I happened to be wandering around the Internet looking for someplace to listen to Led Zepplin’s song ‘Stairway to Heaven’, as I had never heard it, only seen the lyrics quoted (I’m in the wrong generation to remember Led Zepplin). Anyway, I happened to find this rather amusing column, and was surprised to note that Cecil made no mention of the incomparable J.R.R. Tolkien, whom Led Zepplin quoted in many of their songs, ‘Stairway to Heaven’ being one of them. Specifically, the lines “There’s a feeling I get when I look to the West and my spirit is crying for leaving.” references the theme in Tolkien’s novels of the call of the West (Valinor-the Undying Lands) to the Elves. Almost all of the song’s lyrics may be interpreted according to Tolkien’s works, but another specific reference is the “…lady we all know, who shines white light…”, Lady Galadriel, who is known as the Lady of Light. On the other hand, this is coming from a Tolkien freak who can quote large chunks of the books and explain the geaneology of the High-elven Royal Houses, but it is agreed upon by a number of members of the online Tolkien community. Two examples of those who share this belief can be found on fanfiction.net in the parody “The Gospel According to Tolkien” and the story “Brothers in Arms” by the Nightrunners. From what I know of the Sixties, this interpretation fits quite well with the culture of the time in which ‘everyone’ (of college age anyway) had read “The Lord of the Rings”. I hope this helps, if anyone actually cares.
Just as a reference: The fabled / banned Stairway to Gilligan’s Island (by Little Roger and the Goosebumps*) - with Sherwood Schwartz (as opposed to LOTR) references has finally surfaced on the Internet.
*requires Macromedia Flash Xtra
We’ve covered this before (in Cafe Society and here in Comments). Certainly, Led Zepplin drew from a wide variety of influences, and in some cases they were influenced by the same sources as Tolkien, or even by Tolkien himself. But I think the consensus was that there are no direct references to Tolkien in Stairway. Looking to the West with longing, for instance, is common to all folklore of the British Isles, and I suspect that every human culture on Earth has a “Lady of Light”. Furthermore, there’s no coherent way to make the whole song fit into a Tolkien framework: Is Galadriel the narrator, as implied by “I look to the West”, or is it someone else singing about her (the Lady of Light, or the May Queen)? What are the stores that are all closed? What’s the titular stairway supposed to be?
[QUOTE=Yavieriel TarandirI happened to be wandering around the Internet looking for someplace to listen to Led Zepplin’s song ‘Stairway to Heaven’, as I had never heard it[/QUOTE]
:eek: :eek: :eek:
Possibly the most incredible thing I’ve ever read on the boards; I didn’t know it was possible to avoid the song if you wanted!
In this thread, which Chronos has already linked to, I pointed out the many things in “Stairway to Heaven” doesn’t seem to refer to Galadriel (or Arwen either):
I think that Robert Plant (probably on drugs) was told to make up some words to a song on the spot and, because he had read The Lord of the Rings, some of them vaguely referred to that book.
The Battle of Evermore mentions the Queen of Light, and also ringwraiths (and also Avalon and a bunch of other stuff, so, ya, I dunno). There does seem to be a LOTR thread running through Zep IV and others. Here is a discussion about that.
ISTM that if it is the queen of the Elves from LOTR buying a stairway to heaven, that means she is going to take herself and the rest of the elves over the western seas (and perhaps off the planet entirely), never to return to Middle Earth, forevermore, ceding it to the race of Men. If there is a link to the Battle of Evermore then it is the motive, namely that Men with their short lifespans can produce expendable soldiers and therefore wage war, whereas the Elves don’t reproduce all that much and just cannot endure the slaughter, and will opt to bug out instead.
But the “buying” bit has always made me think of some 70s chick scoring some 70s drugs, only she’s cool and has all these hard-to-pin-down deep thoughts and a meaningful life in general, and it doesn’t end in tragedy but instead is overall kind of neat-o. If she’s new to menstruating, the departing elves could easily represent the magical world of childhood, receding. There’s even a killer guitar solo.