to Nellcôte. After inspecting the house he says: I'll take it.
With Jo's help, Keith places a call to Anita back in England to describe the house to her. In an effort to cheer Anita up, he tells her "It's a great house. Before you know it, you'll be here".

cool, thanks Lightnin' - that was a mighty busy day.
what's your source for all this, by the way?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-01-08 17:23 by with sssoul.

>> Also the "Ventilator" line is Mick wanting some fresh air <<

smile: no doubt! but maybe also worth noting that a ventilator is a term for a gun.
which is why the notion that everybody's gonna need one is so ... hm, whatcha gonna do?

(i've always understood this lyric in the ventilator = gun sense, and the quotes where some Stone says
it was inspired by an air vent have always sounded like a send-up to me, and made me smile.
now i wonder if that's all simply due to my being from chicago, or if everyone hears it the same way.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-01-08 17:30 by with sssoul.

with sssoul Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> >> Also the "Ventilator" line is Mick wanting some
> fresh air <<
>
> smile: no doubt! but maybe also worth noting that
> a ventilator is a term for a gun.
> which is the notion that everybody's gonna need
> one is so ... hm, whatcha gonna do?


Didn't know about the ventilator being a gun.
That book by Bill Janowitz is great by the way. Only a few things I didn't like in it.

JumpingKentFlash