5. Stairway to Heaven &...

Lyrics
There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to heaven
When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for
Ooh, ooh, and she's buying a stairway to heaven

There's a sign on the wall but she wants to be sure
'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings
In a tree by the brook, there's a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misleading
Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, it makes me wonder

There's a feeling I get when I look to the west
And my spirit is crying for leaving
In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
And the voices of those who stand looking
and it makes me wonder
really makes me wonder

And it's whispered that soon if we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason
And a new day will dawn for those who stand long
And the forest will echo with laughter

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now,
It's just a spring clean from the May Queen
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on
Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, Ooh, it makes me wonder

Your head is humming and it won't go, in case you don't know
The piper's calling you to join him
Dear lady, can't you hear the wind blow, and did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering w

And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last
When all is one and one is all, yeah
To be a rock and not to roll.

And she's buying the stairway to heaven

Stairway to Heaven is an absolutely brilliant song. There are other songs I like more, but this may be the most perfectly executed song ever. You get the feeling that Led Zeppelin knew exactly what they were doing writing this song. It feels as if both lyrically and musically there is not a note or lyric too much or too little. Led Zeppelin was very often influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Ring-books. And especially the first third of the song reminds one very often of that. It's probably no coincidence that the score of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies often feels at least a bit influenced by it.

The Movie: Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson, 2001,2002,2003)

Usually when I write about a movie, I have seen it very recently before I write about it. This is not the case here. I have seen the Lord of the Rings movies twice in their entirety and have no desire to see any of them again. I admire the craft and effort that went into them. The care that went into the making of it is really admirable and can really be seen on screen. The costumes are great, the special effects are often flawless, there are quite a lot of beautiful images and it's often well-acted, especially by the older cast. Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Bean and Christopher Lee are very good. Unfortunately the same can not be said about Elijah Wood and Sean Astin as Frodo and Sam. I found them to be mostly annoying and unfortunately we spend most of the movies with them. But that's not really the biggest problem for me. Most of the time I found it all incredibly boring and I really didn't care much about what would happen to anybody except for Gandalf and Aragorn. All this dwarfs, elves, and especially hobbits I found utterly uninteresting and often annoying. That is not exactly anyone's fault. There simply is no genre I like less then this one.

That said I didn't really dislike these movies until the third one. In the first one the creation of the fellowship of the ring was very reminiscent of the creation of a heist team in a crime movie, where every member has its own specialties, or in this case powers. The second one was the best and had some much needed humor in the woods with the talking trees. The final battle was also set up very well and brilliantly executed. I think it's the best part of the movies. But then the third one came. It felt like watching three hours of boring hobbits walking and talking dramatically about their lives and fates. And the ending! It could have ended at least ten times before it finally did. At least it ended with Frodo going on an adventure with Gandalf. After being stuck for so long with Sam, one of the most annoying characters I've ever seen on film, I felt that it was perfectly logical that he wanted to get as far away from him as possible.