Rocktober 31, 2023

Rocktober 31st! 

Woo!! We made it! I hope that you have enjoyed this month-long celebration of Rock Music.

Today our song is: Stairway To Heaven by Led Zeppelin

Wikipedia tells us this about the song:

Led Zeppelin began recording "Stairway to Heaven" in December 1970 at Island Records' new recording studios on Basing Street in London. The song was completed by the addition of lyrics by Plant during the sessions for Led Zeppelin IV at Headley Grange, Hampshire, in 1971.  Page then returned to Island Studios to record his guitar solo.

The song originated in 1970 when Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were spending time at Bron-Yr-Aur, a remote cottage in Wales, following Led Zeppelin's fifth American concert tour. According to Page, he wrote the music "over a long period, the first part coming at Bron-Yr-Aur one night".  Page always kept a cassette recorder around, and the idea for "Stairway to Heaven" came together from bits of taped music. The first attempts at lyrics, written by Robert Plant next to an evening log fire at Headley Grange, were partly spontaneously improvised and Page claimed, "a huge percentage of the lyrics were written there and then". Jimmy Page was strumming the chords, and Robert Plant had a pencil and paper.

The complete studio recording was released on Led Zeppelin IV in November 1971. The band's record label, Atlantic Records, wanted to issue it as a single, but the band's manager Peter Grant refused requests to do so in both 1972 and 1973. As a result, many people bought the fourth album as if it were the single.

  

Thank you for supporting me during this month-long music fest. I’ve got some other ideas kicking around in my head for additional months. I’m not 100% sold on the ideas yet, I think part being that I’m not sure how I’ll be feeling (darned cancer!)  Part of me says to just go for it, and the other part says to not fully commit.  I’m going to have to give it more consideration.   

 

In the meantime, tomorrow is the next installment of the Call Me! Battle of the Bands. Be sure to stop by to cast your vote for the contender of your choice. 

 

PS if you're interested.... here is the playlist for this year's Rocktober posts: