# Re: "What's the story behind Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven?'"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-whats-the-story-behind-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven/407184>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [June 7, 2007, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-whats-the-story-behind-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven/407184 "2007-06-07T21:35:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bearded\_oneder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@bearded\_oneder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bearded_oneder)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-whats-the-story-behind-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven/407184/1 "2007-06-07T21:35:57Z")

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Robert Plant Interview, NPR, Fresh Air from WHYY, August 24, 2004 -  
[Interview Source](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3868283)

Re: The ‘meaning’ of “Stairway To Heaven” -  
“It’s onomatopoeic. I was thinking about, uh, the need for a more … a sort of more organic relationship between our generation at the time who were living faster than fast, and - and - our environment, and the - the - uh … at times were very, um, well, I suppose ‘harum scarum’. And - and - “Stairway To Heaven” developed as a piece of music in one evening with Jimmy and myself, and that - that - kind of tone, that idiom about returning to nature to look for all of the signs to be - to be - aware of our environment yet again by the way that the old people, the people from long ago, marshalled their days, uh, marched to a different beat altogether. I thought it was an appropriate idiom to move into, because of the sort of majesty of the chord movement.”

Given the reference to the “May-Queen”, I think the lyrics could possibly at their worse have a neo-pagan / naturalist tone to them, rather than overtly Satanic. May Day is a very popular holiday in the UK. This would harmonize with the Celtic / UK roots of the band members.

Definition of [May-Queen](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/May%20Queen)

The lyrics are also vague enough that the song could be interpreted many ways by a broad audience - typical for music of that time. For example, one definition of May-Queen is, “the early part or springtime of life”, especially that of a blossoming female. Combined with the interview, that could lead one to interpret it as simply a call for society to abandon materialism, power-lust, and industrialization, to sing to a different tune, and to have a change of mind or experience a rebirth by returning to nature, getting back to basics, back to our roots.

I’ve been a student of the Bible for 21 years, and I’m not a fan of Neo-paganism or Satanism. However, to make the back masking theory appear plausible, requires one to either creatively read into the backward garble, or receive a suggestive interpretation from a third party beforehand, which quite frankly taints the experiment.

😉

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**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-whats-the-story-behind-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven/407184/2 "2007-06-08T10:47:09Z")

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Welcome. It helps the discussion to have a link to the column you’re refering to. Is [this](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030425.html) the one?