“Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin is considered one of the greatest rock songs ever. It’s a 7-minute rock epic with meaningful lyrics that can be interpreted in various ways. Lead singer Robert Plant, who co-wrote the song, recently said the song’s meaning has changed for him over time.
Robert Plant and Jimmy Page co-wrote ‘Stairway to Heaven’
“Stairway to Heaven” was released in 1971 on the album Led Zeppelin IV. The music for the song was written by guitarist Page in 1970 at Bron-Yr-Aur, a remote cottage in Wales, where the band spent some time after their fifth American concert tour.
In the novel Light and Shade: A Historic Look at the Entire Led Zeppelin Catalogue Through the Eyes of Guitarist/Producer/Mastermind Jimmy Page by Brad Tolinski and Greg Di Benedetto, Plant first attempted the lyrics for it at Headley Grange, Hampshire. Page said, “a huge percentage of the lyrics were written there and then.” The song was completed in 1971 but was never released as a single.
Robert Plant says his perspective on ‘Stairway to Heaven’ by Led Zeppelin has changed over time
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Plant discussed the meaning behind the lyrics of “Stairway to Heaven.” Plant said the song was originally about hope, but his opinion of the song has changed as the world has changed.
“It was such a long time ago. I used to say it in Zeppelin, ‘This is a song of hope.’ And it’s crazy, really, because it was gargantuan at the time. The musical construction was, at its time, something very special, and I know that Jimmy and the guys were really, really proud of it, and they gave it to me and said, ‘What are you going to do about this?’ So I set about trying to write something which I suppose drops into the same idiom as something like ‘The Rover’ later on, or maybe ‘Rain Song,’ something where there’s some optimism and reflection from someone who was really not [old]. I was 23 or something like that.”
“And so what do I think now? When I hear it in isolation, I feel overwhelmed for every single reason you could imagine. There was a mood and an air of trying to make it through. The world is a different place. Everybody was reeling from Vietnam and the usual extra helping of corruption with politics. There were people who were really eloquent who brought it home far less pictorially and did a much better job of reaching that point.”
‘Stairway to Heaven’ is considered one of the greatest rock songs of all time
No matter how people interpret “Stairway to Heaven,” it has still been immortalized in rock history. Many consider it to be one of the greatest rock songs, cementing Led Zeppelin as a legendary band.
It’s hard to know how successful the song was as it never charted because it was never released as a single. However, Led Zeppelin IV is one of the greatest-selling albums of all time, and that is partly due to people buying the record just to listen to “Stairway to Heaven.”
English (US)