Classic Rock station playlist:
Stairway To Heaven
Purple Haze
Layla
Break On Through (To The Other Side)
Back In Black
Hotel California
Born To Be Wild
Comfortably Numb
Repeat ad infinitum
Re Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven" Why do so many people think this is the "OMG Best Ever" song?
You forgot “Dust In The Wind”.
And I held this post too long. I’m going to have that earworm for the next five hours…
I will concede only that some of the more progressive stations will play as many as 12 different songs in their rotation and that Dust is sometimes found in that extended list. 
I don’t usually try this sort of thing, but I often enjoy reading the attempts of others, so I’m going to try it this once.
The bare bones of the song are basic folk song material. As others have mentioned, the words do an almost perfect job of sounding profound without really saying anything, which a pretty big achievement on its own. What really makes STH a masterpiece, IMO, is the production and execution. There are some pretty special things being done in those areas.
The acoustic intro is simple and pretty and really memorable. There’s something about the deliberate pace of it that commands our attention. The recorders played in harmony by JPJ are haunting and add to the feeling that something mysterious is building. When the singing starts, we get a few lines, then we’re back to the intro, then some more words. It’s not a barrage of lyrics, it’s punctuated. All of this adds to the tension that is going to be released. During the “It makes me wonder” bridges, JPJ plays bass on a keyboard, and it’s awesome. Simple, kind of grave and just really, really cool. The contrast between the slow bass line and the strumming of the guitar during these bridges is a great touch.
Then Bonham comes in. If there’s a more perfect demonstration of how a simple drum part can elevate a piece of music to another level, I haven’t heard it. I could spend a couple of hundred words rhapsodizing about just this element, but I don’t want to bore you, if I haven’t already.
Then we get to the break where everything stops, and Page starts the D2 - D - Dsus4 sequence that is going to take us to the guitar solo. I can still remember the first time I heard this, and the feeling it created in me, like something cool was about to happen, and it did. A simple Am G F pattern under what I consider one of the coolest guitar solos ever. Not fast, not hard to play, but just perfect. And the last seconds of the buildup to the solo are just amazing to me, how Bonham handles the tempo change, Page’s little B A G triplet on the G string just before the E that starts the solo.
Once the singing comes back in, we’re now in familiar Zeppelin territory, but what a ride to get there!
I don’t listen to classic rock, despite being part of their target demographic, so I hadn’t heard the song in a while until recently. I was listening to my Beatles station on Pandora nad it decided I needed to hear STH. It’s still awesome to me.
And that’s probably way underestimating.
I play guitar and I am constantly asked to play that piece of shit song. It gets really annoying.
I didn’t see this mentioned, but I didn’t read every post in depth, but I think a large part of Stairway’s popularity has to do with the controversy over the supposed backward lyrics. Surely, that whole bit got a lot of kids to listen to it that otherwise might not have and it got a lot of exposure which, in turn, probably helped with this.
Personally, I like the song, but it’s far from the best song ever. Sure, I give it some points for being ambitious and an inspiration to future songs, but that just makes it influential, not the best.
… and in the original draft, it was during a 1/2 off sale.
As a big Zep fan I love the song, but that’s in large part because I turn it off near every time it comes on and choose to just place it every once in awhile when the quality is right, like when I’m home alone.
Crotalus’s points about the build are well stated. When you first hear it you know something special is on the way. And if it’s been awhile since you heard it, there’s no reason that should change.
Okay then…
Crotalus, I think your break down of what works for the song makes a lot of sense. Bottom line, it is a “build up, build up, build up, release” song structure and Zep executes it really well, in all the ways that you describe.
I guess I would say this: When I was a kid, it was official that Zep was the coolest band out there - I mean, the older kids always said that and no one my age (12, 13 at the time) ever got busted claiming Zep for a favorite, whereas claiming bands like KISS or Fleetwood Mac could lead to abuse and derision.
But, honestly, I didn’t get Zep very well at the time. I mean, Rock n’ Roll was really cool, but it was pretty straightforward - how was it better than Aerosmith’s cover of Train Kept a Rollin’? And songs like Black Dog - it just made me stop and start - this average suburban kid didn’t really know how to process it.
But Stairway? Man, I could see how Zep hit a homerun with that song - my 13-year-old brain could see that it was more complexly-structured vs. normal classic rock; I could play bits of it as I tried to pick up guitar; I could slow dance with Delene for the first few minutes of the song - and Zep even refused to release it as a single (or something like that; I forget) - so I mean, it must mean they were Real Artists™.
So Stairway became Zep’s crossover calling card for a bunch of kids like me, and I am sure for other folks who didn’t quite understand the Zep phenomenon, but that one song was okay…
I love “Stairway”, overplayed though it is. I like the dreamy, slow feeling of it. It probably helps that I don’t listen to the radio much these days – (well, not the RADIO radio. I prefer the digital cable music channels. Fortunately, they tend not to over play it.)
However, it’s not my favorite Zeppelin tune. THAT would be “The Rain Song”.
Too late to add: oh, and then around the end of the 70’s it got framed as the “most played song on FM radio” - no clue on what basis, but that became the conventional wisdom, further reinforcing its place as the Mona Lisa of rock songs…
At 39 I’m a bit too young for Zeppelin to have been a popular band during my formative years.
But “Stairway to Heaven” is just a hell of a song. It really is. Years after it was released, years after John Bonham died and Zeppelin stopped making music and they were to me as ancient as the Beatles, when I heard that song I was like “Holy shit, that is one hell of a song.” It’s got it all; tremendous buildup, great instrumentation, great vocals, great (if meaningless) lyrics, great hooks. There’s not a note out of place. It’s overplayed to be sure, but when I go a long time without hering it - and since I almost never listen to the radio that’s easy to do - and then hear it again, I always find myself thinking, “Damn, but that’s such a great song.”
I don’t think it’s the best song ever, but it’s an essentially perfect hard rock anthem. As an essentially perfect hard rock anthem by what was at the time the most influential hard rock band in the world, it’s not terribly surprising that it became an iconic song.
Clothahump’s complaint about being asked to play Stairway reminded me of some ancient personal history that I hope you’ll find amusing.
In the early 80s, I had a solo gig at a bar in Baltimore called The Horse You Came In On. It was just me singing and playing guitar. One of the things that made playing five hours sets by myself possible and tolerable was to try to mix in some songs that were not “the usual suspects” in terms of the solo singer repertoire. I played lots of the usual Buffett, Young, Taylor, et cetera, but I also liked to throw in some Sinatra, Bobby Darin, and some full-band rock songs that don’t usually get played in that sort of venue.
Fairly often, someone who was feeling particularly drunk and clever would shout out a request for Stairway To Heaven or Free Bird. If they kept it up long enough, I would say “You asked for it” and then accommodate them. Stairway was pretty normal until the guitar solo, which I would play note-for-note with no accompaniment. Then I would screech out the last vocal part. I pretty much did it exactly as recorded, but parts of it sounded terrible due to the lack of a band and the fact that I sound like Tiny Tim when I try to sing the ending.
Free Bird was more fun, in a sick sort of way. I’m an OK slide player, but for these occasions I would use a beer mug for a slide. I’d finger-pick the piano stuff, then start playing slide with the mug, and slog my way through the entire thing. By the time I finished, people were either going wild because they enjoyed the joke, or begging me to stop. Sometimes a little of both.
hehehe, that reminds me of a guy that played at a piano bar in Providence RI in the 80s. I used to hang out in this place after work, and he asked me if there was anything I wanted to hear. I said Pigs (three different ones). He played it, and got an awesome response from the patrons. It got so he would start playing it every time I walked in the place.
Even when with a word you can get what you came for? Hard to please much?
“FREEEEBIIIIIIRRRRRDDD”
gets out lighter
Poor taste.
Really, keep the pseudo-baroque opening & drop all the screaming overamped boring rock guitar & it would be pretty cool.
Still not the best ever. Not in a world with Katrina and the Waves, let alone Pink Floyd.
Barry Crocker. And the Doug Anthony Allstars. Worth a watch.
_
Zappa does Stairway
OK, I was going from memory. Weirdly, the classic rock station I used to listen to didn’t play STH much.
On listening to it now, it actually didn’t piss me off as much as I remember it doing as a youth. It’s mostly Plant’s vocals that are screechy on the track, and even those just at the end. The hype around the song and band is annoying, though.
And for those of us who came of age in the 70s, StH was the song playing when we got to hold a real live girl closely for the first time during a “slow dance”.:rolleyes:
Click above for Rolf Harris version. That “How does it effect you blokes?” exchange still cracks me up.