Stairway to heaven
was written in December 1970, during a writing session for Led Zeppelin's fourth album at Headley Grange. The song is mostly written in the moderately tedious A-minor, and uses 4/4 time throughout. It was first performed at the Ulster Hall on 5 March 1971. It was a nine-minute behemoth of a song, causing many of the patrons to wonder if there was something more interesting to come. By the time the album emerged in November 1971, Stairway...
, complete with meaningless lyrics, had caught the drug-addled zeitgeist.
Never released as a physical single - the group refused to allow a radio edit, and the song was too long to fit onto 7-inch vinyl - Stairway
was generally the last song performed at the group's concerts; this lack of variety caused vocalist Robert Plant to mutter that the song was becoming sanctimonious and an albatross around the group's neck. Guitar-shop owners certainly thought so, suggesting that people try arpeggiating something other than the opening bars. As we mentioned on Sunday, the song has become a top 40 hit following its release on downloads.
Led Zeppelin split in 1980. It wasn't until 1985 that the first single version reached the UK charts, the only hit for Austrian supergroup The Far Corporation - producer Frank Farian, and including members of Barclay James Harvest, Trio, and Boney M. They made number 8. Pranksters Dread Zeppelin released their version in 1991, combining reggae and Elvis Presley; it stalled at number 61.
By then, Australian chat show The Money or the Gun had been and almost gone. Andrew Denton and his guests fronted a topical satire, which included a version of Stairway to heaven
performed by someone who had a vague link to the matter in hand, except when they had no link and just did it for the hell of it. An album of this phenomenon, Stairways to Heaven
was put out in 1991, featuring versions by tribute bands such as The Australian Doors Show, The Rock Lobsters, and Vegimite Reggae. There were also some stars in their own right involved, including John Paul Young (of Love is in the air
fame) and HRH Sir Rolf Harris. Rolf said that he had never knowingly heard the song until he came to record it, but improvised from the sheet music. As far as the UK singles chart is concerned, Rolf's version is the definitive one, peaking at number 6 in February 1993.
In the early 1980s, a publicity-hungry godbotherer told the press that, if you listen to Stairway to heaven
backwards, you hear a message exhorting the worship of Satan. This is, of course, complete tosh. However, we can exclusively reveal that if you listen to the Rolf Harris version backwards, and slow it down by 10%, you will hear a tenth more Stairway
than if you heard it normally, only it'll be in reverse.
It makes us wonder.
