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Home , Andy Johns, Headley Grange, Jason Bonham, John Bonham, Led Zeppelin II, Led Zeppelin IV

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ive into their set at the Ulster Hall in on March LOOK TO THE WEST 5, 1971, the four members of English hard-rock band Led “” began as a vague notion in the mind Zeppelin played a they had never before performed of Page, who, before forming in 1968, had worked on stage. The that would contain it, an untitled effort alongside Jones as a session musician in the studios of . Fusually referred to as Led Zeppelin IV (see sidebar on page 29), “When John Paul Jones and I did studio work, the rule was always: would not be released for months. The crowd, which had come to you don’t speed up,” Page recalled in 2001. “That was the cardinal hear familiar Zeppelin rockers like “” and “Immigrant sin, to speed up. And I thought, ‘Right, we’ll do something that Song,” patiently listened to the new number—one that was fully acoustic speeds up.’” He came up with the initial idea during an October for its fi rst half before whipping up an electric fury in its closing 1970 writing retreat with Plant at Bron-Yr-Aur, an 18th-century minutes. They applauded politely at the end, but reserved most of cottage in the bucolic South Snowdonia region of Wales. Page their enthusiasm for more familiar fare like the song that followed it, continued to tinker with the music for nearly a year. “I’d been fooling “Dazed and Confused.” Bass player John Paul Jones recalled, “They around with the acoustic guitar and came up with several different were all bored to tears waiting to hear something they knew.” sections that fl owed together nicely,” he said. “I soon realized that

Courtesy of , , , John Paul Jones

Four decades later, “Stairway to Heaven,” the number that it could be the perfect vehicle for something I’d been wanting to do Zep debuted that night in Belfast, is among the most well-known, for a while: to compose something that would start quietly, have the beloved and debated songs in the history of popular music. While drums come in the middle, and build to a huge crescendo.” never released as a single, it has been played on American radio The members of Led Zeppelin—Page, Plant, Jones and more than 3 million times. It has been celebrated as a peak moment John “Bonzo” Bonham—convened with engineer in early for rock ’n’ roll, revered as a marvel of lyrical and musical poetry, 1971 at , a Victorian mansion in Headley, East After 40 years, Led Zeppelin’s masterpiece dismissed as self-indulgent nonsense, and covered both reverently , , suggested to them by Fleetwood Mac for its and parodically by innumerable artists. It has been venerated as an relative isolation and pleasing acoustic properties. They intended anthem of environmentalism and condemned as an ode to Satan. to write, rehearse and even record most of their fourth album there, is as thrilling, fascinating and It is regularly played at both weddings and funerals. Its delicately and brought in a mobile recording truck owned by fi ngerpicked opening notes are so irresistible to amateur guitarists to capture their new songs on tape. Among the pieces of music that instrument stores have been known to post signs reading that Page debuted for his bandmates was the basis of what would confounding as ever “NO ‘STAIRWAY.’” Its allure can be credited as a major reason become “Stairway.” He began mapping out an arrangement with that Led Zeppelin IV has sold more than 32 million copies around Jones, who cited the group’s love of classical music as an inspiration the world. Its own creators view its legacy in very different ways— for the song’s structure. “There’s a lot of drama in the classical guitarist, producer and co-writer Jimmy Page eagerly cites it among forms,” he said. “It seems natural for music to have that, as opposed his proudest accomplishments, while singer and lyricist Robert Plant to everybody starting and just banging away and fi nishing.” would just as soon never sing it again. “It was a milestone for us,” The following day they showed it to Bonham, and the group Page said in 1975, only four years after its release. “Every musician began getting a handle on the epic number. “Bit diffi cult, really, wants to do something of lasting quality, something which will hold because it started on acoustic,” Page said, “and as you know, it up for a long time, and I guess we did it with ‘Stairway.’” goes through electric parts. We had various run-throughs where

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I was playing the acoustic guitar and then listeners to impose their own meanings. program,” Plant said in 1983, when rumors jumping over and picking up the electric “It’s onomatopoeic,” he said. “I was over supposed hidden messages in rock guitar. That’s why it was a bit tricky to get thinking about the need for a more organic music were epidemic. “I was absolutely together in the early stages. But I had these relationship between our generation at the drained all day. I walked around and couldn’t sections, and I knew what order they were time, who were living faster than fast, and our actually believe it.” Plant blamed religious to go in. It was just a matter of getting environment.” Among his inspirations were fi gures on the college-lecture circuit for everybody comfortable with each gear Edmund Spenser’s 16th-century epic poem spreading the legend. “There are a lot of shift.” Still, the foursome quickly mastered “The Faerie Queene” and J.R.R. Tolkien’s people who are making money there, and if the complex changes. “There was only Lord of the Rings novels (referenced more that’s the way they need to do it, then do it one place where there was a slight rerun,” explicitly in Zeppelin songs like “Ramble without my lyrics,” he said. “I cherish them Page noted. “For some unknown reason, On” and “”). Page far too much.” The song, he insisted, was Bonzo couldn’t get the timing right on the cited “Stairway” as a breakthrough in about “the beginning of spring. It’s when 12-string part before the solo. Other than Plant’s progress as a wordsmith: “I knew the birds make their nests, when hope and that, it fl owed very quickly.” at that point that he’d proved it to himself, the new year begins.” Courtesy of Warner Home Video Courtesy of Warner Home Video Courtesy of Warner

John Bonham on stage in , 1973 Robert Plant

a great take and you want to do it again.’ in the studio since Zeppelin’s 1969 self- a six-string and one a 12-string (Gibson They go back down. Bonzo grabs his sticks, titled debut album. Page had the beginning released a signature series replica of the huffi ng, puffi ng, muttering, ‘One more take and ending of the solo set in his mind, but guitar in 2007). The group kept the song and that’s it.’” Bonham seethed, awaiting improvised the rest. Cigarette dangling from in its set following its March 1971 stage what Smith calls the drummer’s “grand his mouth, he stepped into position between premiere, winding its way through Europe, entrance” halfway through the track. “And two large Orange speakers blaring the basic North America and Japan while awaiting of course when the drums come in, if you track—he chose not to wear headphones, but the Nov. 8 release of Led Zeppelin IV. “At thought the one before was good, this one to react to the music as it bounced around the time we didn’t know it was going to is just explosive,” Smith said. “And when the studio walls. “I did three takes and chose turn into something of a monster—we just Getty Imges / Rob Verhorst they play it back, Bonham looks at Jimmy one of them,” he said. “They were all different. played it as part of our new album,” Jones like, ‘You’re always right, you bastard.’” The solo sounds constructed—and it is, sort said. “We certainly felt it was one of our The band moved on yet again, setting of, but purely of the moment. For me, a solo best compositions up to that point.” up shop at in London to lay is something where you just fl y, but within The song’s reputation began to grow down overdubs. For “Stairway,” Jones added the context of the song.” by word of mouth as the tour progressed. further keyboards, strings and woodwinds, Road manager recalled Page and Page laid down his now-classic electric THE PIPER’S CALLING YOU telling him after a May 3 show at the KB- . He bypassed his usual Gibsons To approximate the song’s distinctive Hallen in Copenhagen, “We’ve got a real On stage in the Netherlands, June 21, 1980 for a 1958 Fender Telecaster, a gift from his mixture of acoustic and electric monster on our hands. It’s one of those former Yardbirds bandmate , played live, Page commissioned a custom-made songs that’s developing a life of its own.” through the Supro amplifi er he had used Gibson EDS-1275 with two necks—one But the moment Page himself remembers as WORDS HAVE TWO MEANINGS and could get into something a bit more WIND ON DOWN THE ROAD As they ran through the number, Plant profound than just subjective things. Not With most of the basic tracks for Led sat by the roaring fi replace and listened— that they can’t be profound as well, but Zeppelin IV in the bag, Zeppelin relocated and lyrical inspiration hit. “I was holding a there’s lot of ambiguity implied in that to the more formal environs of Island pencil and paper,” Plant recently recalled, number that wasn’t present before.” Studios in London’s Notting Hill area—and “when, suddenly, my hand was writing out That ambiguity was a blessing and a it was there that the band tackled “Stairway SYMBOL MINDED the words: ‘There’s a lady who’s sure all curse. By the early , religious groups to Heaven.” Assistant engineer Richard Led Zeppelin’s 1969 debut album was self-titled, and the each chosen by one band member to represent himself (Page that glitters is gold, Digby Smith recalled follow-up was called Led Zeppelin II, itself followed by Led said the band members referred to it among themselves as Four and she’s buying a later that the basic track Zeppelin III. Despite the logical progression, singer Robert Symbols). Plant’s was a feather design associated with the stairway to heaven.’ I ‘ We knew it was good, but we didn’t was recorded with Page Plant assured a journalist in 1971 that “the next album won’t be mythical Mu civilization, while Jones and Bonham chose designs sat there and looked playing acoustic guitar, called Led Zeppelin IV.” And it wasn’t—sort of. In fact, the album from typographic artist Rudolf Koch’s Book of Signs. Page at the words and hidden by four tall baffl es has no offi cial title at has long refused almost leaped out realize that people would latch onto it.’ on all sides, while Jones all, a reaction to the to explain the of my seat.” Page sat to his right playing band’s perception origins or meaning later estimated that – Jimmy Page a Moog keyboard bass. that critics were not of his symbol, Plant came up with Smith remembers the judging its work on which resembles 80 percent of the lyric on the spot; rehearsal were claiming that the recording included group listening to a playback of one full- the music alone. “I the word “ZoSo.” tapes from Headley Grange fi nd Plant back-masked lyrics pledging allegiance to band take in particular, which Bonham put it to everybody Some fans refer most of the completed lyric as we the devil. When played backward, some immediately declared was the best basic else that it’d be a to the album itself know it, while ad-libbing nonsense syllables alleged that lyrics like “Oh, here’s to my track they were likely to get. “Page says good idea to put out as ZoSo, while where a few lines are still missing. Plant sweet Satan” were audible. “The fi rst time he’s convinced that they have a better take something totally anonymous,” guitarist Jimmy Page recalled. others refer to it as Runes or Untitled. Plant said a few years readily admits that the fi nished lyric was I heard it was early in the morning when in them,” he writes. “Well, Bonham’s not In place of a title, the album sported a series of four symbols, ago that he calls it “just ‘the fourth album.’ That’s it.” more impressionistic than literal, allowing I was at home, and I heard it on a news best pleased. ‘This always happens—we get

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THE SONG RETAINS THE NAME A steady stream of cover versions of “Stairway to Heaven” began in the 1970s and never let up, many of them calculated to puncture the aura of majesty around the original. In the 1970s a version appeared, credited to Little Roger and the Goosebumps, which paired the music from “Stairway” with the lyrics from the “Gilligan’s Island” theme. After that shot across the bow, irreverent variations abounded. “Because of the beauty of the song, sooner Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging or later that has to turn around and swing the other way,” Plant said. “Like ‘My Way’ or ‘God Save the Queen,’ after a while it’s a great target for pointing a skeptical fi nger or hoots of derision.”

Markus Klinko and Indrani Not every artist who covers “Stairway” does so with tongue in cheek—R&B singer Mary J. Blige recorded a faithful version last year. “I’ve listened to their music since I was a child,” she said, “and it’s always moved me, especially ‘Stairway To Heaven.’” Likewise, country legend recorded the song in a respectful gospel bluegrass version. “It’s a very abstract song,” Parton said. Mary J. Blige “I always thought it was about somebody trying to save their soul.” Dolly Parton

the breakthrough was the reaction the song innocence in the lyric. “It’s a great song, as the quintessential Zeppelin song. (Plant inspired during an August 1971 show at the written at the time for all the right reasons, and Page did perform a truncated acoustic Forum: “I remember we got a but try singing it 10 years later and it’s so “Stairway” for Japanese television on a whim standing ovation from a considerable amount sanctimonious,” he said in the early 1980s. during a 1994 promotional tour.) Plant had of that audience, and we went, ‘Wow!’ We “If you want to sing it for the next 10 years, made his feelings about the tune known in knew it was good, but we didn’t realize that you can—but I’m not.” By then the point was a 1990 solo number, “Liar’s Dance,” which people would latch onto it.” moot. Bonham, 32, had died in his sleep on denounced the idea of profi ting from his As radio stations began spinning a Sept. 25, 1980, a victim of his notoriously past: “Just leave it to the lady who’s sure/ promotional advance copy of “Stairway”— extreme alcohol consumption. The band She won’t be back again.” Plant himself some have attributed the song’s early radio announced its breakup on Dec. 4. Page gave in to the song’s charms yet again when popularity to the fact that its length allowed returned to the stage in the early 1980s, Zeppelin reunited (again with disc jockeys a chance to use the bathroom performing “Stairway” as an instrumental— on drums) for a 2007 concert honoring or smoke a cigarette—Led Zeppelin’s U.S. with the audience inevitably singing the lyrics Atlantic founder —but insisted label, Atlantic Records, it be played mid-set rather pushed the group to than as an encore to keep release it as a single ‘It’s about the beginning of spring, it from overshadowing the to stores. “I said, other songs. ‘Absolutely not,’” Page After 40 years of recalled. “The whole when hope and the new year begins.’ near-constant radio airplay, thing was, we wanted countless cover versions, people to hear it in the - Robert Plant endless dissections of its context of the album.” music and meaning, it will He cannily argued to the label that if the song anyway. “Nobody could sing it but Robert, it never again be possible to listen to “Stairway were kept unavailable as a single, fans would wouldn’t be right,” he said. to Heaven” in the pure and unjaded way a have to shell out more money for the full- Over the following decade Plant would couple thousand Led Zeppelin fans did length album—a strategy that would become grudgingly sing the number at a couple of one- in Belfast on March 5, 1971. Never again standard industry practice by the 1990s. But off Zeppelin reunions: fi rst at 1985’s will Jimmy Page step onstage and play for Page, the bottom line was preserving the benefi t concert with those opening notes without hearing them song’s integrity—he knew that once a single and fi lling in for Bonham, smothered in a joyous wave of applause and was greenlit, Atlantic would demand an edited then at Atlantic Records’ 40th-anniversary shouts. Never again will Robert Plant sing version. “I wasn’t having that, no way,” he said. celebration in 1988 with Bonham’s son the closing line all by himself, as he did in “One thing I would never have entertained Jason behind the drum set. But when Page Belfast that night; today the audience would was messing around with that song.” and Plant reunited to tour and record during sing along lustily with every syllable. And the mid-’90s, performing “Stairway” was out perhaps that is as it should be—love it or hate EVERYTHING STILL TURNS TO GOLD of the question. The centerpiece of their duo it, “Stairway to Heaven” belongs to the world. Plant soon began to tire of “Stairway,” saying shows was instead 1975’s “Kashmir,” which So all together now, one more time: “And that he could no longer relate to the youthful Plant had long championed over “Stairway” she’s buying a stairway … to heaven.” M

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