The other Led Zeppelin classic that owes its success to ‘Stairway To Heaven’
If you pick any band out there making music today and trace back the bands who came before them that have influenced their sound, you will almost always find yourself arriving at Led Zeppelin. Their outlandish approach towards rock music, their mastery of their instruments and their commitment towards what they created made them one of the most notable and influential voices in rock music.
Of course, in order to achieve the sound that they did, they had to break many rules surrounding convention. Different genres of music had their own lanes, and styles of music rarely tended to overlap. Led Zeppelin took the boundaries that separated genres of music and broke them down, creating a unique sound that merged the likes of hard rock, acoustic music, and blues to create something very special.
It seems cliché to refer to ‘Stairway To Heaven’ as one of their most iconic songs of note, but there’s a reason it’s as popular as it is. As well as being a beautiful song, it perfectly highlights everything that set Led Zeppelin apart from other bands. It starts purely as an acoustic number, with Jimmy Page plucking away and Robert Plant providing haunting, mythical vocals.
The song steadily builds before going into a guitar solo that dances along blues-like scales and then into an outro that is hard rock through and through. It’s a sight to behold, as it broke down barriers and showed people how good music could be if they were willing to listen to something they might not normally enjoy.
Another rule that ‘Stairway to Heaven’ broke, as well as those surrounding genres, was its runtime. The track is over seven minutes long, which is a lot longer than any other song on the radio at the time. This was a problem, and it meant that many stations were hesitant to play it; however, once it started gaining popularity, it dominated the airwaves.
Led Zeppelin owes a lot to this song, as if not for ‘Stairway To Heaven’ showing that long tracks can interest listeners, another one of their hits later down the line might not have gotten the traction that it did. ‘Kashmir’ is often cited as one of the band’s most exciting tracks, with a memorable riff and progression, hard-hitting in its essence, the ballad is completely addictive.
It has such a large feel to it that as soon as Page finished writing the song, he knew it would be one of their biggest hits. “The intensity of ‘Kashmir’ was such that when we had it completed, we knew there was something really hypnotic to it; we couldn’t even describe such a quality…” he said, “I found the riff as well as the overdubs which were thereafter duplicated by an orchestra, to bring more life to the tack. It sounded so frightening at first…”
While the song was undeniably brilliant, at over eight minutes long, it’s Led Zeppelin’s longest track. Again, radio stations hesitated to play it because of the length but decided to give it a go, thanks to the success of ‘Stairway To Heaven’. If not for that song, ‘Kashmir’ might not have gained as much traction and wouldn’t be considered the musical triumph it is today.
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