Stairway to Heaven

[Disgruntled70sHab]

Sometimes I just don't understand where the inspiration for lyrics come from. One of those songs was/is "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin.

I read several opinions on this song, but this one kept me reading.

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There's a Lady Who's Sure All that Glitters is Gold - Materialism in Society

Stairway to Heaven begins by introducing a Lady who's sure all that glitters is gold. The woman may represent the increasing materialism of society in the late 1960s, and the following decades, along with the belief that material possession will assist one on the road to Heaven.

Of course, in the context 'Heaven' is not a religious destination, but the state of divine happiness, supposedly achieved through wealth and power.

As the song progresses it is revealed that greed is foolish, childish and can have some horrific consequences.

There's a Song Bird Who Sings 'Sometimes All of Our Thoughts are Misgiven' - The Earth as the Sufferer

In the second verse, Led Zeppelin employs the natural world to illustrate the physical suffering and deterioration selfishness causes to the planet as a whole.

This message begins with a gentle warning from a bird singing in a tree and becomes more explicit in the next verse as a forest burns. The effects on the planet are juxtaposed by the lack of action or responsibility from those who stand looking.

The Piper Will Lead Us to Reason - Society as the Greedy and the Childish

Stairway's fourth verse draws an intertextual allusion to the tale of the Pied Piper of Hameln, who freed a township from a plague a rodents and was not issued the pre-arranged payment. Angry and vengeful at the townfolk, the Piper returned, lead away all of their offspring with his music and he and the children were never seen again.

It is not clear whether Zeppelin meant society to be the townsfolk or the children in the re-shaping of this frightful tale and quite likely that they meant for the reference to be a two-fold accusation.

The townsfolk were greedy and conniving, wishing to have a rat-free town but not to pay the price, while the children were easily lead astray by beautiful music and the promise of fun and games - both very much like society and its obsession with material wealth without responsibility.

Spring Clean for the May Queen - A Return to Nature

Nature returns to Stairway in the fifth verse, this time in the form of a tamed and domesticated hedgerow - once a form of wealth and status itself.

The lyrics announce that should a flurry of activity begin in the well-ordered and neatly trimmed world society has carved, it will herald the coming of the May Queen - a mythical symbol of purity, youth and springtime, or re-birth.

This may translate to a hope for restoration of modesty and contentment.

There's Still Time to Change the Road You're On - It's Never Too Late for Second Chances

Zeppelin reminds listeners that it is never too late to see the error of one's ways and that if you listen very hard, the tune will come to you at last. The tune is a metaphor for knowing that something is wrong and not quite being able to put your finger on it - like a song that plays through one's mind without words or a title. However, paying close attention to detail, will often present an answer.

There Walks a Lady We All Know - Everyone is Familiar with Desire

In the final verse, The Lady of Greed returns to show how everything still turns to gold. This is clearly a reference to the fact that greed is omnipresent and ever-tempting. Though listeners are told to be a rock and not to roll - perhaps, to be content with the things around you not to cause destruction by seeking greener pastures.

It Really Makes Me Wonder - It Really Makes the Listener Wonder

This simple line, which is repeated four times throughout Stairway, acts as a rhetorical question to plant a seed of doubt in listeners' minds about the current attitudes of society toward wealth and power.

With each repitition, Zeppelin reiterates the questionable mindset of society until the listener fully rejects the notion that wealth and happiness are intrinsically linked.

Plants' final notes, 'And she's buying a Stairway to Heaven', carry an entirely different conatation to the initial utterance of the very same words in the first verse.

By the song's end, the purchase of happiness is no longer an action to be revered but one to dismiss as a pitiful and ignorant act.

This about-turn in the listeners' beliefs may be attributed to the skillful and poetic use of language employed by Jimmy Page in his crafting of one of the greatest rock songs of all time.

classicrockmusic70s90s.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_meaning_behind_stairway_to_heaven (link)

[CentreHice]

Thanks for the post, Dis.

Our band plays this song...and I'll think about that meaning now, instead of just putting in time until I come in halfway through.

[Disgruntled70sHab]

No worries, CH. This is one person's opinion but when I think of when we listened to it in the 70's, there's no way we would've thought of this. It was always the last song of the night at high school dances, the slow dance that drove the monitors to near fits.

Was looking up some of the beatles songs as well. It's interesting where their inspiration came from. Will post more later.

Cheers.

[Polarice]

What most people don't know about Led Zeppelin, was that most of their songs were re-makes from other artists!!

[Disgruntled70sHab]

Here's the inspiration for "Nowhere Man" by the Beatles (easily one of the bands that left a mark with me when I was growing up).

John Lennon came up with this after struggling to write a song for the album. Said Lennon: "I thought of myself sitting there, doing nothing and getting nowhere."

Pretty interesting site. More to follow I'm sure.

Cheers.

[CentreHice]

Oct 21, 2009 6:22:45 GMT -5 Polarice said:

What most people don't know about Led Zeppelin, was that most of their songs were re-makes from other artists!!

I know they did some blues covers in their early days.....and that the intro to "Stairway" was inspired by a SPIRIT song, "Taurus"... (it's not an exact rip-off...but the progression is extremely close).....but when you say "most were re-makes", I find that hard to believe. Can you provide examples?

[Polarice]

Oct 21, 2009 9:51:02 GMT -5 CentreHice said:

Oct 21, 2009 6:22:45 GMT -5 Polarice said:

What most people don't know about Led Zeppelin, was that most of their songs were re-makes from other artists!!

I know they did some blues covers in their early days.....and that the intro to "Stairway" was inspired by a SPIRIT song, "Taurus"... (it's not an exact rip-off...but the progression is extremely close).....but when you say "most", can you provide examples?

I shouldn't say remakes...most of them they ripped off....been sued a few time. The entire Zeppelin 2 was music stolen from other musicans.

"The credits for Led Zeppelin II were the subject of some debate after the album's release. The prelude to "Bring It On Home" was a cover of Sonny Boy Williamson's 1963 recording of "Bring It On Home", written by Willie Dixon. Similarly, "The Lemon Song" included an adaptation of Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor." In 1972, Arc Music, the publishing arm of Chess Records, brought a lawsuit against Led Zeppelin for copyright infringement over "Bring It On Home" and "The Lemon Song"; the case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. Dixon himself did not benefit from the settlement until he sued Arc Music to recover his royalties and copyrights."

In an interview he gave to Guitar World magazine in 1993, Page commented on the band's use of classic blues songs:

s far as my end of it goes, I always tried to bring something fresh to anything that I used. I always made sure to come up with some variation. In fact, I think in most cases, you would never know what the original source could be. Maybe not in every case -- but in most cases. So most of the comparisons rest on the lyrics. And Robert was supposed to change the lyrics, and he didn't always do that -- which is what brought on most of the grief. They couldn't get us on the guitar parts of the music, but they nailed us on the lyrics. We did, however, take some liberties, I must say [laughs]. But never mind; we did try to do the right thing.[131]

In another interview, Page responded to the suggestion that Led Zeppelin used a lot of traditional and blues lyrics and tunes and called them their own:

The thing is they were traditional lyrics and they went back far before a lot of people that one related them to. The riffs we did were totally different, also, from the ones that had come before, apart from something like "You Shook Me" and "I Can't Quit You," which were attributed to Willie Dixon. The thing with "Bring It On Home," Christ, there's only a tiny bit taken from Sonny Boy Williamson's version and we threw that in as a tribute to him. People say, "Oh, 'Bring It On Home' is stolen." Well, there's only a little bit in the song that relates to anything that had gone before it, just the end.[23]

[Disgruntled70sHab]

Man, didn't know this. I remember my mother rocking to Brown Sugar.

The lyrics are about slaves from Africa who were sold in New Orleans and raped by their white masters. The subject matter is quite serious, but the way the song is structured, it comes off as a fun rocker about a white guy having sex with a black girl. (thanks, Phil - Palo Alto, CA)

Now check out the lyrics:

Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields
Sold in a market down in New Orleans
Scarred old slaver knows he's doing alright
Hear him whip the women just around midnight

Brown sugar how come you taste so good?
Brown sugar just like a young girl should

Drums beating, cold English blood runs hot
Lady of the house wonderin' where it's gonna stop
House boy knows that he's doing alright
You shoulda heard him just around midnight

Brown sugar how come you taste so good, now?
Brown sugar just like a young girl should, now

Ah, get along, brown sugar how come you taste so good, baby?
Ah, got me feelin' now, brown sugar just like a black girl should

I bet your mama was a tent show queen
And all her boyfriends were sweet sixteen
I'm no schoolboy but I know what I like
You shoulda heard me just around midnight

Brown sugar how come you taste so good, baby?
Ah, brown sugar just like a young girl should, yeah

I said yeah, yeah, yeah, woo
How come you...how come you taste so good?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, woo
Just like a...just like a black girl should
Yeah, yeah, yeah, woo

I went to Wikipedia and it said something similar as well. Son of a gun. I used to dance to this ...

Cheers.

[The New Guy]

Oct 21, 2009 7:19:55 GMT -5 Disgruntled70sHab said:

Here's the inspiration for "Nowhere Man" by the Beatles (easily one of the bands that left a mark with me when I was growing up).

John Lennon came up with this after struggling to write a song for the album. Said Lennon: "I thought of myself sitting there, doing nothing and getting nowhere."

Pretty interesting site. More to follow I'm sure.

Cheers.

Totally off-topic (but ironically about both Lennon and LZ) I present the following:
backbeat.cachefly.net/coverville/audio/Coverville-070719.mp3

It's from Coverville, a podcast that focuses on lesser know covers of music. In this one the host is interviewing Tim English, who wrote "Sounds Like Teen Spirit" which is all about stolen melodies and riffs appearing in songs. They do the Taurus/Stairway comparison, and then there's the Rod Stewart rip off, but the real buzzer is the third song they touch on - John Lennon's "Imagine" - and who he stole the melody from - Freddie Lennon (better known as John's father who left home when John was young).

It's worth a listen (as is most of the rest of the site, I'll add).

[CentreHice]

Well, Reaper...that's one album...and not every song on it was a rip-off.

Did Page say he and Plant made a habit of doing that throughout their Zep days?


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Two classic "rip-offs":

1. "I Want a New Drug" (Huey Lewis) "ripped-off" by Ray Parker Jr. for the "Ghostbusters" theme).

In 1984, Ray Parker Jr. was signed by the producers of Ghostbusters to develop the film's title song. Later that year, Huey Lewis and the News sued Parker, citing the similarities between the Ghostbusters theme song and their earlier hit "I Want a New Drug". According to Huey Lewis and the News, this was especially damaging to them since the Ghostbusters theme song was so popular, rising to number one on the charts for three weeks. Parker and Lewis later settled out of court.[2] Huey Lewis has stated that his experiences with the producers of Ghostbusters may have been indirectly responsible for getting his band involved with the movie Back to the Future.

In the 2001 Behind the Music special, Huey Lewis stated: "The offensive part was not so much that Ray Parker Jr. had ripped this song off, it was kind of symbolic of an industry that wants something -- they wanted our wave, and they wanted to buy it. ... t's not for sale. ... In the end, I suppose they were right. I suppose it was for sale, because, basically, they bought it."[3] As a result of this statement, Ray Parker Jr. has filed a suit against Huey Lewis, claiming he violated the settlement's confidentiality agreement and seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages as well as attorney fees. The lawsuit is ongoing.



2. "He's So Fine" by the Chiffons..."ripped-off" by George Harrison for "My Sweet Lord".

In-depth account here

[Polarice]

Oct 21, 2009 18:20:14 GMT -5 CentreHice said:

Well, Reaper...that's one album...and not every song on it was a rip-off.

Did Page say he and Plant made a habit of doing that throughout their Zep days?


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two classic "rip-offs":

1. "I Want a New Drug" (Huey Lewis) "ripped-off" by Ray Parker Jr. for the "Ghostbusters" theme).

In 1984, Ray Parker Jr. was signed by the producers of Ghostbusters to develop the film's title song. Later that year, Huey Lewis and the News sued Parker, citing the similarities between the Ghostbusters theme song and their earlier hit "I Want a New Drug". According to Huey Lewis and the News, this was especially damaging to them since the Ghostbusters theme song was so popular, rising to number one on the charts for three weeks. Parker and Lewis later settled out of court.[2] Huey Lewis has stated that his experiences with the producers of Ghostbusters may have been indirectly responsible for getting his band involved with the movie Back to the Future.

In the 2001 Behind the Music special, Huey Lewis stated: "The offensive part was not so much that Ray Parker Jr. had ripped this song off, it was kind of symbolic of an industry that wants something -- they wanted our wave, and they wanted to buy it. ... t's not for sale. ... In the end, I suppose they were right. I suppose it was for sale, because, basically, they bought it."[3] As a result of this statement, Ray Parker Jr. has filed a suit against Huey Lewis, claiming he violated the settlement's confidentiality agreement and seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages as well as attorney fees. The lawsuit is ongoing.



2. "He's So Fine" by the Chiffons..."ripped-off" by George Harrison for "My Sweet Lord".

In-depth account here

The quote from Jimmy Page was refering to all their albums.

[CentreHice]

Oct 22, 2009 6:00:53 GMT -5 Polarice said:

The quote from Jimmy Page was refering to all their albums.

Certainly reads that way, doesn't it? Thanks for the info.

Wonder what percentage of his songs he'd attibute to those "liberties".

And I also wonder how many other songwriters do the same thing.

There's a car commercial on right now that's ripping off "Brown Sugar" big-time. Changing the necessary amount of notes....but the vibe and overall feel is undeniably "Brown Sugar".

I remember Toronto radio host, Carl Banas, doing an audio-doc back in the mid-70s which played many examples of Beatles songs taking "ideas" from classical music motifs, which would have been well into the public domain. It didn't break copyright laws....but it's still "borrowing", isn't it.

Wish I could hear that special again.

[habernac]

show me someone who isn't borrowing from another musician today.

I think my favourite case was when CCR's record company sued John Fogerty for sounding too much like CCR. Well duh...

[Disgruntled70sHab]

Oct 21, 2009 12:49:32 GMT -5 The New Guy said:

Oct 21, 2009 7:19:55 GMT -5 Disgruntled70sHab said:

Here's the inspiration for "Nowhere Man" by the Beatles (easily one of the bands that left a mark with me when I was growing up).

John Lennon came up with this after struggling to write a song for the album. Said Lennon: "I thought of myself sitting there, doing nothing and getting nowhere."

Pretty interesting site. More to follow I'm sure.

Cheers.

Totally off-topic (but ironically about both Lennon and LZ) I present the following:
backbeat.cachefly.net/coverville/audio/Coverville-070719.mp3

It's from Coverville, a podcast that focuses on lesser know covers of music. In this one the host is interviewing Tim English, who wrote "Sounds Like Teen Spirit" which is all about stolen melodies and riffs appearing in songs. They do the Taurus/Stairway comparison, and then there's the Rod Stewart rip off, but the real buzzer is the third song they touch on - John Lennon's "Imagine" - and who he stole the melody from - Freddie Lennon (better known as John's father who left home when John was young).

It's worth a listen (as is most of the rest of the site, I'll add).

I listened to the whole show and it was pretty good. Had it on while I was surfing last night actually. Thanks.

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In keeping with the thread, though, here's one everyone likes to rock to at parties. Lola by the Kinks. Here's the meaning of the song. I might have heard this a few years back but I think I probably thought it was an urban legend or something. Anyway, I forgot about it just the same.

This song is about a transvestite. According to a 2004 piece in Rolling Stone magazine, it may have been inspired by the famous transvestite Candy Darling, who Kinks lead singer Ray Davies allegedly dated for a brief time. This is the same Candy mentioned in Lou Reed's "Walk On The Wild Side" ("Candy came from out on the island, in the backroom she was everybody's darling"). The other possibility, which is stated in The Kinks: The Official Biography, is that Ray Davies wrote the lyrics after their manager got drunk at a club and started dancing with what he thought was a woman. Toward the end of the night, his stubble started showing, but their manager was too tanked to notice. (thanks, Martin - Rostock, Germany)

Cheers.

[Disgruntled70sHab]

And another one. (Don't Fear) the Reaper was one of my favourite songs going through high school.

This was rumored to be about suicide, but it actually deals with the inevitability of death and the belief that we should not fear it. When Dharma wrote it, he was thinking about what would happen if he died at a young age and if he would be reunited with loved ones in the afterlife. Dharma explained in a 1995 interview with College Music Journal: "I felt that I had just achieved some kind of resonance with the psychology of people when I came up with that, I was actually kind of appalled when I first realized that some people were seeing it as an advertisement for suicide or something that was not my intention at all. It is, like, not to be afraid of it (as opposed to actively bring it about). It's basically a love song where the love transcends the actual physical existence of the partners."

Cheers.

[Disgruntled70sHab]

Interesting that the song Lady Madonna was a tribute to women everywhere.

Paul McCartney said that this song is a tribute to women everywhere. It was inspired by a picture of an African woman suckling her kid, over the caption "Mountain Madonna." (thanks, Mike - Mountlake Terrace, WA)

www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=139