50 years, twelve years what does is matter?
Fifty years Stairway To Heaven and it’s been twelve years since someone special played the first chords of that song for me. For all the music historians, that song was played live for the first time in March 1971. So that’s the real birthday for that epic tune by Led Zeppelin. Not the day when they released it on Led Zeppelin IV. 37 years later a girl picks up an acoustic guitar and starts to play the song. How happy a man can be?
There’s a lady who’s sure, all that glitters is gold.
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven.
So we travelled through time and here we are, more than 12 years later.
Half a century
Stairway To Heaven is one of THE rock songs and for sure it’s a ballad. Such an epic tune, who does not know this eight minute monster of a song? Page, Plant, Bonham and Jones created something that good – it doesn’t even get boring after all these long, long time. The live versions you can find online? Great! Even that one from 2007 (Celebration Day) when Johns son, Jason Bonham, plays the drums on, it‘s still fantastic! Who hasn’t watched it by now: Please, do your homework and come back after watching it!
A storm is coming
Eight minutes. Three seconds. And these eight minutes are like a storm. Like that ones you know from past summer times. You’re sitting on your balcony and suddenly it begins. Clouds are rising, the sky becomes dark. And then, the rain starts to fall on the ground. Very soft in the beginning. From distant you can hear it: Thunder. The wind plays with the branches of the trees and the thunder is getting louder … It sings, the wind sings, it’s a beautiful scene. But all of a sudden, a bang, thunderbolt and lightning. It’s raining cats and dogs, the wind is singing no longer, it’s screaming. The storm has arrived. Strong and fast, flashes of lightning every second. The guitar reaches to the sky, Plants voice is fighting the storm, he’s the wind, the drums are bringing mountains down. But then, in a blink of an eye it’s gone. You’re looking to the sky and one lonely drop of water comes down on your head. Leaves you wondering – was it a dream?
Source: YouTube, Led Zeppelin