STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN BY LED ZEPPELIN

Stairway To Heaven is a genuine masterpiece. It starts out with one of the most famous intros ever. It can even be argued that it's even more famous than Beethoven's Fifth. Although it is tough to beat a four note intro. After the intro the song builds slowly, then the bridge comes along. I think. I don't know what a bridge is, but I want to sound like I know something. Sometimes, though, even Led Zeppelin can't find that confounded bridge. The guitar solo eventually comes on, which brings on the crescendo. The song finally comes to a finish as slowly as it began.

I rarely listen to it when it comes on the radio. For one, you have to be in the mood for it. And two, you have to have the time for it as well. I don't think I will ever enjoy the song as much as when I first listened to it when I was young. Back then I actually had time to listen to it. I sat in front of the speakers and read along with the lyrics to the song. Who has time for that now. While doing the research for the podcast I found out it's eight minutes two seconds long. Eight minutes two seconds is a lot different now than it was back then. Time truly is relative.

I checked out the Led Zeppelin websites and came upon an interesting one. It is called enzepplopedia.com and Frank Reddon is the owner. He has been writing three Led Zeppelin books. He's been at it for over twelve years. Along with that, he plays a number of instruments and runs marathons. That's pretty amazing if you ask me. He was excited about being interviewed and thought that our idea for the website and podcast was a very good one. Frank was gracious enough to send me his book Sonic Boom: The Impact of Led Zeppelin Vol 1, which I appreciate immensely.

The podcast came out really well. It was my first international phone call. I wasn't even sure that Skype went to Canada without an international fee. Fortunately, it doesn't. Skype is great. It was tough editing the podcast, though, because Frank loves Led Zeppelin and he has a lot to say. The clips on the podcast are interesting as well. One of them is the infamous song played backwards that supposedly sings about the Devil. We capitalize Devil, right? I don't want to hurt his feelings. The other clip is about the guitar intro from the band Spirit that sounds a lot like the guitar intro to Stairway to Heaven. They supposedly toured together as well.

Another interesting fact I found is that people actually do covers of Stairway To Heaven. That makes no sense to me. Some songs don't need covers and Stairway to Heaven is one of them. The best thing you can say is that at least they are not on the list of worse cover songs ever. That honor goes to Bob Dylan playing the Van Morrison song And It Stoned Me. In actuality, Dolly Parton's version of Stairway To Heaven was named by people in the comments section of the list. So you be the judge.

Stairway To Heaven will be around for a long time. Just recall the excitement the band caused when they reunited for one concert in 2007 in London. ABC News reported that an amazing twenty million people got on the Internet lottery for 18,000 concert tickets. I suppose like Frank said in the interview, Led Zeppelin has achieved one of its goals, which is to create a lasting piece of work.