“‘Stairway’ Allowed!”
It was a joke spoken by Wayne Campbell, played by Mike Myers, in the Wayne’s World movie that spoke to a larger truth. Led Zeppelin held on tight to “Stairway to Heaven” and wouldn’t let it be used in film.
That’s changed. A film got the classic rock band to loosen their grip. While film and fantasy novel fans are gushing over the new Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew trailer, music fans with arcane knowledge of soundtracks are staring wide-eyed and mouth agape after their ears perked up.
The nearly three-minute trailer is scored by segments of Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” ending a documented cinematic and musical division that goes back three decades.
The famous guitar intro, the culminating bridge, and Robert Plant’s well-known outro line are featured in the trailer. It ends with Jimmy Page’s magnum opus guitar solo.
But none of those were heard in films from previous decades that sought to use the song, starting with a controversial cut in Wayne’s World after its 1992 theatrical run.
In the Myers and Dana Carvey SNL skit adaptation, Wayne walks into a music shop, picks up a guitar he’s been fawning over and plays the first couple notes of “Stairway to Heaven” only to be stopped by an employee who points to a big sign that reads “NO Stairway to Heaven,” prompting the often-recited “No ‘Stairway.’ Denied” line.
Only theater goers heard the bit of the Led Zeppelin IV song. Home releases cut the snippet of music because of licensing disagreements with the band, replacing the guitar playing with a random series of notes and killing the meta “No ‘Stairway.’ Denied” joke.
Cameron Crowe had to cut a scene from 2000’s Almost Famous in which characters try to convince the mother of young music journalist William to let him go on the road with the band Stillwater by listening to “Stairway to Heaven.” But Led Zeppelin wouldn’t license the track, and Crowe edited the moment out. In a DVD release, the scene was put back in without the music and instructions for viewers to play “Stairway to Heaven” to have the experience the filmmaker desired.
“Stairway to Heaven” has made it to movies in some forms. Zeppelin played the song in their concert film and documentary The Song Remains the Same from 1976. The 2022 Blu-ray edition of Wayne’s World also had the extremely short intro portion of the song reintroduced. The group hasn’t been altogether stingy with their music. “Immigrant Song,” “Kashmir,” “When the Levee Breaks,” and “Tangerine” appeared in Thor: Ragnarok, Argo, and Almost Famous. But Greta Gerwig’s Chronicles of Narnia adaptation unlocked Zeppelin’s heart to snag a big chunk of “Stairway to Heaven” and reveal its cinematic potential.
The fact that the song soundtracks an adaptation of a C.S. Lewis novel is no coincidence. Robert Plant is a well-known fan of Lewis and his contemporary J.R.R. Tolkien, whose characters and places were lyrical influences for the singer. Gerwig confirmed as much during a premiere of the trailer in Manhattan on Tuesday (via Rolling Stone), explaining that Plant and Page “saw the heart and the story and the drama in it.”
“It’s an epic song,” Gerwig said of “Stairway to Heaven.” “It’s about the two paths of good and evil … It is a spiritual quest and a spiritual journey. So to me, this was a song that made sense to introduce the film to the world.”
So what’s next? “Ramble On” in a new Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum trailer?