Stairway to Heaven - short version (Led Zeppelin Cover)

It is hard to do justice to a masterpiece like this. Released in 1971 on Led Zeppelin's fourth studio album, I have heard Stairway to Heaven referred to as the greatest rock and roll song ever recorded. So many integral parts combine to make it an amazing listening experience from start to finish and at about 8 minutes, it is a stellar achievement to captivate the listener for that long!

So why would I even try to record it? Well for one thing, the objective of my site is to just share some of my favourite tunes. I have no illusions of improving on the original. With any luck you will enjoy my version and the tune gets in your head and brightens your day a bit. Maybe you then go to the original and get some enjoyment out of listening to a favourite from past years. Maybe it is a new song that you haven't heard before and it makes a nice addition to your playlist. Whatever the case, I enjoy giving the gift of music.

In the process, I’m just hoping to challenge myself, and be a little creative by putting my own stamp on a song. In the case of Stairway to Heaven I am going for an acoustic version and one that is a bit shorter ... about half as long! This is definitely a bit of a challenge because there are so many exceptional parts of the original. I wanted to touch on as many of those as possible, and abbreviate the lyrics a bit. But in doing that, I wanted to hold on to the message of the song.

It is an important message! Many in our world are still pursuing materialism and only thinking about their own self interests. At the same time there are many global issues that are neglected. On a crowded planet with finite resources, that mindset will never work! Everyone has to work together and appreciate and protect the oasis that we have been blessed with.

So here it is … with a few of my signature bobbles (old guy’s prerogative) … a song that I, at one point, never thought I’d be able to play all the way through. Thanks for checking it out and if you are so inclined, a link to my charity of the month is just below ⬇️

Https://foodbankscanada.ca