Stairway To Heavan: Good trip or human salvation?

Stairway is one of mky favorite songs. I play it 10 times in a row when I'm driving. I've always wondered what it's about. Some people say it's about drugs.
The song could be about a trip if you think about it: "In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees", "And the forest will echo with laughter".
On the other hand the song could be about unity and human salvation: "We all are one and one is all", "With a word she can get what she came for". What does anyone think the song is about. It was banned from the BBC for a while for supposedley being about drugs. I think it's about unity.

 

Great song with a great guitar solo.

 

The meaning of this song has to be one of the most enduring musical debates of all time. its not about drugs. "this is a song of hope" - quoted by robert plant.

This is about a woman who accumulates money, but finds out the hard way her life had no meaning and will not get her into heaven.

Jimmy has also said that one of the original lyrical inspirations was a woman they both knew. This may be so, but the "lady" in the song appears to be some sort of reference to materialism. The song is reportedly based on a number of Celtic myths and also drew on English literature such as "The Faerie Queene" by Edmund Spenser.

Robert and Jimmy wrote this in an old mansion called Headley Grange in Worcestershire, England, where they recorded most of their 4th album. It was an old, dusty mansion with no electricity but great acoustics. Bands would go there to get some privacy and focus on songwriting. One night, in front of a roaring fire, Page strummed the chords to this for Robert. Plant wrote 90% of the lyrics right there in front of the fire. He has said in many interviews that he didn't seem to be writing, that something else was moving his pencil for him. Plant is a great admirer of all things mystic, the old English legends and lore and the writings of the Celts. He was immersed in The Lord Of The Rings around this time and many of his lyrics reflect that.

I hope this has helped in some kind of way.
Peace

 

That about wraps it all up!

 

a friend of mine played this song over and over for me about 15 times so he could try to convince me that the song was about smoking pot...

 

I am gonna break ranks here; I don't rate 'Stairway To Heaven' as much as I do: 'Whole Lotta Love' ,'The Rain Song' or 'Achilles' Last Stand'.

 

Headley Grange is in Hampshire.

 

And is it true that if listen Stairway in reverse order it will be a Devil's invocation? I've heard a lot about it.

 

The dam radio station burn out that song 30 years ago.

 

i agree that stairway to heaven is a great song....but led zeppelin are not only stairway to heaven you know? have a listen to their albums. i particularly recommend led zeppelin I if you are into blues kind of stuff, II if you like heavier stuff (though it has some mellower tracks on it too) III is you like folk/acoustic sound, IV for the "classic" led zep experience (though i dont really agree with that, but popular perception defines it that way) the other albums like houses of the holy and physical graffiti are definitely worth checking out....if you liked all these, you might enjoy presence and in through the outdoor, though they are not as significant as the others (though i think they are awesome)...never really liked coda, but most harcore fans own it anyway.

 

No.
Silly people who want to find meaning in backwards make themselves hear that.
It's not really there.

 

When I was younger, my World History teacher tried to teach me it's about hell. He also thought whenever you lost something, it went to a different dimension that he called hell. Everything related to hell with him.

 

on the weekend while going clubbing a homeless guy had a shitty guitar and was playing stair way to heaven

i made my hand into a gun, and pointed it at him and said...hey buddy, i'll put u on a stairway to heaven

hahahah

 

well whenever I hear the song, I think of "The Lord of The Rings".

 

favourite song!!!

 

after hearing the song over and over so many times i have comed to the conclusion that it is one kind of a song that, every people know what is about and then again they don't one the same time..

 

well, it is considered the greatest rock ballad of all time

 

while on my lunchbreak in the park the other day, a dude walked past with a stereo, blasting 'stairway', over and over. It was pretty cool, He just strode around for the whole half an hour I was outside letting the message be heard with a serious yet unfeeling look on his face, like he meant business. It is a beautiful, mystical song...

 

I don't think it really matters what it means, its only how you interpret it. Thats what makes it a good song with good lyrics, it can have more than one meaning.

But what localhippy said was pretty much the original intended meaning, at least according to Jimmy Page, who don't forget was a herion addict.

 

I honestly started listening to led zeppelin about a year ago...and I know what you're thinking.... "okay this girl's a stupid little teenager"...okay...sure...maybe I am....but I've read so much...watched so many concerts...listened to their music SO MUCH in the past year, that I feel like ive been listening to them forever...its weird...Im obsessed with them...the first Led Zeppelin song that I heard was Stairway to Heaven....I fell in love...I'm still in love with that song...then I started listening to Q107...(a Toronto radio station) and I heard more of their songs...I became more and more interested....I saved up a lot of money and I bought their box set...all the Led Zeppelin albums....I was in heaven...I sat in bed all day on the weekends listening to every single song and learning the lyrics. I had never explored music so much before at all..They became my life..day and night, I would leave a cd playing all night..and in the morning I would be able to wake up to them (which was like waking up and having the whole world in your hands for me). After a while I noticed that on one of my "Best of Led Zeppelin" cds there was this video that you can play on the computer....I put it on and I fell in love with robert plant...with his snug little pants and his little tiny shirt...the hair, the look, the voice...everything....and Page as well...all of them..I fell in love with their IMAGE....Bonham...the grooviest drummer ever..and John Paul, awesomely talented guy...then I watched The Song Remains The Same......and I thought "I NEED to start collecting these things"....and I did....I expanded....it grew...I have over a zillion Led Zeppelin things....Pictures, Posters, printed out pictures of concert tickets...Ticket from the Robert Plant concert that I went to in July, cds, tapes, records....I even drew the Led Zeppelin logo onto my wall....layed out a bunch of pics..and now it's like my shrine.... For sure...this is how I started listening to Led Zeppelin....

Stairway to Heaven got me there...