Led Zeppelin: Stairway To Heaven Meaning

Stairway To Heaven Lyrics

There's a lady who's sure
All that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to Heaven
When she gets there she knows
If the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for
Ooh ooh and she's buying a stairway to...

1. anonymous

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   Aug 31st 2008 !⃝

   If you listened to the "backwards message" but nobody told you what it said, you wouldn't think anything of it. Backwards jibberish could be made to sound like anything, so don't get too worked up, ok? Great song, though!
2. anonymous

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   Aug 18th 2008 !⃝

   Ok I know you are all gonna hate me for this, and I don't entirely believe this is what it's about myself, but just for kicks, listen to the song and think 'hitman'
   
   -X
3. anonymous

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   Aug 2nd 2008 !⃝

   About all the backwards talk: It's bound to happen. The chance isn't high to happen in a song, but put any number of words randomly after each other and play it back words, some of them have a feeble impression of giving a satanic message..
   
   If you don't believe this, I suggest you read up on chance calculations :)
4. anonymous

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   Jul 29th 2008 !⃝

   A rock journalist, a woman, had some dirt on the band - damaging stuff - and was ready to come out with it against them in exchange for some exclusive material.
   
   "stairway to heaven" is merely a contemplation of all the trappings of being a rock star from the perspective of a celebrity constantly referring back to this journalist and the potential damage to the band.
   
   the "lady" is the journalist. The "stairway" is the connections to the rich and famous. The "stores" that are "closed" are the bands potential refusal to play ball. The "songbird" in a "tree by a brook" is, perhaps, a groupie, someone off "the mainstream" so to say who has the damaging information and is prepared to speak. "sometimes all of are thoughts are misgiven" is a reference to the fact that a representation of the band would be published in this vindictive nature, impacting the general consensus as such. "the west" is the usa. "rings of smoke" are groups of zeppelin fans. "those who stand looking" are those who assume the band will influence its fans into a similar lifestyle suggested by the journalist - basically the parents of children.
   
   etc.. So forth.. This is getting too long. I think you get the point.
   
   enjoy.
5. anonymous

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   Jul 22nd 2008 !⃝

   I was told that this song was about a lady who was crazy because she thought all that glittered was gold and stuff...

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
6. anonymous

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   Jul 18th 2008 !⃝

   I LOVE THIS SONG! IT IS POSSIBLY THE GREATEST SONG EVER! Anyway, it has nothing to do with drugs or stupid shit like that. Can't you people just see this song for what it is: a beautiful piece of poetry. Oh- and I listened to those "backward messages" They are a bunch of choppy backward sounds strung together to sound similar to words. Someone thought they were satanic messages, and everyone else believed him. That string of gibberish, if listened to long enough, could be made to be anything. God bless, and enjoy this AWESOME song!
7. anonymous

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   Jul 11th 2008 !⃝

   It's not a SPRING CLEAN for the May Queen, it's a SPRINKLING for the May Queen! Most popular lyric sites have this wrong. For those of you who are not British, a hedgerow is a line of bushes. It's a reference to Shakespear's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
8. anonymous

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   Jun 9th 2008 !⃝

   Hmm..the great stairway to heaven. Great song and if anybody thinks it's satanic because of how it's played backwards is completely crazy. And no one should say they know what it's about..because last time I checked you weren't in the band Led Zeppelin and you didn't write the song.
9. anonymous

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   Jun 1st 2008 !⃝

   Honestly, I feel that to understand mosty of the Zeppelin songs, you would have to know every aspect that occured in Plant's life.
   
   People often write about what's going on in their own life & no matter how much you think you know about Plant & Zeppelin, you'll never know absolutely everything. So obviously, most things you won't be able to interpret accurately.
10. beatlegurl3344

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    May 17th 2008 !⃝

    Materialism...
11. anonymous

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    May 12th 2008 !⃝

    There's only one meaning to this song. Rock and Roll rules!
12. anonymous

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    Apr 9th 2008 !⃝

    "Stairway to Heaven" has multiple interpretations. For clarity's sake, we will just focus on the lyrics themselves.
    
    The core of the song is rooted in judeo-christian beliefs, despite a brief reference to the "May Queen" and the celtic paganism it implies. Many Zeppelin songs of the era referenced the fantastic; "Ramble On" even mentioned Gollum and Mordor (of Lord of the Rings) directly.
    
    In essence, the song's actual meaning depends on your interpretation of the lady. The more popular of my two interpretations, and the one supported by actual quotes by Robert Plant, is that the lady is a "woman [who gets] everything she wanted all the time without giving back any thought or consideration." That quote directly from Plant via Wikipedia. A rich old biddy of the Catholic "cradle to grave" variety, or perhaps a Southern Baptist, whom either puts her faith entirely in her material goods, or trusts that the good she does through them will earn her a place in heaven.
    
    The Piper in the song is a clear-cut Messiah figure, bringing the message of true salvation for any whom care to listen to it (as evidenced in the lines "Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow/and did you know..." et al).
    
    The alternate interpretation, which admittedly has no base and is entirely a product of my own mind after my first listening, was that the lady represented a Satan figure - sowing the belief in the material in the world, while buying off souls that she may one day ascend to the throne of the almighty. Under this interpretation, the Piper's message is one of futility, not of Salvation - that her stairway will never be completed, her work in vain.
    
    In any case, the remainder of the song is laden with imagery that seems ripped from the book of Revelations, about the millenial reign on earth after the fall of the antichrist.
    
    A final note - most of the explanations I have seen on this page merely made me laugh. As an audio engineer, I will say that the claims of backmasking in "Stairway" are naive at best. Pick up an MP3 of Utada Hikaru's "Sanctuary" if you want to hear actual, intentional backmasking. The entire song was designed to be played both ways. Likewise, the drug-based interpretations are... well...
    
    Moronic. Absolutely, utterly, completely dense. Yes, it would work with the era, but to suggest that "Stairway" was entirely about drugs is tantamount to blasphemy.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
13. anonymous

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    Mar 25th 2008 !⃝

    You are all idiots. It basically means live life to the fullest. "buying her stairway to heaven" refers to someone who buys happiness instead of seeking it out for themselves, simply that money just leads to greed and we need to find our source of happiness in life without it. "there are two paths you can go on, but in the long run, Theres still time to change the road your on" basically means that you can still change your ways of greed and become enlightened and not live your life around money.
14. anonymous

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    Mar 25th 2008 !⃝

    For me, this song is not specifically religious, not necessarily about drugs, and not meaningless, but then again, I am none of those things so perhaps I'm projecting. I think the lady represents God (the whole "all that glitters is gold" thing seems to speak to this), and the piper is Satan (who, as many preachers like to say, is "calling you to join him.") I have a difficult time believing that the song is literally about the religious figures, inasmuch as it seems silly that if Zep truly believed in the Bible, then they wouldn't support Satan, as the Bible says that he loses in the end. Who wants to root for a loser? I don't think this is about the fictitious God-Satan dichotomy, but the real struggle that God and Satan have always symbolically represented. That is the dichotomy between faith and reason. Obviously, God is faith, and the devil is reason ("Then the piper will lead us to reason.") We assume that faith is the better way to live, and perhaps it is, but that's not the point. The point is, faith is the much harder way to live. While some, including probably myself, live devoid of faith, using only reason, no one, except maybe George Bush, lives devoid of reason, using only faith. Generally, people strive to gain faith, but it remains elusive("Your stairway lies on the whispering wind.") No matter how much they want to believe that things will work out for the best, reason tells us that blindly trusting anything is foolish. Obviously, Zep have made their bed ("our shadows taller than our souls") and though they point that "there's still time to change the road you're on" it seems unlikely that they will ever truly be able to gain enough faith "to be a rock and not to roll". And she's buy-y-ying a stair-way to heaven.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
15. anonymous

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    Mar 21st 2008 !⃝

    Hi there! I find it great that there are so many different ways to interpret this song! I would just like to add for anyone who believes the Satan backwards message thing that Robert Plant lived in a castle previously owned by Alistaier Crowely called the "Tool Shed" also, crowely made his religious followers learn how to speak and write backwards. By the way, loved the idea about the girl and her period, it was very well thought out. Cya

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

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