"Stairway to Heaven" Reaches a Milestone Birthday.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Led Zeppelin's magnum opus, "Stairway to Heaven". The song, which is nearly ten minutes long, is considered one of the greatest rock songs of all time. Composed in late 1970 by band members Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, it was released on the album Led Zeppelin IV in November 1971. 

The song contains a variety of guitar parts and techniques. The first part, soft sounding arpeggiated chords, is played finger style on an acoustic guitar. These chords are played throughout the song when the verses are sung and are the most recognizable sounds for most people. The remaining parts are played on electric guitars, both six string and twelve string. Jimmy Page would usually use a double necked guitar when playing the song live so he did not have to switch guitars in the middle. As the song progresses, it becomes more of a hard rock tune. Page's guitar playing and Plant's singing become more and more rock, or even metal sounding, as they drive the song through the thought-provoking lyrics.

The verse chords are not that uncommon, but later in the song Page employs variations of these more familiar chords. For someone still learning to play the guitar, like me, this is a great song to spend time on. The chord shapes for the verses are pretty simple although playing bar chords is always good practice. Playing arpeggiated chords is always a challenge for me, but when this song is played well the sound is magical. Learning the chord variations and where they go in the song is a great way to practice moving my left hand around on the fretboard.

The solo, considered by many to be the best rock solo ever, is beyond my skill level. It is still fun to just play the chords while Jimmy is wailing away. One interesting tidbit about the solo is that Page has said that he played is using a Fender Telecaster. He is usually identified as a Gibson Les Paul played so it is interesting that he used a Fender on one of Led Zeppelin's most iconic songs. 

When I began learning to play guitar, my teacher showed me the opening chords to this song pretty early in my lessons. So, I have known the shapes for a long time. Every once in a while, I will get the urge to try and get a little better at playing this masterpiece of rock music. The fact that I pulled it out again so close to the 50th anniversary of its release seems to have a little bit of karma to it. 

I Did What During the Pandemic?

The world passed the one year mark of the Covid 19 pandemic in the middle of March. Each week it feels like we are getting closer to life as it was before the onset of the pandemic, but we have a ways to go. Doing what seemed normal at one time, like eating in a restaurant, feels safe but unusual. Avoiding other people in stores and even on the street is now normal feeling behavior. A friend described receiving a friendly touch on the arm from someone and reflexively pulling back. It will take some time to react to other people and circumstances in way we once did. As we completed one year of this life I began to think about what I had done with a lot of newfound free time.

Wisconsin was fortunate to have a dry and warm spring in 2020, so I was able to get outside when I felt the need. But it was still March and April in Wisconsin, so it was not all seashells and balloons. There were a few things I got around to that I may not have without the pandemic. 

Martin D1

There had been a few songs that I had been playing on my Martin D1 acoustic guitar, but I did not know all of the verses. A couple of them were Bob Dylan songs, so there were lots of verses. The first one I memorized was "Desolation Row". It seemed fitting. I would get out the guitar and set up the lyrics on a music stand in the living room. I learned one verse and memorized one verse every couple of days as I watched the neighbors walk up and down the street in a pandemic daze. There are ten verses, so it took about three weeks to learn them all. Next, I moved on to "Tangled Up in Blue" by Dylan and "This Hard Land" by Bruce Springsteen. That got me through the spring and into the early summer. I did not play as much during the summer, but got started again in the fall.

When the cold weather returned I picked up my Fender Stratocaster American Deluxe electric guitar and start learning lessons out of the "Blues You can Use" book. It has lessons on chord and scales with short musical examples of each concept. There is a CD enclosed that I could play along with. I had worked my way through some of it over the years, but I made a concerted effort to play for an hour each day. I am still playing most days, but life has gotten a little busier since I got the vaccinations in February. My playing skills improved noticeably and it is fun to play along with the CD. 

Fender DeVille 410 and Stratocaster

It was a quiet Christmas, which I did not mind too much. One of the gifts I received was a bird house kit. That allowed me to spend some quiet time in the basement and provide a new home for a local feathered friend. There was some paint left over from touching up the house and the garage in recent years, so the bird's house matches our house. Now I just need a good tenant. 

Available for Rent

Another basement project involved the basement windows. Many years ago a squirrel managed to get into the basement, through the old chimney I think, while we were gone for a few days. The squirrel, of course, wanted to get out and spent the time clawing and gnawing on the wooden window frames. Our basement is just that, a basement, so I never expended the effort to repair the windows. The pandemic presented a now or never type of situation. So on one of my last motorcycle rides in fall 2020 I picked up some wood filler at the local Lowe's. Once again I found some house paint that would suffice to paint the basement frames. Once the windows were painted I cleaned the glass and will take care of cleaning the outside once it warms up. 

Squirrel Repair Done

 Another activity that took up some pandemic time was jigsaw puzzles. We had not done puzzles since, well, ever, but finished up four of them over the winter. It takes some time to get started, but once we began the puzzle would become something of an obsession. They were puzzles that had been around here for years and their origins were unknown. We fully expected each of them to be missing a piece or two, but they were all complete. 

Jigsaw Puzzle Fun

I continued to do the things I would normally do during a Wisconsin winter. The snow fell in amounts that allowed the Reforestation Camp snow bike trails to be open all of January and February. By March the snow let up and the trails became too icy for me. In February I participated in a Snow Crown Series race at the camp. I rode in the beginner, or "fun group", category. It was a beautiful sunny winter day and it was nice to be out with other riders. We took a couple of car rides around the area and looked for eagles and owls. We were successful finding eagles, but not the elusive owls.

Snow Crown Race Finisher

We are experiencing unseasonably cold April weather, but warmer days are ahead. I have gotten in quite a few miles on my Trek road bike already and have had some good rides on my BMW motorcycle. Tomorrow I will be getting my Harley Davidson Lowrider S out of storage. It looks like we will be dealing with Covid 19 in some fashion into the summer, but the end of the pandemic is a year closer than it was last April. 

History Museum at the Castle Guitar Exhibit

There is an exhibit titled "Play it Loud: Instruments of Rock and Roll" at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. It features some of the iconic guitars that helped musicians such as Eric Clapton and Eddie Van Halen create their own unique sounds. A trip to the Big Apple is not on my agenda, so I was excited to learn that the History Museum at the Castle in Appleton, Wisconsin was hosting a guitar exhibit this summer.

"Guitar: The Instrument that Rocked the World" is on display from June 2019 through January 2020. This traveling exhibit has something for anyone, of any age, who has an interest in guitars. It features a floor length electric guitar and a multitude of Fender Stratocasters hanging from the ceiling. There are displays explaining the science behind the sounds created by acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and amplifiers.

The best part of the exhibit, however, is the collection of guitars that the exhibit brings together.

Fender Stratocaster

My favorite guitar, and the only electric I own, is the Fender Stratocaster. They had a vintage model in blue with a rosewood fretboard that is an excellent example of a Strat. Players who are associated with the Stratocaster are Buddy Holly, Eric Clapton and the incomparable Jimi Hendrix.

Gibson guitars were also well represented with a Les Paul SG and an ES 355 that B.B. King made famous. He named his guitars Lucille after he had run back into a burning bar to retrieve his guitar when a fire broke out during a gig. The fire had begun over a dispute involving a woman named Lucille and he wanted to remember never to run into a burning building because of a guitar. Gibson began to produce guitars with "Lucille" embossed on the headstock.

Lucille

The curators chose a Martin D 28 as an example of an acoustic guitar that influenced the rock and roll world. Rock musicians as diverse as Paul McCartney, Jimmy Page and Neil Young all played Martin acoustics on some of their most well known songs. The leather bound example on display indicates that it was also a favorite of country and western guitar slingers.

Martin D 28

If you have an interest in guitars, rock and roll or otherwise, I recommend a visit to the History Museum at the Castle.