The Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant was driving through America 20 years ago when he heard a radio station announce that if any listener donated $10,000, they’d never play ‘Stairway to Heaven’ again. Somewhat tired of the song himself, Plant rang up and pledged the cash. ‘It’s not that I don’t like it,’ he later said. ‘It’s just that I’ve heard it before.’
Rather the same attitude seems to have been taken in the band’s new biopic, Becoming Led Zeppelin, which was released in British cinemas last week. The trailer calls it the band’s ‘first ever authorised documentary’, but fans hoping that this means seeing rough cuts of ‘Stairway’ should beware: all that glitters is not gold. The documentary focuses mainly on the band’s first two years from 1968, with no mention of their most famous song, or other classics from their 1970s pomp such as ‘Kashmir’.
Some believe this may simply leave room for a Part II – in which case, the sequel-makers had better get cracking, given that Jimmy Page is already aged 81.
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