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MusicRadar
MusicRadar
Entertainment
Neil Crossley

"If you absolutely hated Stairway to Heaven, nobody can blame you for that because it was so… pompous": The glory and burden of Led Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven, over half a century on

Jimmy Page Robert Plant Led Zeppelin Zeppelin Jeff Beck John Paul Jones Gibson The Guardian John Bonham Michael Hann
Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, holding Jimmy Page's Gibson twin-neck guitar in an empty auditorium, during a rehearsal at Hiroshima Prefectural gymnasium, Hiroshima, Japan, 27th September 1971.

It’s been hailed as the rock epic to end all rock epics, a sprawling paean to rustic mysticism with stunning dynamics that span woodwind-tinged folk, intricate fingerpicking and raw, unbridled rock. Across its seven minutes and 55 seconds running time, Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven has lost none of its power and sheer sense of wonder.

As Gibson unveils a new guitar partnership with Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, kicking off with a recreation of his 1971 Gibson EDS-1275 double neck – the instrument he used to play Stairway To Heaven live – MusicRadar reassesses the creation of the track and its enduring legacy.

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