# Why no Stairway to Heaven in Guitar Shops?



## FrankyNoTone (Feb 27, 2012)

I've only heard it once being played, and it was on an acoustic. Will I get kicked out if I play it?


----------



## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

You're right! Ever since "Wayne's World", I don't think I've ever heard it played in a guitar shop. Can't say that I miss it though.


----------



## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

[video=youtube;RD1KqbDdmuE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD1KqbDdmuE[/video]


----------



## Roryfan (Apr 19, 2010)

I like to play the middle part just to see if anyone notices (incognito so far). It seems like Sweet Child O' Mine has replaced Stairway as the mangled riff of choice for newbies these days.


----------



## Spikezone (Feb 2, 2006)

Funny, I thought Eruption was the verboten song for music shops. For the record, 'Stairway' is still my favourite song of all time (not that anybody cares)
-Mikey


----------



## Guest (Apr 26, 2012)

I remember when 'Steve's Music' banned "rush' songs.
Late 70's IIRC.


----------



## Roryfan (Apr 19, 2010)

laristotle said:


> I remember when 'Steve's Music' banned "rush' songs.
> Late 70's IIRC.


Guitar, bass or drums? I heart me some Rush, but I can see why the decree was made, the potential for butchery is immense.


----------



## fretboard (May 31, 2006)

Last time I was in Steve's (years ago now) - they had a couple of "no play" lists up around the electric guitars, but at the time it was Enter Sandman that was highlighted as their top "Do Not!!" tune.


Perhaps it's been decades since I've been there in hindsight.


----------



## kat_ (Jan 11, 2007)

Back when I worked at Mothers Music one guy cranked up a Marshall stack and played the main riff from Smoke on the Water for 40 minutes straight. He kept making a mistake in it too - over and over and over for 40 minutes.


----------



## FrankyNoTone (Feb 27, 2012)

Ah, Wayne's World. Gotta watch that again, maybe call up my Scarborough buds after so many years from when we drove around in an AMC Gremlin, went to the Gas Works in TO to see bands like Lee Aaron.

Okay, I can see how listening to noobs butcher the same songs day in day out would be a living hell to the store staff. I gotta compile a list of obscure solo's that I can use to test gear. That way, if I make any mistakes, then noone will know.


----------



## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Well I know this is all meant in fun, but the day I go into a music store and let some pissant clerk tell me what songs I can or can't play will be a cold day in hell.

No Stairway to heaven?

Let's hear what the guys who came up with that rule can write. Yes, Stairway has been massacred many times, as has Sweet Home Alabama (can't imagine a band doing that one without a piano player), and any number of other classics.

That's not my problem.

Of course, when I try out guitars in a store it's a quiet thing. I do the real testing at home.


----------



## hummingway (Aug 4, 2011)

It's historical at this point. In the 70's every wannabe learned a few bars of Stairway to Heaven and the nightmare began. You couldn't walk into a music store without hearing it. Funny thing is the riff is as old as the hills. I have heard a classical harp recording that is S2H note for note. I wish I could find a reference to it. Randy Bachman played it on his CBC show. S2H is a common piece in many harpists repertoire so I guess what goes around comes around. In addition the story goes that Led Zeppelin opened for Spirit and learned their '68 recording Taurus which has a lot of similarities to the opening of S2H.


----------



## marcos (Jan 13, 2009)

Whats wrong with Stairway? Beats a lot of crap I hear in music stores in Ottawa for sure.


----------



## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

Milkman said:


> Of course, when I try out guitars in a store it's a quiet thing. I do the real testing at home.


Same here. I usually only pick up a guitar to see the weight and how it feels and I play unplugged in a store. If I dig, I take her home and let her rip!


----------



## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

[video=youtube;zUwEIt9ez7M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUwEIt9ez7M[/video]


----------



## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

[video=youtube;w9TGj2jrJk8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9TGj2jrJk8&amp;feature=related[/video]


----------



## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

kat_ said:


> Back when I worked at Mothers Music one guy cranked up a Marshall stack and played the main riff from Smoke on the Water for 40 minutes straight. He kept making a mistake in it too - over and over and over for 40 minutes.


It wasn't me--honest.

Although one time I was in Mother's and there was a No Smoke on the Water sign by the amps--so I picked up a bass and played the bass line from Smoke on the Water--nobody said anything.


----------



## FrankyNoTone (Feb 27, 2012)

zontar said:


> It wasn't me--honest.
> 
> Although one time I was in Mother's and there was a No Smoke on the Water sign by the amps--so I picked up a bass and played the bass line from Smoke on the Water--nobody said anything.


Nobody pays attention to the bass players.


----------



## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

kat_ said:


> Back when I worked at Mothers Music one guy cranked up a Marshall stack and played the main riff from Smoke on the Water for 40 minutes straight. He kept making a mistake in it too - over and over and over for 40 minutes.


You know that Road Runner cartoon where Wile E. Coyote sets up an explosive-loaded piano with some sheet music on it, set to blow up when the last correct note is played, and Road Runner keeps make the same mistake and playing a semi-tone above....over and over and over, until Coyote can't take it any more and comes out and plays it _*properly*_?

Years ago, as an undergrad, my room-mate and I had a flat just off St. Denis in Montreal, with a family of what seemed like 6 downstairs from us. The teenage son had an electric guitar and amp and would play the riff from Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4"...incessantly, and he always, I mean *ALWAYS,* stumbled over the last note in the riff. I just wanted to march downstairs, grab the guitar from him, and say "THIS is how you play it, you damn moron!!!".


----------



## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

StH is played out....Same with Crazy Train. 
To quote Dane Cook: You just dont do it.


----------



## Jim DaddyO (Mar 20, 2009)

Great song, Played to death, sometimes poorly, sold enough copies they replaced the stairway with an escalator.


----------



## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

this thread had me wondering why I never bothered to learn this song and its mostly because of the stigma it carries. also, none of my friends know who led zeppelin are.


----------



## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

[video=youtube;aVgaw6dQHrs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVgaw6dQHrs[/video]


----------



## Guest (Apr 28, 2012)

Anyone ever seen 'The Comic Strip Presents - Bad News Tour' ?
Around the same time as Spinal Tap. Anywho .. loved this quote,

"I could play "Stairway To Heaven" when I was 12. 
Jimmy Page didn't actually write it until he was 22. 
I think that says quite a lot." - Vim Fuego


----------



## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

Robert1950 said:


> [video=youtube;aVgaw6dQHrs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVgaw6dQHrs[/video]


Would it be missing the point to say that the bass player did not play the same thing Roger Glover did?
Possibly.
So I won't mention that.
(Plus, if you're doing a cover you have the option to change things--just wondering if the bass player knows he was playing it differently.)

I can speak to this, as I have an old cassette tape (Well, aren't they all old now?) Of myself, another guitar player & a drummer playing SOTW.
We taped it on an old stereo cassette deck with two mic inputs for left & right.
We were in a room with a suspended ceiling so we hung one mic over the drumset and me & the other guitarist played through one small amp and we mic'ed that.
at one point the other guitar player did the bass line on his guitar. We didn't do vocals. It was just for fun, and I actually played the tape for friends.

Later on I realized how bad it actually was.
It was worse than this video.


----------



## Feral Feline (Oct 27, 2011)

WHY? I'll tell you w h y . . .

It was the #1 song on the New Year's Eve 100-hit Count Down on Classic Schlock Radio since 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978. 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986... _ad nauseum_. Need I continue? And then as if it weren't overplayed during the month of December, as it beat out other songs in the countdown contest – to celebrate its victory the braindead DJs/Radio programmers put it into excessive rotation for the New Year's first month. 

[baritone DJ voice]"And now, the number one song of 19xx, as voted by you, our unimaginative mainstream listeners for yet another year... Yes, we played it last hour, we'll play it next hour, but for now, we'll play it again for all you fans of Generic Radio WXYZ...And a Double-Hit of it for Lunch...to get your work day started...for the drive home...for hump day...for TGIF...to keep your weekend rocking...to get your week started...the drive at five...the coffee break special...the any other excuse we can come up with to play it again..." [/baritone DJ voice]

You want to hear it, play it, like it? Fine, to each there own. If I NEVER hear it again, it would be still too many times for several lifetimes . . .


----------

