Stairway to Heaven

"Stairway to Heaven" is a famous and influential song by the British rock group Led Zeppelin.

Music

Musically, the song takes the form of a multi-movement suite, with a quiet introduction featuring acoustic guitar and recorder gradually giving way to a slow electric middle section, and finally, a crashing hard rock final section. This form would influence many other rock artists, notably Queen, who would use a similar structure for their opus "Bohemian Rhapsody". The guitar part opens with an Am-Fmaj7 chord progression with a chromatic descending bassline A-G#-G-F#-F. John Paul Jones contributed wooden bass recorders in the opening section and Hohner electric piano in the middle section. The extended Jimmy Page guitar solo in the song's final section was played for the recording on a 1958 Fender Telecaster plugged into a Supro amplifier. Three different solos were recorded with Page deciding to keep the one which he felt best suited the theme of the song. The other guitar parts were played using a Harmony acoustic guitar and Fender Electric XII (12-string); both can be heard on the left and right recording channels respectively. For later live versions Page switched to using a double-necked 6/12 1968 Gibson EDS-1275, which was custom-built by Roger Griffin of Gibson's West Coast Custom Shop.

Related Topics:
Acoustic guitar - Recorder - Hard rock - Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody - John Paul Jones - Jimmy Page - 1958 - Fender - Telecaster - Amplifier - 1968 - Gibson EDS-1275

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