"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"
If you sing "there's still time to change the" the same way that Plant sings it, you'll be saying "here's to my sweet Satan" in reverse. I figured that out a while back fiddling with my computer/microphone. I ended up using my own voice singing "here's to my sweet Satan" as the start-up sound on my computer. It made people laugh.
― Brad Haywood, Monday, 15 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Colin Meeder, Monday, 15 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Matt Riedl (veal), Monday, 15 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
I think some Zep fans were fans because they found them terrifying, thrillingly so: even in their most fun songs, they gave every indication they really were some morally ambiguous pied pipers and not just some witty British blues shmoes with fantastic taste.
― Michael Daddino, Monday, 15 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
I think you're thinking of Nigel Tuffnel.
― Dave225, Monday, 15 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― kate, Monday, 15 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Sterling Clover, Monday, 15 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore, Thursday, 18 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Dan, Thursday, 18 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― A Nairn, Thursday, 18 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mike (ro)bott, Thursday, 18 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― david h(0wie), Thursday, 18 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
I just bought that 3CD live thing (I got a promo copy for like 15 bucks, I've got no Zep on CD and it has all my faves). Aside from when Robert yells "DOES ANYONE REMEMBER LAUGHTER" (why didn't he just fart on the mic?) that version is great too. I can't believe all the responses here are all so fucking wry. I know it said people should say interesting stuff, but where is the gushing admiration?
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 31 May 2003 20:27 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Saturday, 31 May 2003 20:34 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Saturday, 31 May 2003 20:36 (twenty-one years ago) link
― James Blount (James Blount), Saturday, 31 May 2003 20:36 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 31 May 2003 20:57 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 31 May 2003 21:07 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Joe (Joe), Sunday, 1 June 2003 00:45 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Dave Fischer, Sunday, 1 June 2003 01:31 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 1 June 2003 16:53 (twenty-one years ago) link
This sounded unusually sad this morning. [I just found a good vinyl copy of <IV - it sounds great on vinyl.] All the layered guitars on it are really remarkable. I really noticed how, well, suspended and somewhat sadly unresolved that inverted suspended chord thing that shows up in the "makes me wonder" part sounds. It's pretty ingenious how he used the open D (the fourth!) as a bass for that (to go IIRC from Em/D to D to C/D back to D in a song in Am). If he'd used either Em or C as the stepping stone back to Am like a normal writer, there would have been more of a sense of resolution. It sounds so unsatisfied this way, amplified by the fact that he actually goes back to Am7 (with the m7 suspended right at the top), a beautifully unresolved-sounding chord. Also, that the intro is built on a chromatically descending bass - such a simple principle but such a weird one at the same time. But of course, this is precisely like climbing down a stairway. I also like how when the electric is overdubbed into the mix, it sounds like it's just slightly delayed from the 12-string.
I hear the sadness a little differently from how Michael does. At least I remember that when I listened to it in middle school, it felt like the sadness had to do with a frustrating glimpse of but inability to fully grasp or be part of a utopian vision - "my spirit is crying for leaving".
― sundar subramanian (sundar), Saturday, 8 May 2004 15:35 (twenty years ago) link
― chaki (chaki), Friday, 11 August 2006 05:22 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 11 August 2006 05:42 (seventeen years ago) link
― musically (musically), Friday, 11 August 2006 05:51 (seventeen years ago) link
― Andrew (enneff), Friday, 11 August 2006 05:57 (seventeen years ago) link
― LC (Damian), Friday, 11 August 2006 08:35 (seventeen years ago) link
I´m still not tired of this song,
Me neither, even after hearing it hundreds of times. And when I listen to it on headphones and concentrate on the great keyboard work going on in the background the singing seems to fade into the background slightly, which seems to make it even more enjoyable.
― ned trifle is not working for you (Notinmyname), Wednesday, 22 July 2009 11:27 (fourteen years ago) link
And I'm looking forward to hearing Dolly's version
I was slightly disappointed with Dolly's version. Someone on some board somewhere complained that it was a "banjo clusterfuck" but to me it's not enough of one.
― ned trifle is not working for you (Notinmyname), Wednesday, 22 July 2009 11:39 (fourteen years ago) link
...wait, hold on:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2010/02/mary-j-blige-steve-vai-travis-barker-and-more-take-on-stairway-to-heaven.html
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef0128775e02b1970c-600wi
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 4 February 2010 18:44 (fourteen years ago) link
#89 pop hit, 1986:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svJURxdetwA
― xhuxk, Thursday, 4 February 2010 18:49 (fourteen years ago) link
Ah, there's Orianthi! I'd been waiting for her to show up on ILM.
― kingkongvsgodzilla, Thursday, 4 February 2010 19:29 (fourteen years ago) link
i'm kind of amazed how much i sincerely actually love this song.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Saturday, 27 October 2012 02:09 (eleven years ago) link
probably helps that i never listen to classic rock radio.
I rarely hear it on classic rock radio tbh, maybe once a year. On the other hand, I hear "D'yer Maker" all the time.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Saturday, 27 October 2012 02:39 (eleven years ago) link
i could never get sick of this song
― reggie (qualmsley), Saturday, 27 October 2012 03:01 (eleven years ago) link
I only ever listen to it in album context, so to me it's permanently associated with "Battle of Evermore"; that pairing is one of the best moments in rock, imo
― jim, Saturday, 27 October 2012 03:12 (eleven years ago) link
this song cured my hiccups a few weeks ago.
― With extreme tenderness - flexible - always guided by the words (get bent), Saturday, 27 October 2012 03:48 (eleven years ago) link
Singing it?
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Saturday, 27 October 2012 04:20 (eleven years ago) link
no, i was listening to the classic rock station and hiccuping through all the songs for about 20 minutes -- then "stairway" came on and the hiccups immediately stopped.
― With extreme tenderness - flexible - always guided by the words (get bent), Saturday, 27 October 2012 04:24 (eleven years ago) link
Hiccups = bustle in your hedge row?
― seandalai lama (Leee), Saturday, 27 October 2012 07:12 (eleven years ago) link
Zep played this a few times at their concerts before their fourth album was issued, and I've heard one of those performances on a boot. No shreaks from the audience in recognition when Jimmy plays the opening chords of this ultimate crowd-pleaser, and only mild applause at the end. It's an interesting snapshot from the brief era when "Stairway to Heaven" was a song even their fans had never heard of.
― Lee626, Saturday, 27 October 2012 13:17 (eleven years ago) link
John Paul Jones was asked if there was a magical feeling in the crowd when they played "Stairway" pre-release. He said, "God, no. People were bored."
― 5-Hour Enmity (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, 27 October 2012 13:37 (eleven years ago) link
Joe Posnanski dug up something interesting:
Al Michael's famous 1980 Olympics hockey call: 6 words.What Crash Davis believes in: 86 words"Freebird": 172 words.I Got You (I Feel Good)": 220 wordsGettysburg Address: 278 words (depending on version)"Stairway to Heaven": 341 words*Hamlet's Soliloquy: 341 words*Howard Beale's "Mad as Hell" speech: 446 wordsEntire creation story in bible: 655 words.Bill of Rights (original form): 678 wordsThe rule to determine if a pitcher wins or loses: 711 words."Coffee is for closers" monologue: 782 words."Rapper's Delight": 2,879 words.
*Coincidence? I think not.
I'm a little skeptical about that last one.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 20 May 2014 00:12 (ten years ago) link
"hamlet's soliloquy"
― difficult listening hour, Tuesday, 20 May 2014 00:23 (ten years ago) link
xp: I c&p'd a version of it into microsoft word and got 2,977 words.
― how's life, Tuesday, 20 May 2014 00:24 (ten years ago) link
It was a Spirit song first.― A Nairn, Wednesday, July 17, 2002 8:00 PM (11 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalinknamely "taurus".― mike (ro)bott, Wednesday, July 17, 2002 8:00 PM
namely "taurus".― mike (ro)bott, Wednesday, July 17, 2002 8:00 PM
http://time.com/105016/led-zeppelin-is-getting-sued-over-stairway-to-heaven/
― Iago Galdston, Tuesday, 20 May 2014 01:37 (ten years ago) link
Deja vu
― calstars, Tuesday, 20 May 2014 02:32 (ten years ago) link
If someone would rather listen to Spirit, they're free to do so.
― calstars, Tuesday, 20 May 2014 02:33 (ten years ago) link
That film is dubbed. Its not really Ward saying that stuff. He's really saying "thanks for coming. try the veal and tip your server".
― Prince Kajuku (Bill Magill), Thursday, 22 May 2014 17:43 (ten years ago) link
If Ward is so good and nice then why is he not in Black Sabbath? Huh? HUH!?
Case closed.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 22 May 2014 18:51 (ten years ago) link
the lawyer in the Spirit/Zep case sounds like such a despicable fuckup in this unrelated lawsuit that Zep probably has nothing to worry about:
http://m.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-juice/6099113/usher-gets-good-news-in-bad-girl-dispute
― ςὖτ ιτ Οὖτ (some dude), Friday, 23 May 2014 23:46 (ten years ago) link
It has an unusual structure. No chorus, just verse piled upon verse until it builds to a single peak. I like that.
― Mark, Sunday, July 14, 2002 7:00 PM (12 years ago)
it does have the refrain tho to link the verses together - 'makes me wonder'
i haven't checked but i feel like it gets a lot out of its pronouns. opening section, the singer sings about the lady. he shows up later as an 'i'. then when he's still singing as an 'i' he sings 'you' a lot - he seems to technically be addressing the lady, but it's all very canny, since by that point momentum has been building and the song has been getting more involving and just the way the phrasing works, it's pretty natural to think it's about 'you', but it's not the 'you' of a rock song in the format of being addressed to a generic/specific opposite for the singer (lover, romantic pursuit, etc.), by the time that it's been narrativized like that you hear it as the second-person present that signals an immediate perspective (jay mcinerny-style, at least per what used to be the go-to example) that tracks thru the real-time movement of the song that you're experiencing. which, duh - look at the lyrics at that point, when the drums kick in
If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now,It's just a spring clean for the May queen.Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long runThere's still time to change the road you're on.And it makes me wonder.
Your head is humming and it won't go, in case you don't know,The piper's calling you to join him,Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow, and did you knowYour stairway lies on the whispering wind?
so you literally get a little discombobulated by the hedgerow line, because he tells you not to be alarmed just after you're like, what the fuck is a hedgero—oh right, and then the next line doesn't quite parse, so you feel a sense of mystery, and just as the music is amping up he starts talking about you like you're traveling and there's still time, so you're sitting there feeling the time get faster (so there's urgency! there's time but you can't be late!) and yes your head IS humming because the music is humming and the piper's calling YOU! after that i feel like the slip back to addressing the lady is just a formality.
can u tell i've been listening to a lot of zeppelin this week
― j., Saturday, 28 February 2015 03:46 (nine years ago) link
The lack of coherency in the lyric may be one of the reasons why Plant appears to be so embarrassed by Stairway nowadays. Can't say it bothers me, but then again no one's asking me to sing it in public.
― Vast Halo, Saturday, 28 February 2015 20:39 (nine years ago) link
J., there's also a "we" that seems important: between the "I' verse ("There's a feeling I get...") and the first "you" verse (the hedgerow business), you get "And it's whispered that soon/If we all call the tune/Then the piper will lead us to reason/And a new day will dawn" etc. Then the third-person lady, the "you", and the "we" (but not the "I") all come together in the final hard rock section: "we wind on down the road"; "there walks a lady we all know"; "if you listen very hard, the tune will come to you at last".
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Saturday, 28 February 2015 20:58 (nine years ago) link
yes, i left those out even though they're obviously the payoff pronouns, because i don't know what we're supposed to be, like, united behind, even though obviously we are. calling the tune.
― j., Saturday, 28 February 2015 22:13 (nine years ago) link
Back in the news.
― Terry Micawber (Tom D.), Tuesday, 12 April 2016 12:47 (eight years ago) link
Already noted in the general Zep thread...
― schlep and back trio (anagram), Tuesday, 12 April 2016 13:09 (eight years ago) link
this is playing in the coffee shop. hard to not start singing along.
― Treeship, Thursday, 2 June 2016 15:05 (eight years ago) link
oooOOOOOOoooooooooooo it makes me wonder
i love corny classic rock staples so much.
― Treeship, Thursday, 2 June 2016 15:09 (eight years ago) link
never been any reason is my personal stairway to heaven
― dynamicinterface, Thursday, 2 June 2016 15:16 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QFDsUgjqIo
― alb indys, Thursday, 2 June 2016 15:21 (eight years ago) link
OMG, I don't think I've ever seen that clip. Al Stewart as a punchline! What a world!
― Al Moon Faced Poon (Moodles), Thursday, 2 June 2016 15:51 (eight years ago) link
I love SCTV so much
― Iago Galdston, Thursday, 2 June 2016 16:03 (eight years ago) link
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jun/23/led-zeppelin-cleared-stairway-to-heaven-lawsuit-spirit
― heaven parker (anagram), Thursday, 23 June 2016 18:05 (seven years ago) link
amen
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 23 June 2016 19:03 (seven years ago) link
correct
― global tetrahedron, Thursday, 23 June 2016 19:03 (seven years ago) link
Stupidest infringement case ever
― Iago Galdston, Thursday, 23 June 2016 19:57 (seven years ago) link
but wait!https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Led-Zeppelin-to-face-retrial-over-Stairway-13266011.php
― Οὖτις, Friday, 28 September 2018 20:16 (five years ago) link
this is dumb as shit
While allowing a new jury to hear a recording of "Taurus" may put Led Zeppelin at a disadvantage, the context in which the recording can now be considered by jurors will be limited. The plaintiffs can play it for Page in open court to ask him if he'd ever heard the song before writing "Stairway."Allowing "the jury to observe Page listening to the recordings would have enabled them to evaluate his demeanor while listening to the recordings as well as when answering questions," the three-judge appeals panel said. That line of questioning would be meant to establish whether Page had "access" to the song, an element of copyright infringement.At the same time, the jury will still be instructed only to consider the sheet music when assessing whether the two songs are "substantially similar," the other element of infringement, the appeals court said.
Allowing "the jury to observe Page listening to the recordings would have enabled them to evaluate his demeanor while listening to the recordings as well as when answering questions," the three-judge appeals panel said. That line of questioning would be meant to establish whether Page had "access" to the song, an element of copyright infringement.
At the same time, the jury will still be instructed only to consider the sheet music when assessing whether the two songs are "substantially similar," the other element of infringement, the appeals court said.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 28 September 2018 20:19 (five years ago) link
observe Page listening to the recordings would have enabled them to evaluate his demeanor
Like his eyes are gonna comically bug out and steam will start shooting out of his ears.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 28 September 2018 20:40 (five years ago) link
Wtf
― The nexus of the crisis (Sund4r), Saturday, 29 September 2018 13:20 (five years ago) link
Of all the potential copyright infringements, this one is the dumbest.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 29 September 2018 13:21 (five years ago) link
our shadows = taller than our souls
― reggie (qualmsley), Thursday, 8 November 2018 01:40 (five years ago) link
Like his eyes are gonna comically bug out and steam will start shooting out of his ears.LOL, seriously. Or he starts tugging at his collar nervously as beads of sweat begin pouring down his brow...
― too busy or too stoned (morrisp), Thursday, 8 November 2018 03:35 (five years ago) link
https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.GhCH-McVawkZkBuQ4DEuxAHaEL&pid=Api
Guilty!
― Rhine Jive Click Bait (Hadrian VIII), Thursday, 8 November 2018 03:39 (five years ago) link
Btw — the RIAA is urging for this case not to be opened back up, saying that a ruling against Zep would throw the music copyright field into chaos (...even more than the “Blurred Lines” decision has, I add editorially).
― too busy or too stoned (morrisp), Thursday, 8 November 2018 03:46 (five years ago) link
Sorry, I didn’t state it very well — it’s the ruling by the three-judge panel, vacating the earlier verdict and saying that LZ must face a new trial, that the RIAA and a music publishers’ group are pushing back on:
On Monday, the RIAA and the NMPA warned that the panel decision would allow infringement claims over the use of "basic musical elements that have long been seen as unprotectable.""Nearly every time a composer chooses to include a sequence of a few notes, an arpeggio or a chromatic scale in a composition, some other composer will have most likely 'selected' the same elements at some level of generality," the groups said.
― too busy or too stoned (morrisp), Thursday, 8 November 2018 05:00 (five years ago) link
george harrison got what he deserved.
― billstevejim, Thursday, 8 November 2018 06:44 (five years ago) link
Still can’t get used to that extra beat at 5:35 after all these years
― calstars, Saturday, 29 August 2020 14:22 (three years ago) link
It's not an extra beat. The "one" just isn't where you think it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhlLtd19szw
Frank Zappa's cover helps emphasize this (starting at 6:03 in this version):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOADUlfh2qY
[/rhythmic pedantry]
― SlimAndSlam, Sunday, 30 August 2020 12:09 (three years ago) link
One of the weirder things that happen in Jimmy's solo towards the end of the 3rd bar (~6:08), when he's playing in the 5th position, he releases his barre and plays a single open G string, semi-palm muted.
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Saturday, 7 November 2020 07:07 (three years ago) link
Maybe a flub?
― calstars, Saturday, 7 November 2020 12:13 (three years ago) link
Do you mean the G at the beginning of m. 6 here?: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/3e/a7/34/3ea734fe981150735f350e6288b7ae89.jpg . I've always done that on the 5th fret of the D string. I'm pretty sure it's intentional in any case. That said, tbh, I actually do find this solo challenging to do cleanly at tempo.
― I guess I'd be lonesome (Sund4r), Saturday, 7 November 2020 15:07 (three years ago) link
I just checked the live clips from the Song Remains the Same version and the 75 Earls Court version and that passage is completely different from the studio version both times, although everything in the solo prior to that point is v close. Maybe he found it challenging too?
― I guess I'd be lonesome (Sund4r), Saturday, 7 November 2020 15:35 (three years ago) link
(although tbh that's actually one of the easy parts imo, at least if you do it all in fifth position)
― I guess I'd be lonesome (Sund4r), Saturday, 7 November 2020 15:37 (three years ago) link
A student brought in "Samba Triste" and I wonder if maybe Baden Powell should have sued Spirit:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znEjrSnwP_4
Brian Hodel's arrangement, from 83, I think, actually uses the identical voicings of the first three chords as they are found in "Stairway":https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTpqZlEimtI
― Sequel to Sadness (Sund4r), Wednesday, 20 October 2021 03:35 (two years ago) link