That didn’t stop radio from playing the hell out of it. So it’s no surprise that “Stairway to Heaven”-an eight-minute epic you wouldn’t dream of editing-was strictly an album cut. They hated the idea of reworking their songs for radio, and for years, they refused to even release singles in the UK. “Stairway to Heaven” was never released as a single. In March 2020, the ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling. The suit alleged that Zeppelin stole the “Stairway” riff from Spirit’s 1968 song “ Taurus.” Zeppelin opened for Spirit on their first American tour, so it’s possible they heard “Taurus” before penning “Stairway.” But Page and company have denied any thievery, and in 2016, a jury ruled in their favor. In 2014, the estate of Randy California, late guitarist for the American rock band Spirit, sued Led Zeppelin for copyright infringement. “Stairway to Heaven” spawned a copyright infringement case. “A bit of a magical guitar, really,” Page said.

Page also used that Telecaster during his days with the Yardbirds and on sessions for the first Zeppelin album. It was simply a 1959 Fender Telecaster he got from fellow British shredder Jeff Beck. Zep’s lead guitarist was known to dabble in the occult, but the so-called “magical” instrument he used for his “Stairway to Heaven' solo wasn’t infested with demons or blessed by witches or anything cool like that. Jimmy Page played the solo on a “magical guitar.” “For me, a solo is something where you just fly, but within the context of the song.” Page did three takes-all different-and picked the best one. “The solo sounds constructed-and it is, sort of, but purely of the moment,” Page told Rolling Stone in 2008. Turns out the legendary axman was flying by the seat of his bell-bottoms. Page’s soaring “Stairway to Heaven” solo showcase, which was ranked by Guitar World as the greatest solo of all time, features 50 seconds of face-melting glory. Walter Iooss Jr./Hulton Archive/Getty Images Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page on stage at New York City's Madison Square Garden on September 3, 1971. “Stairway to Heaven” sounds wicked backwards-Literally. Plant believes the power of the song lies in its “abstraction.” “Depending on what day it is, I still interpret the song a different way-and I wrote the lyrics,” he said. Even Robert Plant isn’t 100 percent sure what “Stairway to Heaven” is about. Singer and lyricist Robert Plant has said he actually drew inspiration from Lewis Spence’s Magic Arts in Celtic Britain, a book about occult beliefs.

According to one theory, the lyrics echo the “The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen,” a story of two lovers told in the appendix of The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien’s epic fantasy novel inspired several of their songs, including “Ramble On,” “The Battle of Evermore,” and “Misty Mountain Hop.” Many Tolkien buffs believe “Stairway” also leads straight to Middle-earth.

Long before Peter Jackson’s blockbuster movies, Zeppelin's band members were big fans of The Lord of the Rings. Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Hulton Archives/Getty Images (L to R) Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones and Robert Plant live at Nihon Budokan, Tokyo, in September 1971.

Dream on led zeplin