Stairway to Heaven.
Every guitarist tries to learn it. It was so common that the Wayne’s Worlds reference isn’t even a joke.
It’s such a cliche. It was voted the greatest rock song a million years in a row in my youth. It’s so overwhelmingly popular and so well known. It’s easy to forget that — well — it’s incredibly awesome. Every generations discovers it because it’s one of the best songs ever. What else can you say about it? (You could say it was kinda stolen.)
Led Zeppelin was honored at the Kennedy Center in 2012. To cap off the evening, Heart did a live performance of Stairway to Heaven. It blows my socks off. It blew away Led Zeppelin, you can visibly see them getting more into it and more emotional as it goes.
Turn up the bass, turn up the volume, turn off the lights, and listen to this version.
A few notes:
- John Bonham frequently wore a bowler, thus Jason and much of the supporting team did as well as an homage.
- Apparently they were only able to fully rehearse this once. And it was freezing backstage, Nancy was worried her fingers wouldn’t work for the delicate intro section.
- Some reflections from Robert Plant: