Legendary Rock Songs: STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN: LED ZEPPELIN.
For me this is one of the greatest bands in history and this song is one of the most successful and greatest in the world. With nothing more to tell you, enjoy this report based on one of their greatest songs.
Disc:IV.
Year:1973.
For many the greatest song of all time, it is undeniable that few songs have the legendary character of “Stairway To Heaven”. To lavish praise on Lep Zeppelin at this point may seem unnecessary, and in a way it is, but it's hard to resist extolling the wonders of this peerless band. The ultimate rock band? It could be... Nobody has managed to condense so much talent and magic in so few years, and for a decade, Led Zeppelin bequeathed to humanity a work that many figures of art in all its currents and variants would like for themselves.
Masterful albums, everlasting songs, unforgettable interpretations, monstrous concerts... “Stairway To Heaven” is the sum of it all. To be the star song of the greatest Zeppelin album is already a guarantee of mastery. And “Stairway To Heaven” is full of it. That album of unreal beauty that would be the fourth of the Zeppelin production enclosed in itself a dimensional aspect, an especially intriguing and magnetic side.
Its cover was already a mystery, like a sealed chest enclosing a valuable treasure; the photo of a harmonious man carrying a bundle of wood on his back, without any writing or claim of who the creators of it were or what was contained therein. Behind, the distant picture of an earthly cityscape to a set that seemed a masterful whim of Mother Nature. Only four symbols, four strange icons, appeared printed on the spine of the vinyl folder.
It was them; Plant, Page, Jones and Bonham, four entities in one: Lep Zeppelin. To conceive the record, the band moved to an old mansion located in the middle of the countryside in Worcestershire, England, called Headly Grange. Jimmy Page had the idea of the chords of “Stairway...” for a long time in his head. In fact he had already recorded its structure on a demo. One night, in that strange rook, he showed it to Robert Plant while they were sitting in front of the fire.
The lyric came into Plant's head as if by magic, and soon after he had already written 60% of the lyrics. It is said that at that time the golden curls vocalist was very influenced by Celtic mythology, fantasy literature and English medieval legends, but contrary to what the marked epic flavor of the piece may seem, its message was very different; it simply dealt in a cynical way with the theme of a woman who achieved everything she set her mind to without giving anything in return.
Eventually the track was recorded at Island Studios in London, where John Paul Jones provided the song's quiet brass opening. The acoustic intro was somewhat stolen from the song “Taurus” by the band Spirit, who had shared a tour with Zeppelin on their first visit to America. John Bonham did not enter until after four minutes, but when he did, he signed one of those anthological rolls. Later came the guitar solo, of which Page recorded three takes, finally keeping the one that the hallucinogenic guitarist thought was the best and most appropriate.
One of those guitars that can be hummed with the ease of a chorus and that everybody knows by heart. Page used to record it a Telecaster that had belonged to his friend Jeff Beck instead of his usual Gibson Les Paul, achieving that orgasmic and unstoppable growing effect. It was never released as a single. There are only a few copies of a promo single that are coveted collector's items.
In spite of everything, and as incredible as it may seem due to its lengthy running time of more than eight minutes, the song was received by the radios with fervor and became an absolute classic of the airwaves; so much so that it is the most played piece in the history of American radio, having been played on the air around four million times according to current estimates. However, the weight of its enormous transcendence was not equally assimilated by all; while Page continues to feel proud of his acclaimed masterpiece, Plant does not seem to feel the same way about it.
He has even declared his total indifference towards the song, affirming that he wrote it when “he was too young”, and in the different Zeppelin reunions (the Live Aid of 1985, the 40th anniversary of Atlantic in 1988...) he has been practically forced to interpret it and he has done it with more reluctance than anything else, fed up with the exploitation to which the legendary song has been subjected. But, much to his regret, Plant will have to live the rest of his days with the fact of being one of the creators of the definitive anthem of rock music.
I hope my people that this report is to your liking, and I invite you to listen to this song and if you have not heard it I invite you to do so, as it is one of the most legendary songs of rock music, and in general in the global musical world, a popular icon that is why this band was, is and will remain legendary. See you in a new post and thanks for reading me. A thousand blessings.
