# Re Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven" Why do so many people think this is the "OMG Best Ever" song? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 18, 2011, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-why-do-so-many-people-think-this-is-the-omg-best-ever-song/596738 "2011-09-18T20:03:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-why-do-so-many-people-think-this-is-the-omg-best-ever-song/596738/21 "2011-09-19T00:31:43Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > Seriously, I have like a ten minute commute to work. Hardly a day goes by when I go to work and I DON’T hear a LZ song. Jeez! just give it a rest already! The classic rock station in DC, WARW, drove LZ down our throats until I was rather sick of them. I had a driving job back then, and so it was either listen to the same songs (more than a fair share of LZ) or talk/news radio (featuring Rush Limbaugh _shudder_) A bit ironically: the classic rock station in my new city, San Antonio, TX, is KZEP, nominally named after Led Zeppelin. But to their credit, they do downplay the LZ, featuring some less-played bands from the 70s and 80s (though they do avoid the 60s): Rush, Triumph, AC/DC, Black Sabbath. ---
**Author:** ![Docta\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Docta\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Docta_G)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-why-do-so-many-people-think-this-is-the-omg-best-ever-song/596738/22 "2011-09-19T01:11:12Z")
STH is a little ditty Page stole from the band Spirit, and for which Plant wrote some excruciatingly strident and annoying lyrics. It’s not nearly as good as this song: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/KTCYLbFxTpI/hqdefault.jpg "Stairway to Gilligan's Island") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTCYLbFxTpI) ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-why-do-so-many-people-think-this-is-the-omg-best-ever-song/596738/23 "2011-09-19T04:18:01Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > Also - do I remember correctly that “Hotel California” was voted the best song of the 20th century? Why is there no vomit “smiley” here! It’s already been answered, but S2H is one hell of a produced tune – it’s got everything. Imagine if you’re a kid and you heard it the first time? Wouldn’t you go off your nut too? Don’t care to listen to it again, but especially if you’re a guitar nerd (like I was for a time in HS), you got the acoustic, the electric – it can be deep, man! ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-why-do-so-many-people-think-this-is-the-omg-best-ever-song/596738/24 "2011-09-19T05:04:17Z")
Redacted. Already covered. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-why-do-so-many-people-think-this-is-the-omg-best-ever-song/596738/25 "2011-09-19T06:31:15Z")
It sounds cool and it’s easy to interpret the lyrics. I interpreted them as being anti nuke (the lady shines white light) and later about the fire that burnt Los Alamos in 2000 (In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees.) I also interpreted it as being about the Protestant Reformation. The stairway was an indulgence, the songbird in the tree was Tetzel who sold the indulgences, and the piper was Luther. Now I’m working on proving it’s about Enron or something. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-why-do-so-many-people-think-this-is-the-omg-best-ever-song/596738/26 "2011-09-19T06:43:38Z")
I don’t care about song lyrics. Those might be awesome or lame, I couldn’t say since I can’t distinguish them as words. As far as it goes as music, to me it’s just six minutes of hippie crap, with an extra one minute of middle-of-the-road rock jam. If you were young during the hippie era or like hippie things, then I’d imagine it to be the bestest thing ever. Otherwise, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-why-do-so-many-people-think-this-is-the-omg-best-ever-song/596738/27 "2011-09-19T06:50:17Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > It’s definitely a great song. Back when it came out and I was in college, I had a roommate who hated Led Zeppelin. We told him that he’d still like “Stairway.” To be cruel, we played the entire first side of the album; after each song, he’d say, disgustedly, “Was that it?” Finally, we got to the song. He loved it. Heh. Reminds me of some graffiti that was in my junior high’s boys bathroom (circa 1978): Led Zeppelin sucks!!! except Stairway to Heaven > [@Shakes](#): > > Seriously, I have like a ten minute commute to work. Hardly a day goes by when I go to work and I DON’T hear a LZ song. Jeez! just give it a rest already! Maybe you need to change stations. Maybe you should try the Modern Rock station, so you can hear one of the same 8 Nirvana songs every damn day. (Kind of scary to realize that to a high school kid today, Nirvana is older than the Beatles were to me when I was in high school) It’s become the “Citizen Kane” of rock, the automatic knee-jerk selection whenever there is a poll. You pick something else, you have to justify it. You go with the consensus pick, you’re done. No explanation needed. “Sgt. Pepper” used to be the same way in album polls, but that one was open to reassessment and now “Revolver” or “Pet Sounds” usually gets the nod. I’ve noticed that “Stairway” has slipped from the number one spot a few times in the local classic rock station’s annual listener-voted “Top N songs of all time” countdowns. (They’ve been doing these since the late 1970s, when they were still an AOR station - and “Stairway” was topping the countdowns then too). It always ends up Top 5, but in the last decade “Satisfaction” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” have managed to beat it. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-why-do-so-many-people-think-this-is-the-omg-best-ever-song/596738/28 "2011-09-19T07:48:52Z")
What are these “classic rock stations” you people speak of? ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-why-do-so-many-people-think-this-is-the-omg-best-ever-song/596738/29 "2011-09-19T11:31:10Z")
Dolly Parton’s version (dont’ laugh, I am serious) is one of the best out there imo… ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-why-do-so-many-people-think-this-is-the-omg-best-ever-song/596738/30 "2011-09-19T12:16:02Z")
And it is one of the few songs to have an album released that consists of only versions of the same song [Stairways To Heaven](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stairways-Heaven-Various-Artists/dp/B000005J65). On Andrew Denton’s _The Money or the Gun_ the guest musical act was only allowed to perform a cover of “Stairway To Heaven”. [Here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQuGub7yzpA) is another fine Aussie interpretation. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-why-do-so-many-people-think-this-is-the-omg-best-ever-song/596738/31 "2011-09-19T12:25:39Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > [Here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQuGub7yzpA) is another fine Aussie interpretation. I can’t do youtube here…Rolf Harris? ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-why-do-so-many-people-think-this-is-the-omg-best-ever-song/596738/32 "2011-09-19T13:25:49Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > It’s become the “Citizen Kane” of rock, the automatic knee-jerk selection whenever there is a poll. You pick something else, you have to justify it. You go with the consensus pick, you’re done. No explanation needed. “Sgt. Pepper” used to be the same way in album polls, but that one was open to reassessment and now “Revolver” or “Pet Sounds” usually gets the nod. I’ve noticed that “Stairway” has slipped from the number one spot a few times in the local classic rock station’s annual listener-voted “Top N songs of all time” countdowns. (They’ve been doing these since the late 1970s, when they were still an AOR station - and “Stairway” was topping the countdowns then too). It always ends up Top 5, but in the last decade “Satisfaction” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” have managed to beat it. I think this is the answer - enough factors established the meme that StW is “the bestest” now the real question is whether that meme will endure. No different than the Mona Lisa as the auto-respsonse to “bestest painting” or even Einstein being the “bestest scientist” and e=mc^2 being the “bestest equation.” As for “will it endure with that reputation?” - I dunno; I doubt it. I think Zep will make an enduring short list of bands as the rock memories fade and the era is commented on more by newbies vs. those that lived through it, but StW’s place as “the bestest” will be commented on as a historic curiosity that happened during the era… ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-why-do-so-many-people-think-this-is-the-omg-best-ever-song/596738/33 "2011-09-19T13:33:22Z")
I agree it’s a very good song. I can even still listen to it. My brother, though… He flops over and plays dead, complete with open, glassy eyes. Hilarious. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dahnlor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahnlor/32/533_2.png) [@Dahnlor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahnlor)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-why-do-so-many-people-think-this-is-the-omg-best-ever-song/596738/34 "2011-09-19T13:49:37Z")
I was playing Cranium with family a few years ago, and one of the activities was for somebody to hum the tune of a song while the others guessed what it was. At one point my uncle picked a card and saw what it was, and said “I’ve heard about this song, but I’ve never actually listened to it.” I immediately said “Stairway to Heaven!” and was correct. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-why-do-so-many-people-think-this-is-the-omg-best-ever-song/596738/35 "2011-09-19T13:53:08Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > It’s become the “Citizen Kane” of rock, the automatic knee-jerk selection whenever there is a poll. You pick something else, you have to justify it. You go with the consensus pick, you’re done. Kind of. These polls are done anonymously and with no need to do anything more than state your pick. There is no need to justify anything. I think it’s closer to the mark to say that people pick it because (a) it’s a very good song and (b) out of the range of very good songs it’s a notable very good song, so it comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-why-do-so-many-people-think-this-is-the-omg-best-ever-song/596738/36 "2011-09-19T18:12:41Z")
[No Stairway… denied!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD1KqbDdmuE) ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-why-do-so-many-people-think-this-is-the-omg-best-ever-song/596738/37 "2011-09-19T18:22:32Z")
I’ve been holding my lighter up for the entire time I’ve been reading this thread. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-why-do-so-many-people-think-this-is-the-omg-best-ever-song/596738/38 "2011-09-20T14:07:53Z")
> [@brocks](#): > > I can think of several reasons: > > 1. It’s a pretty good song, and there will never be a song so good that it’s _everybody’s_ favorite. > > 2. It was played so often that lots of people are bound to associate it with good memories, especially involving sex with someone much hotter than you could ever do today. > > 3. The lyrics are very clear, so it’s easy to sing along with. Yet they are just confusing enough to sound profound. > > 4. Likewise, the guitar lead of most of it is pretty easy to play, and eminently recognizable, so even rank amateurs can have more fun with it than with most classic rock. > > 5. It was by a hard rock group, and had a hard rock section, so manly men aren’t embarrassed to admit they like it. As opposed to, say, a Carpenters song. I think this covers most of it. Judging from its popularity among my guitar-playing friends, it also seems to be relatively easy to learn. And it sounds just as good on an acoustic guitar, as on an electric. Which makes it easy to impress the chicks in the coffee house. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-why-do-so-many-people-think-this-is-the-omg-best-ever-song/596738/39 "2011-09-20T14:29:34Z")
The mere thought of all the stores being closed just _ruins_ the song for me. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-why-do-so-many-people-think-this-is-the-omg-best-ever-song/596738/40 "2011-09-20T14:59:31Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > What are these “classic rock stations” you people speak of? Stations that play rock from the mid 60s to the late 70s or early 80s. The boomers are still kicking and still have money to spend, and the classic stuff has enough younger fans so that advertisers can reach two significant demographics at the same time. But of course, they tend to play. The same. Damn. Songs. Over and over. Again. :mad: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-why-do-so-many-people-think-this-is-the-omg-best-ever-song/596738.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-why-do-so-many-people-think-this-is-the-omg-best-ever-song/596738.md?page=3)