Comments on: Ventilator blues

Question: Ventilator blues

punkfloyd — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 07:14:36 -0800

In traditional blues songs you sometime hear the term "ventilator". I know it's a piece of modern medical equipment, but what the heck was Robert Johnson talking about in the 1930s?

By: spicynuts

spicynuts — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 07:18:02 -0800

Not necessarily medical. Could be the ventilator shaft or air circulation vent built into a cold water cabin or shack or any crappy slum apartment building as a paltry gesture towards keeping the air in a dwelling fresh. Certainly there must have been some of those back in the day either at a place of work, a juke joint or a slum building.

By: dead_

dead_ — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 07:18:41 -0800

Could it be a fan?

By: Prospero

Prospero — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 07:23:27 -0800

I'm almost completely certain he's referring to a gun.

By: spicynuts

spicynuts — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 07:25:31 -0800

Yeah, can we get some specific lyrics? Context would be extremely helpful.

By: Leon

Leon — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 07:26:52 -0800

Rolling Stones - Ventilator Blues

"Don't matter where you are,
Ev'rybody's gonna need a ventilator.
When you're trapped and circled with no second chances,
Your code of living is your gun in hand."

So I'd agree with Prospero

By: dead_

dead_ — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 07:29:31 -0800

After googling for some Robert Johnson lyrics involving 'ventilator' I came up empty handed.

However, this Rolling Stones song, "Ventilator Blues" does seem to back up what Prospero said. Here's some lyrics:

don't matter where you are,
ev'rybody's gonna need a ventilator.
When you're trapped and circled with no second chances,
your code of living is your gun in hand.

By: dead_

dead_ — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 07:29:48 -0800

Whoops, a bit late on that.

By: punkfloyd

punkfloyd — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 07:30:55 -0800

But then there is this:

Ain't nobody slowing down no way,
ev'rybody's stepping on their accelerator,
don't matter where you are,
ev'rybody's gonna need a ventilator.

By: dead_

dead_ — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 07:32:13 -0800

On a side note, I had never really heard this term used to mean "gun" before, but it makes me wonder if the word "heater" that is so commonly used to mean "gun" in rap these days, derives from original blues usage of the word ventilator.

By: desuetude

desuetude — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 07:33:27 -0800

Can't find the link, but I believe the idea is that if I shoot you full of holes, you're been ventilated.

By: staggernation

staggernation — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 07:34:11 -0800

Ventilate: to shoot someone ("You're gonna be so ventilated that when you take your next swig of hooch you'll spout like a fountain!")

So yes, a gun.

By: spicynuts

spicynuts — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 07:36:25 -0800

Really, when you think about it, in blues and rock there are really only a few objects/people that need or get code words:

cocks, balls, assess, vaginas, guns, drugs, alcohol, cops, cars and girls/women. So, most likely it's a gun.

By: caddis

caddis — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 07:53:01 -0800

You must not be watching enough old gangster movies. A ventilator is a lovely little device which allows air to flow through portions of the human body formerly occupied by blood.

By: Savannah

Savannah — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 07:53:25 -0800

Ventilator as gun: 'cause it puts holes in you. I agree.

What did it say on the old bluesman's grave?

Didn't wake up this morning.

By: Rash

Rash — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 09:25:44 -0800

makes me wonder if the word "heater" that is so commonly used to mean "gun" ... derives from original blues usage of the word ventilator.

I'd mark the beginning of using "heater" for gun with the first broadcast of the original series Star Trek "A Piece of the Action" (ie the gangster planet) in January 1968.

By: A189Nut

A189Nut — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 09:57:18 -0800

Nope. Used in the movie Lucky Jordan (1942) for one - saw it just last week

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 10:18:33 -0800

dead_ writes "but it makes me wonder if the word 'heater' that is so commonly used to mean 'gun' in rap these days, derives from original blues usage of the word ventilator."

Heater == Gun dates from at least the pulp detective novels of the 30s.

By: yerfatma

yerfatma — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 12:52:16 -0800

I'd mark the beginning of using "heater"

You doity rat: heater, rod, gat and ventilator all date back at least as far as Prohibition (I think).

By: Good Brain

Good Brain — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 13:45:23 -0800

Rash makes me laugh.

By: Hildago

Hildago — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 16:06:02 -0800

Ventilator == Gun, for the reasons caddis names.
Heater == Gun, because they get hot when you use them to ventilate things.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 12:55:12 -0800

"A Piece of the Action" was an entirely derivative homage to detective movies. Fun, but nothing new about it. (They wanted to save on the production budget by using existing costumes and sets on the Desilu lot.)

Heater and ventilator may come from hardboiled fiction, and nowhere else. A lot of the authors of the pulps made it up, the way Zane Grey made up his stories of life on the frontier.