STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN / WHOLE LOTTA LOVE

'Stairway To Heaven' - Led Zeppelin (Single)

How could it possibly get less than five stars? It would be shameful. The only reason a song like this could receive less than that would be because of it's overplayed nature, but that's only a product of the song's original quality.

All preconceptions and overpopularities aside, the song is amazing. There's a very intended buildup from acoustic to clean to distorted. Cryptic, rhythmic lyrics from Robert Plant; the soaring, perfect guitar solo from Page...

Clocking in at eight minutes, it's easy to see why Led Zeppelin can at least be considered Prog-Related from a song like this. Overplayed, yes. But when it comes down to it, an excellent song, deserving of it's title.

Masterful.

Stairway To Heaven is legendary and quintessential classic rock with Led Zeppelin at their best. And the real surprise on this single is the B side is another legendary song with Whole Lotta Love released from "Led Zeppelin 2".

Both are masterpieces and hallmarks of the great Led Zeppelin. The single sky rocketed them to success and the album "Led Zeppelin 4" has become one of the greatest albums of all time and in fact sits very comfortably at the top of many top 100 albums lists. The main reason is Stairway to Heaven, a song that captivates with it's spell binding lyrics about finding a way to heaven, though has dark overtones of losing the soul. The song has been played to death on radio but never loses its power.

Whole Lotta Love is infamous with a killer riff, that every guitarist knows, and a mid section that is progressive and entrancing, as there is a jazz drum section, a strange vocal that echoes toward the ears, backwards, and very weird Plantisms as he screams 'love' from the bottom end up to his highest range. There is a lot of ad libbing and crazy guitar fills here; it is quite simply a masterpiece. I rarely give a single the masterpiece status but here an exception must be made.

From 1971, comes Led Zepplin's masterwork "Stairway to Heaven" paired on the b-side with another good number, "Whole Lotta Love". Can't complain about the a side at all, it is what it is. It may have been overplayed but deserved it, I think like "Boheamian Rhapsody", a cornerstone of music. "Whole Lotta Love" is good but can't compare in it's blueness style to the pomp and grandeur of "Stairway to Heaven". 5 stars for the a side and 3 stars for te b side averages to an oveall very good 4 star rating from me. 2 well-known rock and roll classics together.

LED ZEP if there were to remain only one, an OMNI yes, an airship even more!!! So we attack hard, since we don't know if it's prog.... but I don't care! The only album where I can put a track on replay for a whole day, good when my girlfriend is at work, we agree!!! Lets' go!

1. 'Black Dog' or the ultimate rock, the one that leaves your c... on the chair; a voice, a riff, a rhythm, everything is there, the guitar twirls, it's simple, it's raw; I must have listened to that a few years ago, I've lost count, but it's one of the musical pygmalion titles; well we are far from the prog and again, see further. Ah ah, ah ah yes when you scratch and you get the substantive marrow, you get there. Who hasn't tried strumming that extra solo and waddling over it? 2. 'Rock and Roll' for Robert's chest in front, John's destructured and destructuring drums and this riff from Jimmy, because yes the hard, proto metal prog invented the sound with a hero guitar, that's how it is ; good don't forget the other John who asserts with his bass the direction to take; good rock? Just for the final drum solo yes! 3. 'The Battle of Evermore' and the 1st progressive piece, this delicate, heady, repetitive arpeggio; these choirs coming from I don't know where, the repetition of one with the other; the crescendical rise as I like to write it, a mini rock bolero to put you in a trance, to make you travel, to engrave one of the foundations of prog rock... progression, of course. How to associate trance with rock, India and its wisdom with English madness, how to engulf oneself in these musical furrows... by listening. 4.' Stairway to Heaven' when I listened to 'Hotel California' I thought of Stairway; when I heard the flute, I thought of GENESIS; also disappointed by this primary but so sensual stereophonic game; when I heard Robert, I understood that it was going to be beautiful; when they passed the second, I was already swooning with joy; having the guitar warming up, the voice languishing, that's it, I knew I had the ultimate piece 'ROCK PROGRESSIF' in front of me. When the battery kicks in halfway through, who's still standing? who knows what was going to happen? who knows that the progression was still going to go up, to open up towards the divine? When the solo comes, who knew it would be perfect, that it was going to rock you all over the room? Who knew he was going to bring you to this apocalyptic moment where rock, prog, hard merged and where you would have to wait after too much time to have this concept of progressive metal, the only title that would be worth 6 in my opinion; well I'm not telling you about excellence with this final return to the beginning, ah if I just did it! 5.' Misty Mountain Hop' after this ecstatic moment, we return to a primary rock sound where the choirs do the 'battle' with the still high voice of Robert; OK, I'll admit it, I have a lot of trouble with titles other than Stairway, but as an inveterate prog, I force myself to listen to everything; even if here it is too repetitive, too garish, too overrated; well it's also probably on titles of this ilk that I started to love the guitar solo moment, it's already not bad; and then 1971 anyway. 6. 'Four Sticks' where how the drums can be put forward and bring the title, how to realize that the crazy drummer was Bonham before Moon; apart from our national Jimmy Pallagrosi who can also be taken as a crazy drummer after Portnoy, we are in France anyway; slow digression with chanted, howled, belched voice. 7. 'Going to California' yes the crystalline arpeggio, on an Indian air, we guess Ravi with his sitar but no, finally if we guess; good, a bucolic title, an air where the notes spurt out from the guitars, an air that can also put you in a trance, that could last, last. A moment when Robert shows that he really has a nice cheesy organ? (thanks Ange for the fact!) 8. 'When the Levee Breaks' for the second 'great title', which confirmed to me at the time that it was not rock, but something else; good the harmonica I had trouble, but the riff I loved; the organ in the background reminds me why I loved 'In the Evening' afterwards; bewitching, simple, catchy and this harmonica that seduces me now, incredible as the sound can transport. What about 'When' except that it goes up, it goes up and it transports, nothing else, come on I'll let you listen, but it doesn't stop. A crescendo before its time again?

LED ZEPPELIN released an OMNI album for Stairway, for the varied, differentiated, ultimate sound, which does not correspond to any musical code; it had to be told here, for posterity, for those who are not yet 50 years old and who do not yet know! (5 for 'IV' of course!)

Review #93!

'Stairway to Heaven'. The Zeppelin track that most could go the rest of their life without hearing again. This is probably the closest Led Zeppelin ever got to a sidelong epic. Delicate guitar playing, poetic lyrics, and some outstanding Bonham drumming was just some nice 'meaningful' crap that I could use to try to explain this song. But the truth is that this song cannot be explained. It can only be experienced, felt, lived. Eight minutes feels like two to the trained ear. The B-side's nice too, I guess.

I'm joking.

'Whole Lotta Love' is proof in itself that Led Zeppelin was vital to the birth of metal. And prog! Long sections with ear- piercing sound effects practically screams "Moonchild: The Illusion!" (Apologies for the esoteric reference). This track is fun as hell and I appreciate the fact that it is the B-side to 'Stairway to Heaven' years after its original release in 'Led Zeppelin II'.

Both of these tracks hold up horrifyingly well after all these years. Wonderful, beautiful, schmeautiful. See, there I am again, trying to explain things that can't be. Either way, these are some of the best songs in history by one of the best bands in history. Prog on.