LED ZEPPELIN
Led Zeppelin were a Rock band of the 60's and 70's, and perhaps their most famous song was "Stairway to Heaven". They bought Hammerwood Park in auction in 1973. They planned a studio and accommodation, but none of this ever came to be, due to commitments abroad and dry rot in the house.
Led Zeppelin filmed the beginning of "The Song remains the Same" at Hammerwood Park (in which Led Zeppelin are shown eliminating Nazis). Whether it be the Parthenon Frieze and St John in the Dead Sea Scrolls or Charles Chaplin in Modern Times and The Great Dictator, Led Zeppelin have continued a very long term tradition "when all are one and one is all" the Song remains the Same!
If you would like to come for a tour of Hammerwood Park you'll find here plaques which inspired the connection of Led Zep with the Greek god Dionysus, the God of excess and ecstasy, and Apollo, the God of Music and Prophecy. Please scroll down the page here first and perhaps look at the further lyrics and the Times Newspaper scrapbook lower down this page (bookmark here first and use your back button to return here incase The Times crashes your computer. If you are not using Netscape 2, turn pictures off when going to The Times) I promise you that you will find the Led Zep lyrics, the Hammerwood Park tour and associated Greek mythology and The Times scrapbook most rewarding and enlightening. Led Zep have a serious mission to us all. Email me either if you have enjoyed it or flame me also if you feel I've wasted your time.
There's a lady who's sure all that
Glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to heaven
And when she gets there she knows
If the stores are closed
With a word she can get what she came for.
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 misgiven.
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's wispered 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 forests will echo with laughter.
If there's a bustle in your hedgerow
Don't be alarmed now
It's just a spring clean for 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.
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 you hear the wind blow
And did you know
Your stairway lies on the wispering wind.
And as we wind 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 are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll."
Copyright 1971 Atlantic Recording Corporation
Heavy Metal and a heavy question on the Net . . .
>Was Led Zep satanic?
>>Hi - I'm David Pinnegar at Hammerwood Park which Led Zep owned from 1973 to
>>1982. How could anyone who produced Stairway to Heaven be satanic?!
>>>She's Buying a stairway to Heaven.... you're not supposed to be able to buy
>>>you're way... or maybe she's buying death... what do you think... i personally
>>>don't think they're satanic, but look at Led Zeppelin IV... those four symbols
>>>(i think... ill probably get 50 people emailing me tellingme I'm wrong) stand
>>>for the four members of the band.... those COULD be satanic or witchcraft or
>>>something....
I think the idea is that She's sure she is buying her way - we read it that she's sure that she is buying her way with money. But words have two meanings. With a word she can get what she came for. We're misgiven about her. She's bought her way not with money but with her words, her prayers. I wonder . . . ? All that turns to gold at the end, I believe isn't metallic gold or money, it's gold light and all that's wonderful . . . ?
Perhaps I'm wrong.
The reason why I think they were inspired was that there is a bustle in the hedgerow and the piper is calling him to join him "when all are one and one is all". There's still time for us to change the path we're on. The answer is in the wispering wind.
Now that global warming is now acknowledged we must face the consequences of increasing the temperature or our planet. With record snow this year in Washington and New York and England, it is hard to believe the temperature of the planet has risen. We have increased the energy of the system. With this has increased what physicists call the entropy - the natural disorder.
We have increased the energy and increased the disorder. We have increased the energy of the disorder. We have increased the disorder of the energy. We can expect the disorder to disrupt our agriculture. If our agriculture is more likely to be disrupted we must stop paying our farmers not to farm and to pay them to grow food and store seed. We must put plenty in distributed stores. If it is not needed we can still help others affected.
If climate in Africa becomes a serious problem, there will be migratory pressures on the North from the South. What will be the solution: starvation, war or help for our fellow men? Here's the Times scrapbook entries for (TURN PICTURES OFF before clicking)5 July 1996 3 July 1996 16 February 1996 and 6 January 1996 Led Zep have written new lyrics: City don't cry Here's what the Times says!
So all must be "one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll"
I hope I'll be a rock in the coming storms. Perhaps I'm mad but that's what people thought when my family and I took on the unrestorable Hammerwood Park. Although Led Zep apparently did nothing for Hammerwood Park in their ownership but allowed it to go derelict, history may regard the group as having rescued the house from Mammon: the property developers who had turned it into 11 flats. In its dereliction the house found resurrection when in 1982 we took it on to restore it and bring it to life.
Little did Led Zep know when they bought the house in 1973 that a decorator working for the developers had hidden an inscription beneath lining paper on the stairway hall ceiling: "This house is full of rot. God help you. 1968".
What the earth is facing now is what Hammerwood faced when Led Zep took it on. In order for it to come to life in a resurrection it had to be rescued from Mammon. It went derelict in the process. It was a tragedy. But it didn't need to.
This page was inspired by Latrobe's work at Hammerwood Park. Click here to visit or stay.
Stairways to Heaven!
French Riviera - Garoupe Beach restaurant - there's a stairway to heavenly food here!
Bed and Breakfast at Hammerwood Park up the grand staircase!
There are lovely stairs in this villa
No staircase but lovely ladies on a ladder!
We hope you will stay with us to read more of Led Zeppelin and Hammerwood but when you want to please
