The Story Behind: "Stairway to Heaven"

Today, we are taking a look at the story of how Led Zeppelin wrote their biggest hit - Stairway to Heaven.

Writting Process/Release

The writting process began in 1970, when Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were on a vacation in Wales. Page wrote an acoustic intro for the song, while Plant wrote the first verses. When the band reunited in England, Page tried to connect a few different pieces of music he wrote on the electric and acoustic guitar with bassist John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. Meanwhile, Plant wrote most of the lyrics of the song. The song's bass and drum tracks were recorded in late 1970 while the vocals were cut in early 1971.  

The song was released at the end of the recording of their fourth untitled album mostly refered to as Led Zeppelin IV in November 1971. The song was supposed to be released as a single by Atlantic Records, until the band manager Peter Grant denied their request in both 1972 and 1973. This caused people to buy the whole album as it were a single.  

Meaning of the Lyrics

The meaning of the lyrics are shrouded in mystery since the songs release. Even Robert Plant stated that, even though we wrote the lyrics, he interprets them differently depending on what day it is. The only part that Plant would explain, is that it is about a wealthy woman that finds out that her life had no meaning and will not go to heaven, which Plant explained as "a woman getting everything she wanted without giving anything back."  

Accusations

Last year, the band went to court, for copying the intro of the song Taurus by an American rock band Spirit released in 1968. The accusations were cleared in June 2016, when the judges denied the case from the Spirit’s guitarist Randy Wolfe.  

Back in 1982 a televangelist Paul Crouch made an allegation, claiming that when the song is played backwards, the part of the song "bustle in your hedgerow" says the following: "Here's to my sweet Satan/The one whose little path would make me sad, whose power is Satan/He will give those with him 666/There was a little toolshed where he made us su­ffer, sad Satan." Though, the backwards part of the song does somewhat sound like the interpretaion of Crouch, it is nothing more than a big coincidence. Plant also responded to the accusation with a statement: "You've got to have a lot of time on your hands to even consider that people would do that."