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Is stairway to heaven a unique led zeppelin song?


pagefan

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I had heard about stairway to heaven as this iconic rock anthem and listened to it long before i became a properly obsessed led zeppelin fan. Now whenever I listen to it, I can really appreciate it but it always seems to be this extraordinary piece even for led zeppelin standards. It sounds to me that it's unlike anything they had ever done. But I have heard it so many times that I can no longer feel like I'm objectively judging it.

So my question is to people who first heard stairway with the same anticipation that they had for other led zeppelin songs: did you feel there was something really very different and extraordinary about this song when you heard it (in comparison to other zeppelin material), and do you still feel the same way now?

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It's weird but when I think about Led Zeppelin, I don't really think about Stairway to Heaven, it's grown a life of its own hasn't it.

I get a bit fed up of people saying it's 'overplayed' or they're sick of hearing it. Where do these people live because I don't think I've ever heard it on the radio or on the telly (I wasn't around until 1979)? I certainly don't skip past it when I'm listening to the fourth LP.

At the end of the day, it's an absolutely phenomenal piece of music & I don't think there's another song like it in the World although there have been a few based on its template.

Just as an aside, I love the alternate version too, in some ways I prefer it to the original.

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It was always an iconic song even for them at the time, so much so my copy of the album had the lyrics imprinted on the dust sleeve. To be honest i very rarely play it but it's like a good Reserva Rioja, it always hits the spot when i do.

Thinking back the 40 years when i first heard it, I was a heavy rock music man and I don't think it blew me away as, say Whole lotta love or anything on Made in Japan. Then again when it struck me what a wonderful piece of music it was, nothing bettered it

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  • 3 weeks later...

This song from the time I first heard it to even now is not only unique for Zep. For me Stairway goes way beyond "rock" and 

even most other music. This piece for me seems to be something of a cosmic drama, with an energy so focused it seems

to be divinely inspired. This was one of the first rock anthems, but again I can't really classify it with others because this a work

of art that to me will echo in eternity, it's that powerful. Maybe the song connects very primaly with many, or reasonates in

the subconscious of others, maybe that's the tremendous force this song has.

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The first time I heard Led Zeppelin was back in 1977, when some kid at school loaned me a tape of the 1971 BBC gig.  At that point, I'd never even heard of  Stairway To Heaven so I when I played that tape it didn't come with any context, baggage, history or mystique attached. I loved everything on the tape and I'm still here 40 years later as a result but, even on a first hearing and with no idea of what it was, Stairway To Heaven did stand out from the rest as something genuinely special. And, yes, it still feels that way to me now.  

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