“Stairway to Heaven” is the greatest rock song ever made, then again, maybe not. The debate started when it was released November 8, 1971, and it still continues.
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant wrote the song for their album Led Zeppelin IV. Page started writing it with the idea of creating a classic.
The song is divided into three sections, the first is slow with an acoustic guitar, the second section introduces electric instruments, and the final section is hard rock.
Critic Lester Bangs described it as "a thicket of misbegotten mush. British music magazine Sounds said it induced "first boredom and then catatonia." In 2021, Rolling Stone, rated it as 61 of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The song was never released as a single.
Plant didn’t fight the critics. He is quoted as saying, "If you absolutely hated 'Stairway to Heaven,' no one can blame you for that because it was so pompous."
Maybe those who criticize it are just tired of hearing it. By its 20th anniversary, the song had been played 2,874,000 times on the radio, amounting to more than 44 years of airtime, according to a 2014 story in the British newspaper the Guardian.
In 2014, Led Zeppelin were sued, accused of stealing the acoustic guitar opening from a song by the band Spirit. The jury said the chord progression “was common to many songs dating back decades” so it was in the public domain.
“Stairway” received more notoriety when a televangelist said when you play parts of the song backwards it mentions Satan. I can’t mention on radio how that band responded to that accusation.
Song of the Day is created by Sheldon Zoldan, and produced by Pam James for WGCU. To receive the Song of the Day in your inbox every day, email shzoldan@comcast.net with the subject line ADD ME TO SOTD.
