By the end of the 1960s, rock music had begun to evolve from a singles-driven business into a full-fledged art form. Bands were no longer just chasing radio hits — they were chasing immortality. Vinyl LPs became the new canvas, and groups like Led Zeppelin treated them like works of living, breathing expression.
Each self-titled Zeppelin album felt like another leap into the unknown. Jimmy Page, who’d spent the early part of his career digging into the heaviest blues he could find, suddenly found himself painting with every color rock and roll had to offer. Zeppelin’s music wasn’t just loud — it was epic, mystical, layered, and unexpected.
But it was their fourth album — untitled and enigmatic — that transformed them into legends. In just eight songs, they unleashed a storm of creativity: the snarling power of “Black Dog,” the chaotic rush of “Rock and Roll,” and at the center of it all, the track that would define — and eventually divide — them: “Stairway to Heaven.”
The Birth of a Monster
“Stairway to Heaven” was never meant to be just a song. It was a journey. Jimmy Page envisioned it as a piece that would evolve section by section, gradually building into a thunderous climax. It would become not just Led Zeppelin’s signature track, but a permanent fixture of 1970s rock — glorified, criticized, obsessed over.
Bassist John Paul Jones stood firmly behind the song, calling it “a perfect storm” of everything Zeppelin stood for: “I actually like ‘Stairway’. I know that’s really corny, but it encompasses a lot of the elements of the band – from the acoustic start to the slightly jazzier section, and then to the heavier stuff towards the end.”
Jimmy Page proudly called it “our very best,” and for many fans, it became sacred.
But not everyone in the band shared that love.
Robert Plant’s Breaking Point
For Robert Plant, the frontman who penned the song’s cryptic, poetic lyrics, “Stairway to Heaven” eventually became a burden — even a curse.
“I truly loathed it,” he admitted years later. “When we used to rehearse, we’d perform ‘Stairway’ as a reggae tune because Page could never get me to sing it otherwise.” Even in its earliest moments, Plant felt disconnected from the song — despite the fact that the lyrics had poured out of him like magic. “My hand was writing out the words,” he recalled. “I just sat there and looked at them and almost leapt out of my seat.”
But over time, that magic turned sour. As the song became a guitar-store cliché and a symbol of a rock era Plant had long since moved on from, he grew increasingly frustrated with its legacy. After Zeppelin disbanded following drummer John Bonham’s death, Plant rarely, if ever, performed “Stairway.” At one point, he said he’d break out in hives if he had to sing it again.
And that disdain, perhaps more than anything, is why a full Zeppelin reunion never happened.
Legacy Written in One Song
Still, no matter how Plant feels, Jimmy Page stands by what they created. “Every musician wants to do something of lasting quality, something that will hold up for a long time,” he said. “‘Stairway’ was that for us.”
And he’s right. For all its controversies, mockery, and overexposure, “Stairway to Heaven” endures. It remains a defining moment in rock history — a track that encapsulates the ambition, mystery, and emotion that Zeppelin brought to the world.
Albums may be the full story, but sometimes, a single song becomes the soul. And for Led Zeppelin — like it or not — that song is “Stairway to Heaven.”
