WHO is buying a stairway to Heaven?

[@Manchestermusic90]

I was lucky to meet Robert Plant in York about 6 years ago .His wife was playing a festival they were staying in the travel lodge across the road from the pub i was working in , he had been in 2 days on the run .We ended up having a lock in with robert and some of his wifes band . I asked him about Stairway to Heaven and what it meant ? Robert said “this is a song of hope” there are two path you can go by, (dark/light. Good/bad choices) but in the long run. There’s still time to change the road you’re on. It’s never too late to make a change for the better And as we wind on down the road, our shadows taller than our souls. (That times past and deeds done can be baggage and be overbearing) BUT!… there walks a lady we all know. Who shines bright light and wants to show. That everything still turns to gold. Choose light, positivity and no matter what, there will always be hope 🕊

[@IndaloMan]

Your reference reminds of Roger Waters saying "Why walk into the darkness when you can walk into the light".

[@joshmcmillan348]

@@IndaloManwhen did Roger say that and in reference to what? He’s such a… strange character nowadays that I honestly don’t how he got there

[@IndaloMan]

@@joshmcmillan348 it was an interview on Classic Albums The making of DSOTM

[@PeterTea]

That’s interesting that the sampler LP that you show at the beginning has a mono version of Stairway to Heaven too. I didn’t think Zeppelin had any mono recordings of their studio stuff.

[@LSUOdyssey]

Those lines in Going to California is about experiencing an earthquake an actual earthquake in 1971 when they were recording and mixing the final parts of the album there.

[@mazalblues]

I always thought that Stairway to Heaven was about a naive hippy lady at the end of the hippy movement, who refused to accept that the times were changing and society was moving away from hippy culture. So she still buys the stairway, but in order to do so, she has to go down to more and more dangerous neighbourhoods and sketchy people, where the same words sometimes have other meanings. But still, she can't let go of that summer of love, so she keeps on trying to tell friends and everybody else that that's the way it should be to keep on the summer of love forever.

[@unjay1967]

Really interesting to have found a thread that runs through the whole album… that had never occurred to me even after 40+ years of listening to it!

[@j0pj0p]

Agree

[@jimpefferly2514]

Very interesting. Another fine video. Thank you for sharing. I've always heard ..."The piper will lead us to reason/And a new day will dawn..." as a reference to a chapter from The Wind in the Willows. The chapter is called The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. I recently read this delightful book and noticed that one of the characters was alarmed by a bustle in the hedgerow. There is a chapter on Spring Cleaning that has a main character who talks to a traveler and falls under the spell of traveling only to find that it does not suit him at all. This book follows a lot of what you are saying about a return to Nature. In older literature (see The Faerie Queene for an example) there is a tradition of people meeting an old man carrying a bundle of sticks. It later turns out that this same stick carrying man was a wizard in disguise. I believe that the man on the front cover of LZ IV and The Hermit on the inside are the same person. Also, did you know that if you hold the Hermit picture from IV up to a mirror you will see a more complete picture? The mountain shows itself to be the face of Anubis the dog faced Egyptian god of Death. The staff of The Hermit are the ears. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.

[@j0pj0p]

Oooooh, it makes me wonder…

[@michaelpeacock4228]

This was the album that was my Zeppelin gateway "drug", and I still treasure it to this day. But I admit, a lot of the tracks I took at face value. Now you are not only nudging me to revisit a classic, but to see it through this new perspective. And I admit; that's the sign of great art, in that you can take in a piece one way, but look at it entirely differently as years go on. Great work!

[@PeterWasted]

Marvellous! You present a cohesive and plausible explanation. It really doesn't matter if you are right or not. I will be thinking about your ideas next time I play it. I will however say that if you are right, When the Levee Breaks was a very fortuitous choice. It is after all, a song written about a real historical event and one where "nature" wouldn't have been seen as the good guy.

[@stephen7774]

A levee is a man made structure. If it breaks it is because nature has been abused and contained by human ambition and greed.

[@mikebradford9433]

And Robert Plant prounounces the second ‘sure’ as ‘shuwer’ which is classic Black Country dialect.

[@johnnyfry2]

A very interesting assessment. A nice addition to analyze the entire album as a sort of motif though I'm not sure they intended this. My take is different. First, let's consider that the album was recorded, and his lyrics written primarily top of mind at Headley Grange. It was in these conditions, conditions that the band didn't anticipate by the way in terms of its uncomfortable lodgings; which inherently influenced the feel of this album. Being distant from humanity in these primitive surroundings inspired them to their essence. They had no comforts, but they had nature, each other and their music. Money and fame had no value there and perhaps Robert pondered this fact. The lyrics to me are a message of hope, but only if the message is heeded. He uses a series of related metaphors to paint the picture. The lady represents pursuit of anything that is shallow, wealth being the easiest to symbolize, coupled with the power one associated and expresses with having this wealth or shallow pursuit. "With a word she can get what she came for". She had status in her town. The lyrics unravel the broader message, expressing the continuous change in nature/life and the lady has to decide which path she will choose, there is still time left for her if she can prioritize the tangible with the ethereal The humming may represent the end of her time on this earth, a double entendre of the Piper perhaps, representing the concept that we all must pay for our sins eventually (or are rewarded for our deeds), she will join the next world soon. What really lends me to this conclusion is Plants making the most profound statement in the song in my opinion "our shadow's taller than our soul", and at the crescendo of the song he is demanding you listen, begging for you to hear him. Just him using the word soul suggests that this song was theological in nature. Also "be a rock and not to roll". Be stable, slow and steady, a foundation for a soul of purity and reap the reward. Ultimately we are all the lady.

[@steveb2343]

Dude, your vids are so well researched, and so we'll explained. They're the only vids over 5 mins I bother to watch all the way through on KZbin 😂 keep em coming 👍

[@jp7963]

So what James is actually saying is that Led Zep 4 (or 'Untitled' or 'Four Symbols' or whatever you want to call it) is a concept album? Cool.

[@brandon-yu]

"Down by the Seaside", "Night Flight" and "Boogie with Stu" were all recorded during these sessions but were later released on Physical Graffiti. Would you say they fit thematically?

[@LSUOdyssey]

Absolutely the first two. Boogie with Stu is just a jam

[@heavyvideo445]

Amazing analysis! I love the song and never realized the whole album would be so well connected to it. Will be listening to it on loop! (And reading Lord of the Rings!)

[@johnanthony6201]

Very well done. As with all interpretations, it's not dispositive, but definitely was fun to follow!

[@mannymota3442]

Your videos are so thoughtful and provocative -makes one examine thights more closely . Wonderful - thanks.

[@PaulGTerry]

beautiful analysis - thank you!

[@n3onkn1ght]

NGL, as soon as you said "Robert Plant wants to leave England" I immediately thought, "Oh, is this about taxes, then?" The lady wants her gold, there's "two paths" you can go by, this album is sandwiched between "Taxman" and "Exile on Main Street"...

[@0v4k1l]

Before you brought up the hermit towards the end, I was thinking the whole time that this has alot of parallels to The Fools journey in Tarot. The Fool card represents the first and last card of the tarot. We all start as fools, then we seek something higher and begin the journey (where we meet the hermit). At the end of it all, we are fools once more. Because we have gained an understanding the rest of the world doesn't recognise, and so we sound like fools when trying to explain it.

[@stevelundquist2417]

The message of the song is contained in the back masking. The forward version is just carefully selected words that result in the backwards message.

[@pabloj1789]

Great video, as always brilliant 👏 👏 👏

[@soldo9679]

James you are an amazing interpretator

[@mussman717word]

Led Zeppelin was released the same year as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was published. Let that simmer for a bit, especially when you think of the "wave speech." In many ways, Robert Plant and Hunter S. Thompson were riding the same crest of that high and beautiful wave.

[@vituvbracha6009]

All Oasis fans know that the mysterious girl in Stairway is actually Sally. Big clue.

[@bderrick4944]

Did you know if you play Wonderwall backwards Liam sings a hidden message about a really nice recipe for a shepherds pie

[@DenKulesteSomFins]

​@@bderrick4944 nice Simpsons reference

[@RainsonZeppelin]

Thanks, ! I will listen to Zep IV in a different way! Here is an interview with Robert Plant: he is then saying: There is a feeling to the west: for him it is Wales: at 12:54: Robert Plant: ' ... lifestyle that induces me there's a feeling I get when I look to the West and that's the direction that I always head from my home towards Wales and them and the mountains and the people who live there who live who've gone to live there to leave behind the materialistic life to a degree you know and my existence at home is really surrounded by a total opposite to the white Rolls Royce and it gets me so then I guess...'. To the Misty Mountains in Wales? kzbin.info/www/bejne/raGUmaWvj6yFj68

[@joshmcmillan348]

Given robs use of double meanings, I think the piper could possibly have something to do with weed or addiction. The lady in ‘Going to California’ “smoke my stuff and drank all my wine” which makes me think that under the influence of the piper, Robert becomes more selfish (also would tie in with the Tolkien themes- the one ring and gollum) and thus follows the piper since “Then the Piper will lead us to reason”. The piper certainly is some kind of persuasive influence. The line before he in introduced in stairway “rings on smoke through the trees” makes me think of a warning signal or smoke signal. The relationship between smoke and trees could also represent some kind of vision of destruction of the natural world. Man I love this song.

[@bonedaddy996]

Occams’s razor. Thanks for the in depth analysis.

[@aminahmed2220]

W hat a fantastic video have a wonderful day James ❤😊

[@glennmccudden8574]

AND THERE S A FEELING I GET WHEN I LOOK WEST. AND MY SPIRIT IS CRYING FOR LEAVING. THERE GOOD LYRICS. IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT. SORT OF SADNESS TO THEM. . CHEERS

[@lukeaaron3339]

The channel becoming a music conspiracy theory/iceberg explanation deep dive machine is absolute KZbin dynamite.

[@cjo2012]

APOLOGIES FOR LENGTH BUT YOU DESERVE EFFORT OF REPLY IN SOME PROPORTION TO YOUR OWN. James, thank you for putting time, thought and effort into this video. It reminds me of ...well.....days of 'wonder' way back when, where we would have talks over good 70's blonde weed, passing a joint and having listening sessions in which the only visuals were in our heads. The 'theater of the mind' you refer to. A largely lost tradition we've traded for what COULD support your thesis, namely, big market manufacturing and distribution in cell phones and videos. You're thesis is exceptionally good for one main reason: cohesion and specificity as you refer to the text itself (in your case, the text being the collective lyrics of the whole album) for consistency and proof of concept. And FOR that reason I'd like to offer you my own. My own theory has developed over the decades as I'm sure yours has and it's this: Empty materialism vs. TRUE value, value that transcends not only money, but the temporal world itself, SPIRITUAL value. Huge success coupled with the disillusionment of rock stardom. Context. We have to consider not only Planty's time and place, but the world in general at the time. (Not that you didn't, I'd just like to offer how our thesis' overlap but differ). So we know that LZIII didn't do NEARLY as well as LZII, which made them rich young men and sent them from theaters as support act to headliners at arena's. The money came suddenly and in constant abundance. Robert came from a working class family so wealth may have come as something of a shock to his sense of self. Remember, we're not talking about the erudite student of history and literature whose swagger in between songs had the ability to charm the pants off 18,000 people at a time, but a 21 year old whose frontal lobe was not even full grown yet. It was flower power and hippiedom and the competition for who could be more poetic than the next about sticking it to the man. So, historically, what else do we know about the lads at that time? Well, after III had, in comparison, sales wise, flopped in relation to II, there was already disillusionment as regards the market trying to define and pigeon-hole a band that can't be pinned down or categorized. So nature, in keeping with your thesis, was where Jimmy and Robert retreated to for the lush, pastoral surrounding for inspiration for the 'acoustic' album. As you referenced, our young, newly rich kid from a manufacturing town infamous for it's black smoke, was at a local pub while the lads worked up the instrumentation for Jimmy's grand, musical vision at Headley. Planty returned in a somber, if not outright dark mood, and wrote the lyrics as if they came pouring out nearly already complete. The inspiration was that strong. As we know, it seems some chick at the bar might have been trying to get at, not only his golden locks and good looks, but his bank account as well. Is she 'The Lady'? No. But she partly represents her. MY thesis is the lady represents shallow materialism. The kind that is utterly convinced that money buys everything and anything of any true value. The kind of mentality that is sure even eternity itself can be bought. But our sensitive and insightful 21 yr old knows that all that really matters most, can't be had that way. One simply cannot purchase a conveyance to transcendence. This put him in a very spiritually insightful headspace and he immediately used his way with language, which includes imagery of nature and of his then relatively literary background, to express it. And symbolism was his device. Points diverge as a young person, suddenly wealthy, tries to 'find oneself' as they used to say in those days. And the Piper could be the pull of evil materialism as you say, but I say the Piper isn't deceitful at all in this case. But rather, represents the joy of music and laughter in the woods and being in touch with those moments together that seem to pierce the veil of the temporal, and give one a glimpse of the eternal. "Does anybody remember laughter?" Our narrator asks of his audience 2 years later. Or are we all caught up in the material rat race? The peace that "surpasses all understanding" ain't for sale bitches. 🤔😔🤗. As to your album concept of interrelated lyrical content, as you Brits would say, 'good on ya mate", but again, forgive me for saying,.... nah, it's just the themes common to blues songs and ballads of heartache. Black dog's pure erotic drive is inspired by the type of hoochie mama behind sex laden symbolism in lyrics since the days of Robert Johnson. And as to Cali? It's is about Joni mate. But it brings me back to "the West" because your thesis is strong there too. ~ So, words here have two meanings. How the west was won. Sound familiar if you're the zephead I think you are? America was conquered by the four lads and their intrepid General, the man who led zeppelin to conquest in a manner every Brit kid, would be pop-star dreams of, in the states. You romanticize beautifully as to your wondrous home isle, but perhaps not quite on point as to 'Stairway'. The West represented the riches and the bitches, the glory and the excess that the following nine years would bring, so, the material vs. the spiritual side of self definition in keeping with my own thesis. Second of the two meanings? Well, what do you usually visualize when you think of that cardinal direction? For me, the setting sun and a certain spiritual draw that defies words so, poetry is needed. A sublime feeling I get when I look to it, and that which animates me almost cries to leap out of me to become one with that which transcends me. Therefore, the materialist needs to be reminded that, that which you seek with gold or money, is right under your nose on the breeze. Your conveyance is not material. So, for he and I to conclude, the point is made again, this time with blistering urgency, as if time to realize this truth is running out. The blazing lull of the shiny material things and ideas (the lady who shines white light and wants to show how everything still turns to gold) will draw us away from the truth if we aren't careful. And that truth is, that we are all of the same immortal being, we are all one. And nothing can change that. The rock is timeless and immovable. So I'll close on a light note, our Planty has a reputation for being tight with his coin. So people that identify with that probably turn our golden god off. 🤔 Buy a round for the lads ya cheap bah'stid. Long live John Henry Bonham and Long live Led Fucking Zeppelin.

[@lauririchter1412]

Wow Chris !! I've learned so much from you and that video. You speak so profoundly! Very interesting to hear your thought an obviously very well thought out !!

[@vaccarioou22]

A picture paints a thousand words - this album was a musical picture. You omit Sandy Denney's part and the association with Fairport Convention

[@rimmersbryggeri]

"Spent my days with a woman unkind smoked my stuff and drank all my wine" Wonder if that's the same lady.

[@jamesrobert4106]

My first thought also.

[@boblehman1726]

Interesting - thanks James.

[@JuddLofthouse]

great stuff my friend very interesting

[@matcoffidis1135]

Wow! How fascinating! So the whole album is basically a morality tale/lesson....

[@keithbhaven]

J.R.R. Tolkien

[@LSUOdyssey]

Black Dog was written about a dog who would come by the headley grange house where they recorded IV.

[@chrisdurcan4673]

Do we have to establish a meaning for this, or any song for that matter? We all have our own interpretations of songs, and what they mean to us. Reminds me of English lit. at school. By the time you had deconstructed the damn piece, you hated it, and vowed never to read that work for pleasure ever again. Not knowing what the hell these songs are about makes them more appealing. It’s not about satanism or any such nonsense. More fuelled by beak I’m guessing. What a lot of hype about nothing. RP would be wetting himself laughing. I am.

[@BioFactory1]

3:51 - Early take the lyrics are 'When she gets there she knows the stores are all closed , with a call she can see Armagedon.' and the 'And it makes me wonder' parts have 'And I really really wanna knna know why she had to hurt me so-wo. '

[@thesolarengineer]

James, a valiant effort but we all know she is Patsy Kensit! You muppet 😂❤🎉

[@johnanthony6201]

Living in the evil west (currently New York but most of my life in California (where I lwas born and earned to play "Going to California" when the album was released), I'm frankly stunned that I've never heard of Patsy Kensit! Good call, though. She apparently burned through men at a rate that earns her a star on Hollywood Blvd.

[@floaty10]

Eh?! Hardly, Kensit was only four when stairway was released. Who’s the muppet who can’t count back?

[@bderrick4944]

@@floaty10it’s a joke about how many oasis videos he’s made

[@floaty10]

@@bderrick4944ahh fair enough. First time I’ve watched the channel. Had me confused there.

[@Ned-ke3ui]

You could be onto something here James 👍🏻

[@JoeBlow-fp5ng]

This was a fun one.

[@KenWard-w9w]

Worthy of consideration...

[@NonExistent5P]

can you do a video about rush

[@williamborger8554]

Interesting!

[@AgataDDDD]

❤❤❤

[@jonashallberg2832]

It makes me wonder why this video was made!

[@LSUOdyssey]

I love this video James you rock and roll conspiracy theorist

[@JC-jr9hw]

Interesting theory, but I’m not sure that holds up. He says a lot of negative things about the lady in question as well and if that’s supposed to be mother nature, it doesn’t really make sense.

[@aukjew3245]

If he only had good things to say about the lady then it's unlikely he would have wanted to leave her behind

[@JC-jr9hw]

@@aukjew3245 Yeah but if the whole theory is that he’s telling people that we should all respect and love mother nature it doesn’t make a lot of sense for him to slag her off for throughout the entire album. I think it’s much more likely that this is about a relationship he felt was coming to an end or at least having trouble. And with him having to leave England frequently to tour the world and the US it makes a lot more sense to me.

[@georgeprice4212]

So….in a weird way, Zeppelin 4 is a loose concept album?

[@georgeprice4212]

Zeppelin is Gonna hate this: there was one single from LZ 4 - Rock And Roll/Black Dog.

[@PeterTea]

She’s a lady “we all know.”

[@shaneholbeck6697]

Any chance James is from the same region as Mary Spender? Accent and mannerisms extremely similar.

[@styepen602]

No, James is from Manchester (I think, might be greater Manchester), Mary is from Salisbury I believe, I could be wrong but just to be safe, James is from the North of England and Mary is from the South of England

[@jaynawilliams8923]

Robert Plant (songbird bush)

[@jamesbond4633]

Somerset Belenov

[@damianrf6309]

It’s about Courtney Love. A veiled confession.

[@Elizabeth-mp6tr]

Oh Sir! You need to be Catholic to understand this song. The Lady is the Virgin Mary. All that glitters is gold -- is how she sees all our souls. The May Queen-- is the month that Catholics dedicate to the Virgin Mary in prayer in May. And our thoughts are misgiven -- is our sins in our thoughts. But the Virgin Mary still sees our souls as gold. Staring to the west-- is the call to others than Jesus and the Virgin Mary. The Piper -- is the passion he has to follow anything other than Christianity. The two paths -- are sin, or belief in Jesus. The Dear Lady-- is the Virgin Mary, who has God's heart in her hands. She shine white light -- the Virgin Mary always leads us to Jesus, that if we just believe we dont need to take the "other path" of sin. And maybe, this is why, they've been sooo quiet about who this woman is. Making vows -- to follow Jesus, through the consecration to Mary. In the song, Robert must follow his passion to music in the west, even if, its a seemingly sinful world -- the red river. And, in the end, he's trying to find a beautiful, kind, righteous woman, but does not exist, as his love and dedication to the Virgin Mary -- the perfect woman who gives us love and leads us to Jesus. The misty mountains, and the levy, (the broken life he found out west) is what happened when he left the Virgin Mary and Jesus. And the Virgin Mary, always, always leads us to Jesus and "buys us a stairway to Heaven!" And, the "tears she sheds" -- rivers of flowing water -- when we turn away from Jesus. Sir, No. You need to be Catholic to understand this song! Was Robert Plante, Catholic?

[@arminreuter5151]

“All that glitters is gold” is the translation of a German saying. “Nicht alles, was glänzt, ist Gold.” “Not all that glitters is gold.” The lady thinks otherwise.

[@isaacness2647]

Manifest destiny?

[@damianrf6309]

Damn! Why can’t I shake the image of p-dough Rolf Harris and his wobble board?

[@soulagent79]

I vaquely remember an interview from the '90s in which Plant said the song was about heroin.

[@SendyTheEndless]

Return to monke.

[@Yougotadollar]

You've got a lot of time on your hands. You're grasping at straws. A single story over Zep 4.

[@innertube47]

Who cares

[@TheMountainHare]

Why are you watching then?

[@innertube47]

@@TheMountainHarei didn’t, it was suggested to me by youT for some reason. I’m surprised anyone is interested in such adolescent twaddle, but then I guess you responded to me because you are so you got your underpants in a twist. Ah well, it takes all sorts..

[@nigelmartin3339]

@@innertube47 On your bike

[@innertube47]

@@nigelmartin3339 nice one Nigel!

[@jamesforrest8144]

Me