What is the song "Stairway to Heaven" about"?

It isn’t about the short lady trying to buy a stairway to heaven?

It’s about this lady who apparently knows that all that glitters is not necessarily gold. Also, she is buying a stairway that is supposedly going to take her to Heaven.

I think you have to check it backwards or something :s

I always interpreted it as a criticism of materialism or conspicous consumption. Buying the stairway to Heaven is a metaphor for buying your way into Heaven (or goodness).

She is ‘sure all that glitters is gold’. The rest of it, ... kind of obscure, seems to be about everybody eventually coming to their senses. Apparently too late for the lady with the stairway.

Just my interpretation.

Look out for the bustle in the hedgerow.

@fireside Not a clue!

In case you don’t know.

lol, well this link says that the bustle may be the first menstrual cycle

I think the bustle is actually Hitler.

I always thought it was about drugs. But then again I could be wrong.

I thought this song was about how everything would be hunky dory again once there was a “spring cleaning” (i.e. destruction of civilization).

Well the song is about going to heaven, and like this woman is looking to buy her stairway to heaven but all the stores are closed or something right. So she is still alive trying to buy her stairway to heaven. then it says “theirs a songbird who sings sometimes all our thoughts are misgiven” And then it says, “dear lady can you hear the wind blow and did you know your stairway lies on the whispering winds”. Then I think when the guitar solo picks up she is either dead or just living her life or something because it says, “then as we wind on down the road our shadows taller than our soul” Anyways despite all this the woman is stubborn and at the end, is still trying to buy her stairway to heaven. But anyways I dunno that’s just what I make of it

@LKidKyle1985 OK, now that was creepy. I followed that ‘misgiven’ link and all the ads were about Stairway to Heaven.

not all, i saw one for Highway to Heaven dvds : )

lol I know I thought it was weird too. I was like hmm must be a lot of people trying to figure out this freakin song.

I never even wondered that much about it, but I think it may be about the futility of trying to buy your way into heaven. A (to quote scripture) “loose your life to find it” sort of thing.

@LKidKyle1985 You don’t suppose that they pick up information from the backlink? (Not sure how they would, but I suppose it’s possible).

@Grisson – no, i tried starting from the home page and got the same links.

@fireside, don’t be alarmed, if there’s a bustle in your hedgerow it’s just a sprinkling for the May queen.

I think it is up to the individual’s own interpretation… “cause you know sometimes words have two meanings”

The song is about Satan trying to swallow your soul and drag it down to be fried in the sizzly depths of Christian Hell. plus, it gave Jimmy a reason to pull that double-necked SG out on stage.

Repent! Repent!

I’m surprised you all didn’t know that. Sinners.

@knotmyday, it’s official – you are my hero.

A hedgerow is a hedge that surrounds many estates in Britain.

Bustle, or noise or activity, used in this sense, means a disturbance close to home. Something’s happening in your world!

yeah but what is that may queen bit about? thats kinda confusing

This is from my link above:
“A bustle in your hedgerow,” the enigmatic line in Led Zep’s “Stairway To Heaven” classic, has mystified music mavens for decades. Hopefully, the following will sprinkle a scintilla of elucidation and edification upon this cryptic conundrum.

A hedgerow is a hedge that surrounds many estates in Britain.

Bustle, or noise or activity, used in this sense, means a disturbance close to home. Something’s happening in your world!

It’s just a spring clean for the May Queen.

Spring cleaning is an old domestic ritual cleaning meant to do away with the troubles of the past year and prepare for the coming year, and often includes disposing of old, useless things that have been lying around.

The May Queen was a maiden chosen by a village to represent the hopes and potential for the coming year. She was a symbol of beauty, spring and new beginnings.

So here, as an analogy, the lyric refers to getting rid of old and outdated systems in order to allow progress to occur.

OR it can refer to menarche, or the first menstrual cycle, signifying that a girl is coming of age.

OR, it could mean that you have a fuckin’ bee in your bonnet!

DRUGS.

DRUGSDRUGSDRUGSDRUGS.

What from that era honestly isn’t about drugs?

@TitsMcGhee Yeah. Nixon’s VP, Spiro Agnew once put out a list of songs that were supposed to be about drugs (so parents could be aware of what their children were listening to). Conspicuously absent from the list was Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit”.

Go figure.

HAHAHAHA.

“White Rabbit isn’t about drugs, it’s about Alice in Wonderland!”

@TitsMcGhee Right, and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is about a Peanuts character.

Cocaine isn’t about cocaine it’s about… wait…

@Bri_L S
She don’t lie
She don’t lie
She don’t lie
CAFFEINE!

hehehe

…and Everybody Must Get Stoned is actually about people throwing rocks at one another. Mother’s Little Helper by The Rolling Stones is about a woman’s maid. Drugs? What drugs?

@SuperMouse: That’s Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35. Quality, quality song. I was also singing Mother’s Little Helper today…

@TitsMcGhee, thanks! I knew there was an actual name for that song, just couldn’t think of it at that moment. That sort of thing drives me nuts, like when people refer to Baba O’Reilly as Teenage Wasteland.

I’m also such a music freak that I compulsively feel the need to correct people, like with grammar mistakes.

How about when someone calls For What It’s Worth, Stop Children What’s that Sound?

Oh, that’s a killer for sure!

@TitsMcGhee fun fact- “Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35” was named this because when Dylan was recording this song there were two girls outside of the studio in the rain.So Dylan invited them inside out of the rain. The mom was 35 and her daughter was 12, and as the story goes, Dylan named the song after them.

He sang a stoner song to them? Cool.

@uberbatman: Damn, I wish that was meeeeee.

To be a rock and not to roll.

I really don’t even care, but gotta sing it loud when its played…..even if I make up some of the words, I wanna buy a stairway to Heaven….........