here’s something interesting about the song.
http://www.triplo.com/ev/reversal/
about halfway down the page.
No, wait, it’s not Galadriel or Arwen! The song is really all about Lobelia Sackville-Baggins. Remember how she’s always trying to steal Bilbo’s cutlery? That’s “All that glitters”. And the “Sign on the door”? Obviously the one which says “Official Party Business Only”, but she’s not sure if “official” or “business” refers to her, so she barges in on Bilbo anyway. But by the end of the trilogy, she’s matured, and is clonking half-orcs upside the head with her umbrella (that’s the “Spring Clean”).
Doesn’t it all make so much more sense now?
No, it’s not about LOTR, it’s about TWWOO. The lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold is Dorothy, who is buying a stairway to heaven - a yellow brick road to the Emerald City. The sign on the wall refers to the sign when Dorothy meets the Scarecrow. The lady who shines white light is Glenda the Good Witch of the North. And the stairway lying on the whispering wind refers to the real way back to Kansas, not the yellow brick road and Oz, or the balloon, but whispering to herself as she clicks her heels together. Yeah, that’s it.
The bustle in the hedgerow must refer to the Munchkins after she crashes the house onto the Wicked Witch of the East - a spring clean indeed. Or maybe the spring clean is washing away the Wicked Witch of the West.
C’mon, do you really think Plant was sitting there with LOTR in one hand and pen to paper in the other writing a song about specific events in the LOTR. The documented evidence points away from this theory. Had he read LOTR?, yes. Was his songwriting influenced by it?, probably. But it’s a long leap to say that S2H is “about” LOTR.
I think a quote from Lennon/McCartney sums it up best;
“these are words that go together well”
BTW, Hyde;
Interesting link, but I listened to the samples without looking at the translations given and it all sounded like gibberish to me. It only comes clearer if you read the translation at the same time you’re listening, even then, most are a stretch at best. Whoever has the time to spend looking for those examples has way too much time on their hands.
I always thought the song was about JFK’s assasaination…
‘There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold’
Could mean either that the only thing that glitters is gold or that everything that glitters is gold… either way it’s Jackie…
‘And she’s buying a stairway to heaven’
She’s paying for somebody to be killed…
‘And when she gets there she knows if the stores are closed
With a word she can get what she came for’
Al Fayed would open up Harrods if Aristotle O. got his chequebook out…
‘Woe oh oh oh oh oh’
Crocodile tears
‘And she’s buying a stairway to heaven’
but someone else is paying…
‘There’s a sign on the wall but she wants to be sure
And you know sometimes words have two meanings’
An obvious red herring…
‘In the tree by the brook there’s a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven’
Change ‘In the tree by the brook’ to ‘In the underground carpark’, a fairly obvious allusion…
“Woe oh oh oh oh oh
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven”
“There’s a feeling I get when I look to the west”
A premonition of Bobby’s death, obviously…
‘And my spirit is crying for leaving’
and nothing he can do to prevent it…
‘In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees’
Cryptic this one. What are books made out of? Wood. From trees. An obvious reference to the Book depositary…
‘And the voices of those who stand looking’
Probably Gandalf or Aragorn…
‘Woe oh oh oh oh oh
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven’
‘And it’s whispered that soon, if we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason’
I’m sure I saw a film once where they called a gun a ‘pipe’…
‘And a new day will dawn for those who stand long’
A Mafia reference: LindON Gionson…
‘And the forest will echo with laughter’
Viet-Cong, obviously…
‘And it makes me wonder’
predicting the conspiracy theories…
‘If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow’
Read: If there’s a commotion in your grassy knoll…
‘Don’t be alarmed now
It’s just a spring clean for the May Queen’
Clearing the way for Ari O…
‘Yes there are two paths you can go by
but in the long run
There’s still time to change the road you’re on’
He never fancied going to Dallas…
‘Your head is humming and it won’t go because you don’t know’
The hum of the bullet flying through the air, ‘because you don’t know’’:- it would have hit him bfore he heard it…
‘The piper’s calling you to join him
Dear lady can’t you hear the wind blow and did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind’
I think the drugs were kicking in about now…
And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our souls
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last
When all are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll
Woe oh oh oh oh oh
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven
There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven
And when she gets there she knows if the stores are closed
With a word she can get what she came for
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven, uh uh uh.
[Next Week: ‘Stairway To Heaven’ interpreted as a prediction of the European cup quarter-final betwween Derby County & Real Madrid in 1974]
Perhaps this is a bit off-topic but since eevryone seems to have analyzed the lyrics to the hilt, one comment about the music would be in order. It is finally coming to light that Jimmy Page “borrowed” the opening guitar riff from “Taurus” - a song from Spirit’s first album released in 1967. It was written by their guitarist Randy California who drowned in 1997. It is nice to see that a “mere” 3 decades after “Stairway To Heaven” was released and over 6 years since Mr Clifornia’s death that the truth is finally emerging. Here is just one URL which mentions the similarity between the 2 songs:
http://internettrash.com/users/therail/ledzep.html
I have a friend who claims to have heard Plant and Page on the radio, say the song was about how you sometimes realise that you’ve changed your mind on issues that you once felt passionately about, but you should not let the thought that may happen again stop you feeling passionately about other issues now. However my friend was totally unable to substantiate this by references to the lyrics themselves.
Just a datapoint.