Led Zeppelin's Biggest Secret Unveiled Below !!! ......
Their Inspiration Of Stairway To Heaven...
Their Inspiration Of Stairway To Heaven...
We all have heard the legendary rock song Stairway To Heaven of Led Zeppelin. Its the greatest rock song in the history of rock.
Every guitar player knows how to play that song. But how that song became so popular? What's in that song that makes every rocker crazy?
What Page and Plant have done to the song which makes it so special for everyone? Well, before Zeppelin there was a psychedelic band called Spirit formed in 1967. the band had four members, Randy California( guitar/vocals), Mark Andes (bass), Jay Ferguson ( vocals/ percussion) and Ed Cassidy (drums). Jimmy considered that band quite inspiring for him. Most of the rockers of today's generation might not have even heard about this band. But this band influenced Jimmy page which led him to create the guitar intro of stairway to heaven.
Spirit's original composition were successful to an extent. But their song "taurus" made a change. Taurus is a 2 minutes 37 sec. instrumental done by this band Spirit and its the only song that keeps their identity alive in today's world. They were also known for their compositions like 'Mechanical World' and 'I got a line on you'. Jimmy page liked "taurus" a lot which led him to create his own song similar to taurus. And that's from where Page originated Stairway to heaven. He was very much influenced and wanted to do something like that. Stairway's intro is quite similar to Taurus.
Even Robert Plant liked the intro and started working on the lyrics and he almost completed half of the lyrics while sitting with Page in a log fire at Headley Grange in 1970.
Well, Spirit had also lost What would have been the most memorable moments of tehir life taht would have catapulted them to Fame : They refused an invitation to open for Jimi Hendrix's act at the Woodstock festival ! Just apply the 'Catastrophe theory' here, and think what would have happened to the band had they performed at the Woodstock !
Nevertheless,
It is now widely accepted that Page lifted the descending guitar figure from spirit's instrumental "Taurus".
But we cant neglect the skills of Jimmy Page in the song Stairway To Heaven. He only borrowed the intro from Taurus but he transformed it into a wonderful song. He made Stairway an exceptional guitar song but roots have been taken from "Taurus".
Maybe stairway would not have been possible if Taurus had not existed...
All Hail 'Spirit'
Submissions
3 comments:
Spirit's guitarist, Randy California, was pretty good. He got his start with Jimmy James & the Blue Flames (Jimi Hendrix before the Jimi Hendrix before he created The Experience). There were two Randys in the band and to tell the two apart Jimi referred to them as Randy Texas & Randy California. The name kind of stuck. When Hendrix was about to go to Europe, Randy was only 15 and his parents would not give consent for him to go overseas with Hendrix.
oh my ! Randy was just 15 & he was about to leave for europe, that too along with hendrix !! It would have been a kind of an "Unforgettable Moment", if Randy had gone with him... And also, Spirit had been asked to open for Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock too, which could have been their biggest step to fame and glory, but I don't know as to why they eventually refused ! ...
If you're interested I reviewed one of Spirit's albums as well as one of Randy California's solo albums awhile back. It's good stuff!
Post a Comment