“Stairway To Heaven”
Call this song what they must and ascribe to it what magical powers they may, what it truly does best is cast a shadow over things: the band, of course, but the album too. The catalog. The genre. What other songs and artists it may have (not impossibly) stripped for parts. Over fledgling guitarists. Rock singers. Rock bands befriending hippies. Discussions around honorifics beginning with “best” or “most.” Discussions around occult imagery in rock music. Discussions about the worthiness of cover versions, and discussions about the worthiness of those covers’ performers. Recorder melodies. The Am-F-G progression’s supreme worth and infinite utility. The greatest song in the world. Tributes. Multi-part songs that are or are not epics and what defines which as which. Every guitar solo known or rumored to have been tracked for this song. Every guitar solo ever. The merit and necessity of a “centerpiece” song in the context of a truly classic album. The merit and necessity of “centerpiece” songs in the context of a truly great album. Classic versus great. Tarot cards. What constitutes a fair deal with the devil. Whether the “words [with] two meanings” are those making up the lyrics of this very song. Whether words only sometimes have two meanings. But it rocks. Let it roll.
Grade: B+
