A song so iconic that guitar stores ban people from playing it, Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” is an 8 minute long prog-rock masterpiece. Consistently ranking top 100 in Rolling Stone’s greatest songs, it’s widely regarded as one of the greatest rock songs ever made.
Naturally, its lyrics have been analysed and interpreted incessantly since its release in 1971. But these interpretations are overwhelmingly centred around the religious concept of salvation—with a word like “heaven” in the title, are we really surprised? As a non-religious person myself, I thought I’d give such beautifully profound lyrics a secular twist so that they don’t go to waste for the 37.8% of us in the UK. So yes, I will interpret “Stairway to Heaven” without the hardly relevant Heaven part. Let’s go:
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 Heaven
There’s a sign on the wall, but she wants to be sure
‘Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings
In a tree by the brook, there’s a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven
Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, makes me wonder
Immediately, we’re introduced to a character: the lady. She’s “sure that all that glitters is gold.” In other words, she’s obsessed with gold/money (materialism in general) but also, most importantly, privilege. The lady is used to having everything she wants so she thinks she can buy the titular “stairway to Heaven.” As I mentioned earlier, usually the “stairway to heaven” is thought to symbolise the stairway to salvation, but I understand it as the stairway to happiness (or fulfilment/flourishing). Nevertheless, it is implied that the “stairway to Heaven” is not for sale, which is a “sign on the wall” that she refuses to accept. But the songbird, which presumably symbolises external advice, sings that her thought is misgiven; she can’t buy happiness.
There’s a feeling I get when I look to the West
And my spirit is crying for leaving
In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
And the voices of those who stand looking
Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, really makes me wonder
And it’s whispered that soon if we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason
And a new day will dawn for those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter
Oh-oh-oh-oh-whoa
In this section, Plant switches the perspective from the woman to first person so that you can situate yourself in the story: this part of the song is for you. The “crying for leaving” the West is slightly obscure and feels out of place. Still, one can only assume the West is where you came from; you are “leaving” the West after all. Although, the East would probably be more appropriate since it’s where the sun rises from. Notwithstanding, Plant chooses the West and really the message is the same: you’ve come a long way. Your past haunts you but you continue forward through a new setting, the forest, where your attention is caught by several things including “rings of smoke”, “voices”, whispers, “the piper” and “laughter.” Remember the songbird as a personification of advice in the first section? Well, the advice manifests in many different forms, all of which aim to aid you (and the lady) in your journey through the forest, i.e. life. But then, if the piper, songbird, voices/whispers and smoke are really one and the same, why use so many different images for the same concept? Simple. Would you receive the same life advice from your parents and your friends? Of course not. The forest is chaotic, filled with conflicting sights and sounds. Equally, life is filled with conflicting advice and messages. Not all advice is born equal, however. The songbird is orderly and wise whilst the smoke, whispers and voices are volatile and distracting. Still, the most interesting figure of them all is the piper who will “lead us to reason.” At surface level, the piper is clearly one of the wise voices. That’s until we consider the Pied Piper of Hamelin: the famous fairy tale where a piper lures rats, then children, to their demise. It’s a dark twist from Plant… or maybe not. Is it that reason is synonymous with death? As we grow older, we become wiser so we are at our wisest once we’re at death’s door: “a new day will dawn for those who stand long.” Dawn could ironically represent death or just the enlightening one gains with age. Either way, this leads to the forests echoing with laughter, correlating to a sense of fulfilment.
If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now
It’s just a spring clean for the May queen
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
There’s still time to change the road you’re on
And it makes me wonder
Oh, whoa-oh
Your head is humming, and it won’t go, in case you don’t know
The piper’s calling you to join him
Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow? And did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind?
Once again shifting the perspective, Plant in 2nd person becomes a voice in the listener’s head. He too has become advice but transcends the sylvan advice, guiding us through being guided. Meta enough for you yet? The “bustle in your hedgerow” signifies a frightening life event caused by the “May Queen,” a traditional, British fairy tale character representing the coming of springtime. That is, obstacles in our life may seem frightening and unexpected but really they are an inherent part of life. We should learn to embrace them and not fear them for they are often blessings in disguise; the alarming bustle is just a sign that spring and its beauty is approaching. Plant does not want us to be guided by this and reiterates his keenness on following the piper, suggesting we let ourselves be guided by wiser influences in our life. This isn’t something he expects we know how to do immediately but he reminds us that it’s not too late to adjust the path we’re on. The final line sees Plant highlight the ignorance of the lady, saying that her “stairway lies on the whispering wind.” There are two possible meanings for this: (1) the material stairway the lady is looking doesn’t exist, or (2) the stairway is bunched in with the rest of the activity in the forest. Either case is plausible but which interpretation you follow is impertinent because, in both cases, the stairway to heaven isn’t real. There’s no stairway to heaven in the same way that there’s no easy way to obtain happiness, it can only be attained through working through hardship in life (which is explicitly in the second interpretation).
And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last
When all are one, and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll
And she’s buying a stairway to Heaven
To finish the song, Plant joins the reader in the journey down the aforementioned path. Walking down this path of life, we are enveloped in the “shadow” of our past that overwhelms our soul. Contrastingly, the lady “shines white light” on her shadow and continues to live in the delusion that she can buy happiness; Plant also reiterates this by calling her a rock that doesn’t roll (and gathers moss). Then, we are told that we will finally hear the Piper’s tune “when all are one, and one is all.” That is, we will only be truly wise once we reach old age and approach death. And in this moment of reflection, Plant concludes the song with a final dig at the lady where she’s still trying to buy the stairway. Yet, the dig isn’t (and has never been) specific to the lady. Led Zeppelin is exposing most of us who will never break out of the very same delusion: the desire to buy happiness.
“Jimmy Page with Robert Plant 2 – Led Zeppelin – 1977” by Jim Summaria, http://www.jimsummariaphoto.com/ is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.