I clearly had “Stairway to Heaven” on my mind yesterday, and I still do today. I think the song is absolutely amazing, and I think it’s unfortunate that so many people regard it as played-out or cliched. I’d be willing to bet that a staggering number of young people have heard someone disparage “Stairway to Heaven” more times than they have actually heard the song. In fact, I think that insisting that “Stairway to Heaven” is a cliche is itself far more of a cliche than the song is.
Anyway, I think the song is powerful, mystical, and magnificent. My dad always talked about how he thought certain songs seemed to tap into some kind of cosmic energy or some power source out there, implying God or Heaven or something like that. I think he might be right. There’s something about the way this song is put together, the words, the phrasing, the musical arrangement, the instruments, the guitar solo, the crescendo and decrescendo, something about the architecture of this song that makes me think of occult architecture, of buildings and statues built specifically to channel otherworldly supernatural power through symbolism. Somehow this song is like that.
I’m not even sure what all of the words mean, and I’m not even convinced that if you broke them down and analyzed them like you would a piece of literature that they would come out the other end seeming very profound at all. It’s like the pieces of this song are combined in such a way that the song itself–not specifically the words to the song or their meaning–works like a magic spell. But a spell meant to do what? Something is being invoked here, but what is it? If this song is a key, what door does it open?
What is this taste of infinity that rolls around on my tongue every time I hear this song?
Sailing to Byzantium 