Music Blog

Stairway To Heaven

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

This week at Glyn Wilton’s Mixed Music Bag,
he’s asking us to write about a song in which
the title or a line mentions the current month. 
Here’s my featured May artists and their song.

© Ticketek Australia

There are some people who think “Stairway To Heaven” by Led Zeppelin is played out and they’d be happy never to hear it again. That’s really a shame and let me say, just for the record, I totally disagree. The song is a classic rock number by a legendary band that is considered one of the co-creators of heavy metal. If you happen to be one of those people who’s sick and tired of “Stairway To Heaven”, you might want to stop reading now and move on because “Stairway” is my featured song for the first week of Glyn’s Mixed Music Bag for the month of May.

“Stairway to Heaven” is to FM radio what The Godfather is to cinema: a masterpiece unrivaled in its grandeur and incalculable in its influence. Released on Zeppelin’s 1971 LP, Led Zeppelin IV, “Stairway” isn’t necessarily the greatest song the band ever wrote, but it is unequivocally the most significant – a signature staple that plays like a trailer for their entire discography. While critics are quick to label “Stairway” as “one big, bloated, sonic platitude“, it’s important to remember that it does indeed rock, and listening to it is a visceral experience. 

“Stairway To Heaven” was written in 1970 by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant while they were staying at Bron-Yr-Aur, a remote cottage in Wales, after their 5th American concert tour. Page developed the music over time and Plant wrote the lyrics, which, according to Page, were mostly improvised. The song’s meaning is open to interpretation, with some suggesting it’s about a spiritual journey, while others see it as an allegory for the pursuit of fame or even a drug reference. Over the years, some people have proposed conspiracy theories about the song, including suggestions that it contains backward messages, while some believe the song may have been inspired by “The Lord of the Rings“. As the song itself notes, “sometimes words have two meanings.” The meaning behind the words seems, if nothing else, infinite. Lyrically, the tune has dazed and confused many a mind-altered listener for 55 years. Robert Plant communicates its sweeping vagaries with a passionate, pensive and primal delivery that convinces the listener he knows exactly what he’s singing about. And, really, that’s enough, isn’t it?

This is “Stairway To Heaven” by Led Zeppelin


LYRICS

There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold
And she’s buying a stairway to Heaven

When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for

Ooh, ooh, and she’s buying a stairway to Heaven

There’s a sign on the wall, but she wants to be sure
‘Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings

In a tree by the brook, there’s a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven

Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, makes me wonder

There’s a feeling I get when I look to the West
And my spirit is crying for leaving

In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
And the voices of those who stand looking

Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, really makes me wonder

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 for those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter

Oh-oh-oh-oh-whoa

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 run
There’s still time to change the road you’re on

And it makes me wonder
Ohh, whoa

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 know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind?

And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last
When all are one, and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll

And she’s buying a stairway to Heaven

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Robert Plant/James Patrick Page
Stairway to Heaven lyrics © Succubus Music Ltd., Sons Of Einion Publishing, Flames Of Albion Music, Inc.

Mixed Music Bag 2025 – May the sun shine

Big thanks to Glyn Wilton for hosting Mixed Music Bag each week. Please be sure to follow the link and check out Glyn’s site.

Thanks for joining me today and spinning some tunes.

See you on the flip side. 😎

NAR©2025

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for Nancy’s Notes 🖊️🎶, The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk, and The Rhythm Section, et. al., and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

48 thoughts on “Stairway To Heaven”

  4. While I think Led Zeppelin should have admitted Stairway’s intro sounds like “Taurus” by Spirit, a band they toured with in the late ’60s, there’s obviously more to this magnificent song, which I think has one of the best builds I know. In fact, if I could only pick one rock song, I’d go with “Stairway to Heaven,” not a Beatles song, even though the Fab Far remain my all-time favorite band.

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    1. Since I started participating in Glyn’s MMB and Jim’s SLS, I’ve been enjoying reading the lyrics to the songs and discovering what the words REALLY are as opposed to what I think they are. It’s eye-opening sometimes. Thanks, Liz

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  10. Brilliant, Nancy as I would never have thought of going with this song. “A spring clean for the May queen” refers to a natural process of change and renewal, specifically a metaphorical “clean sweep” of old ways and a welcoming of new beginnings.  The “May Queen” symbolizes beauty, spring, and new potential, while “spring clean” represents clearing away the old to make way for the new. 

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