Stairway to Heaven, what does it mean?

[Jiggy_12]

Here is a question to all Led Zepellin fans, or even non-fans that are interested; What in your opinion is the meaning behind this song?

It's been more than 30 years, and it's still a mystery. I've heard a ton of different theories but nothing concrete.

Is it Satanic?
Is it about Heaven vs. Hell?
Is it about Drugs?

What are your interpretations of this classic song?

Here are the lyrics for easy reference;
Link

[Mango]

Sort of relates to your topic -

There's a website that has a list of songs with hidden messages etc. I might be wrong, but if this song is listened to backwards, there is some sort of hidden message. Maybe I'm thinking of another Zepellin song?

Has anyone visited the website? I don't have the URL, but perhaps someone else does.

[red '00]

It's about greed, I believe.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by red '00

It's about greed, I believe.

That's what I was thinking.

Greed, materialism, recklessness, and poor well-being.

[Iginla & Sundin]

Originally Posted by Mango

Sort of relates to your topic -

There's a website that has a list of songs with hidden messages etc. I might be wrong, but if this song is listened to backwards, there is some sort of hidden message. Maybe I'm thinking of another Zepellin song?

Has anyone visited the website? I don't have the URL, but perhaps someone else does.

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/stairway.php

[Jiggy_12]

Originally Posted by Mango

Sort of relates to your topic -

There's a website that has a list of songs with hidden messages etc. I might be wrong, but if this song is listened to backwards, there is some sort of hidden message. Maybe I'm thinking of another Zepellin song?

Has anyone visited the website? I don't have the URL, but perhaps someone else does.

I've heard it before, and it's definitely interesting. But I listened to it while reading written text about what I was supposed to be hearing. So I'm not sure if I actually would have heard that satanic message had I not been listening for it.

[Neeper]

That was really trippy. I wonder if they really meant to do that.

[the-rasta-masta]

That backwards thing is true, I've actually recorded myself playing guitar and singing the song and then reversed it and it plays the exact same message.

There's a few more on this website, none as clear as the Stairway one though.

http://jeffmilner.com/backmasking.htm

[FlamesAddiction]

"There was a little toolshed where he made us suffer, sad Satan"??

That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

[Burninator]

My theory is I think it is about the journey of life and the decisions we make (the path/stairway).

But really I think the lyrics are very broad. There is are a couple lines of lyrics that pretty much cover everything people have said, but I don't think one topic can sum up the whole song.

And I am sure the satanic message was incidental...but trippy none the less.

[Daradon]

I always thought it was about materialism. She's trying to buy a stairway to heaven. Or basically buying herself happiness. The danger of the belief that money makes you happy, or that's it truly makes your life better.

Of course I think it's also true that they wrote the song under the influence of many things which perhaps made sense to them at the time, maybe not, and that kinda shows in the scattered ideas of the lyrics.

As for the Satanism bit, I listened to it a few times, and without the word translation there, it's hard to understand much of it. Even with the translation it still doesn't make a bunch of sense, and they are really stretching it trying to attach certain words to the sounds.

Probably proof that it's probably all just a coincidence and that people looking for something bad will be able to read into anything.

Remember this is when people were saying rock music was Satanic. Still a small group of people out there like that, but it's a theory that most people would probably laugh it. Hey, it's not impossible that if Led Zepplin already had a reputation like that, that they threw it in there as a lark, as a joke.

Most rock music, espeically around that time, was about social change and the pitfalls of war and wealth. Maybe anti-establishment, but actually pretty good morals.

Maybe it ws the 'establishment' that decided to start calling it Satanic. To me that would make WAY more sense.

[RougeUnderoos]

I think the main message is that a 20 year-old guy smoking weed and and drinking a bottle of brandy can write a song with with vaguely spooky lyrics that don't mean a hell of a lot.

[Reggie Dunlop]

All I know is that he recorded the ditty on a Fender Telecaster (Jeff Beck's apparently) and a Martin Acoustic. That doubleneck Gibson SG pyrotechnic stage stuff was for show.

[ZOSO]

I think Stairway is about the influence of material goods on society rather than non-material goods as well as a lady attempting to buy her way into heaven.

It was recorded on a telecaster, and he used the double neck in the concert to do the verses on the 12 string and switch to the 6 string for the solos.

As for the backwards messages, I really dont think there were any in this song, and if you attempt to listen for them, and you already know what you are listening for, you will hear it. Through all of the inaudible noises your brain will put those words together for you to hear. These backwards messages are all in the brain (for this song anyways, there are still songs with backwards messages purposely put in for listeners to hear). However another point which makes people believe there is a backwards message is Page's interest in black majik and Aleister Crowley (he even bought his old house and many of his possessions).

On a lighter note, Plant was asked if there was a backwards message in Stairway and he replied with "if we were going to put a backwards message in it, it would say 'please buy this record'".

I think Page is an exceptional guitarist (obviously with the name). I find it interesting that him, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton were all born and raised within 50 miles of each other or something like that, quite the guitar hotbed.

Sorry i just get a little excited when it comes to Zeppelin or Hendrix

[4X4]

I wonder if you played anything backwards if you couldn't find some sounds that sound like 'satan'.
Hell, take a recording from a church choir and play it backwards.

[Hack&Lube]

The meaning for me is...

that it's the most overplayed song on guitar ever. (see Wayne's World).

That said, I enjoy playing it and still can't get the solo right. The main riff is actually taken (with permission I believe) from another song. Also, he recorded completely in parts and didn't know how to play the entire song until live performances forced him to learn it.

I'm still searching for another similarily lengthy, but classic song to learn. Any suggestions? Something that flows together. It's sad that all the things I know how to play are just bits and pieces (as most rock songs are) and Stairway is probably the most lengthy bit I can pathetically put together.

[4X4]

Tuesday's Gone
Freebird (extended version)

[DuffMan]

what's the lemon song all about?

[troutman]

I always thought the lyrics were pretty much nonsensical. Just random English words. I think I heard Plant say he wrote the lyrics in about 10 minutes one day.

Facts about the famous song:

http://www.superseventies.com/stairway.html

We might better understand the associative powers of the lyrics by breaking them up into categories. We are presented with a number of mysterious figures: a lady, the piper, the May queen. Images of nature abound: a brook, a songbird, rings of smoke through the trees, a hedgerow, wind. We find a set of concepts (that pretty much sum up the central concerns of all philosophy): signs, words, meanings, thoughts, feelings, spirit, reason, wonder, soul, the idea that "all are one and one is all." We find a set of vaguely but powerfully evocative symbols: gold, the West, the tune, white light, shadows, paths, a road, and the stairway to heaven itself. At the very end, we find some paradoxical self-referentiality: "To be a rock and not to roll."

The words provide a very open text; like those of Don McLean's "American Pie" (also released in 1971), they invite endless interpretation. Yet they are resonant, requiring no rigorous study in order to become meaningful. Like the music, they engage with the fantasies and anxieties of our time; they offer contact with social and metaphysical depth in a world of commodities and mass communication. "Stairway to Heaven," no less than canonized artistic postmodernism, addresses "decentered subjects" who are striving to find credible experiences of depth and community. It strains at mystery and promises utopia: "A new day will dawn," and "If you listen very hard/The tune will come to you at last."


Jimmy Gutterman, coauthor of "The Worst Rock'n'Roll Records of All-Time":

The lyrics to "Stairway to Heaven" are horrible, nothing more than nonsense
words enlivened by cliche. If I ever wrote "There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold," my editor would cancel my contract.

[pope04]

http://kissthisguy.com/

This is a good site, an archive of misheard lyrics. Obviously, the name of the site is from the oft-misheard Hendrix lyric.