In the prior post, I spoke to the hectic and momentous nature of the 1960s. Each victory was followed by a loss. John F. Kennedy became the youngest president ever elected only to be assassinated shortly thereafter. Americans finally broke into the frontier that is out space only to lose lives and money to the Vietnam war effort and the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made it to the moon only for the Cuban Missile crisis to develop back home. This one step forward, one step back philosophy was not found in the 1970s. The decade started off with a successful, yet daring, return by NASA’s Apollo 13 crew and the opening of Walt Disney World in Florida. The decade continued to blow full steam ahead with microprocessors being developed, PONG was released, HBO became a thing, and we had a minor setback with the Watergate Scandal. The successes kept coming one after another with the first block-buster, “Jaws”, Microsoft was created, Saturday Night Live began, Apple was created, and the device made popular to Millennials by Chris Pratt in “Guardians of the Galaxy”, the Walkman, came into being. Yes, there was an oil crisis in ’73 and the Watergate Scandal in ’72, but the 1970s were, for the most part, a success story following the 1960s.
This success after success after success mantra was also seen in the music industry. In 1973, Pink Floyd blew the world away with “The Dark Side of the Moon”. The album broke the record and continues to hold the record, by quite a margin, for the most weeks spent on the Billboard 200 charts with 917 weeks. That is almost 18 years of being on the Billboard 200, truly an accomplishment. In 1975, Queen released Freddie Mercury’s masterpiece single, “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Known for his impeccable vocals, Freddie Mercury immortalized Queen in music’s history with “Bohemian Rhapsody”, a song that continues to connect with music listeners 40 years after it came out. In 1979, AC/DC came out with their famous “Highway to Hell”. This song continues to pop up time after time on alternative rock stations or hype songs. Clearly, the 1970s were riddled with success and musical genius. However, Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” stands out amongst this great decade of music.
It took two years for Jimmy Page, guitarist, to craft the most famous rock song of all time, “Stairway to Heaven”. He would repeatedly withdraw to his boathouse, which he had refurbished into an 8-track studio, to mess around on the guitar searching for the perfect combination of chords and rhythm. The goal was to create a long song, originally 15 minutes, that built towards a climax and delayed the onset of John Bonham’s infamous drumming until near the peak. The final result was an 8:03 masterpiece that holds, to everyone’s amazement, the record as the most-played song on the American FM radio, a new option when the song came out that featured better sound quality. Radio stations were afraid that the length of the song might lead listeners to change to other stations. “Stairway to Heaven” has also sold more sheet music than any other rock song, totaling up to over one million.
The acoustic style, fingerpicking intro leads the song to start off in a gentle manner. This is an unusual beginning for a rock song. John Paul Jones, bass player, really mixed things up when he scrapped the bass and added string instruments and flutes. This helps the song achieve the buildup that Jimmy Page envisioned. By using this alternative instrumentation and style, the song gradually builds up as Page switches from fingerpicking to strumming at 2:18. The next build towards the climax occurs at 4:20 when John Bonham comes in with the drums. Finally, the song crescendos as Jimmy Page rapidly increases the pace and jams out on the electric guitar at 5:56. It may have taken two years, but Page did create a climactic masterpiece. One that has already earned itself a spot in the history of music forever among the rest of the success in the ‘70s.