Various: Stairways to Heaven CD Track Listing

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Various Stairways to Heaven (1995)
Introduction to Stairways To Heaven\n\n\nby Andrew Denton\n\nThe Stairway Project commenced in the winter of 1989. It was an\nattempt to capture, in the words of musical director Chris\nHarriott, "every facet of the greatest song ever written. We were\ntrying to look at the same some twenty different ways at once. It\nwas, if you will, musical Cubism."\n\nWhen word got out about The Project, the musical world beat a\npath to Harriott's door. By the start of the first recording session\nhe and producer Keith Walker had listened to over 2,000 demo\ntapes, many of them from the world's leading artists.\n\n"What amazed me most was the extraordinary range - for instance\none version of Stairway that sounded for all the world like a\nwhale being tortured with a drum machine. It took me weeks to\nwork out it was Yoko Ono. Vanilla Ice sampled the entire original\nversion, added a rhythm track and screamed "Ice!" in the quiet\nbits. Andrew Ridgely just sent a photo of himself and said he'd be\nhappy to appear in the clip."\n\nSays Harriott; "every time we rejected someone it was like killing\na very ugly baby - unpleasant, but something that had to be done."\n\nSome of the rejections make a veritable Who's Who of rock &\nroll. Explains Harriott: "David Bowie and Mick Jagger couldn't\nremember the words. Shame McGowan of the Pogues couldn't\nremember his name! Prince did the song so well he actually made\nto original sound passe, so he was rejected, as was Weird Al\nYankovic for similar reasons."\n\nOthers, attempting to climb Plant's mountain of metaphors,\nsimply perished in the rarefied atmosphere: Peter Gabriel gave up\nafter spending almost a year trying to teach it to the hill tribes of\nSouthern Yemen. Midnight Oil refused to sing Stairway because\nthey felt it represented vested US interests in the Carribean. And\nGun 'n' Roses ruined their demo tape by using it to tie off.\n\nOthers still, according to Harriott, failed the taste test. "Bruce\nSpringsteen, somehow, made the song longer. Cher did an OK, but\nher idea for a clip make people physically ill."\n\nIn the end, after months of painstaking, brain-deadening labour,\nHarriott and Walker settled on 22 acts. "They were the best of the\nbest", says Harriott, "the artists most capable of being true to\nPlant's original intentions."\n\n"Even so", he admits, "when we walked into the studio that first\nmorning to put down Rolf Harris, I'm sure all of us wondered if\nwe were doing the right thing. But when that opening\nwobbleboard solo lit up the mixing desk, Keith and I just looked at\neach other. We didn't need to say anything... we just knew... we\nwere going to make this song history."\n\nAnd so they have.\n\n \n\nAlf 17/1/94\n\n\nStairway To Heaven\n\n\nby Robert Plant\n\nThere's a lady who's sure\nAll that glitters is gold\nAnd she's buying a stairway to heaven\nWhen she gets there she knows\nIf the stores are all closed\nWith a word she can get what she came for\nOoh, ooh and she's buying a stairway to heaven\n\nThere's a sign on the wall\nBut she wants to be sure\n'cause you know sometimes words have two meanings\nIn a tree by the brook\nThere's a song bird who sings\nSometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven\nOoh, it makes me wonder\nOoh, it makes me wonder\n\nThere's a feeling I get when I look to the west\nAnd my spirit is crying for leaving\nIn my thought I have seen \nRings of smoke through the trees\nAnd the voices of those who stand looking\nOoh, it makes me wonder\nOoh, it really makes me wonder\n\nAnd it's whispered that soon\nIf we all call the tune\nThat the piper will lead us to reason\nAnd a new day will dawn\nFor those who stand long\nAnd the forest will echo with laughter\nIf there's a bustle in your hedgerow\nDon't be alarmed now\nIt's just a spring clean for the May queen.\n\nYes, there are two paths you can go by\nBut in the long run\nThere's still time to change the road you're on\nAnd it makes me wonder\nYour head is humming and it won't go\nIn case you don't know the piper's calling you to join him\nDear lady, can you hear the wind blow, and did you know\nYour stairway lies on the whispering wind\nAnd as we wind on down the road\nOur shadows taller than our soul\nThere walks a lady we know\nWho shines white light and wants to show\nHow everything still turns to gold\nAnd if you listen very hard\nThe tune will come to you at last\nWhen all are one and one is all\nTo be a rock and not to roll\nAnd she's buying a stairway to heaven \n\n\n\nMusical Direction and Arrangement by Chris Harriott\nProduced and Mixed by Keith Walker (Dreamix Pty Ltd)\nMastered by Leon Zervos at Studio 301, Sydney\nMusic Recorded at ABC Studio 221, EMI Studio 301 and Chris\nHarriott's bedroom\nRemixed at Rich Music Studios, Sydney\nThanks to ABC Radio and all assisting engineers\n\nLyrics: Robert Plant\nMusic: Jimmy Page\nPublished by Warner/Chappell\n\nCover Art: Alan Stomann\nDesign and Layout: Silver Bullet Studio\nCover: From ABC TV's 'The Money Or The Gun'\nCover Notes: Andrew Denton\n\nCopyright 1992 The Australian Broadcasting Corporation.\nMarketed in Australia by PolyGram.\n\nThanks to THE MONEY OR THE GUN team\nProducer: Mark FitzGerald Talent Co-ordinator: Pam Swain \n\nAlf 4th May 1995\nAlf 28/4\n\n
This rock cd contains 12 tracks and runs 40min 15sec.
Freedb: 9c096d0c
Buy: from Amazon.com

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