I’ve been coming across a few “far out” song interpretations out there on the internet, and I thought maybe you’d be curious as to how far some people have traveled from the general consensus. I hope you will find this entertaining!

3. Stairway to Heaven song meaning by sunsetwestproductions.com

The writer there believes that the song Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin is about Christianity. His reason for beginning on this train of thought begins with this: he says,

“many times when I perform “Stairway to Heaven” I feel the Holy Spirit. Could it be that somehow God used another heavy metal band, Led Zeppelin, to glorify Jesus Christ and Heaven for masses of teenagers. It seems that British school boys know a lot more about Christianity than their American counterparts.”

To further his intuition, he also supplements his reasoning with this by pointing out the lyric “because you know sometimes words have 2 meanings”. He or she goes on to argue that even though Led Zeppelin is a band full of sinners, that the song is not evil. Here, we see an appeal to the Christian community, but not the general community. Therefore, to me it is not convincing even from his first statement. There is no context of Christianity here.

“Isn’t it funny that every year since it was new, Stairway to Heaven has been the number one rock song every time that a rock radio station plays their all time greatest, most requested songs. That’s pretty amazing, in fact it’s a miracle! Truly it is. I mean, do you think God would let Highway to Hell be number one? Well, maybe if God wanted to use it as a warning. But God, being a good, friendly, and loving God would rather do a little positive reinforcement and use a positive song after all…. “

So now, with the conclusion, he or she thinks that God caused the song’s success for his glory. Here is an excerpt for lyrics interpretations, line by line. To read the complete interpretation breakdown, visit http://www.sunsetwestproductions.com/forever/stairway.htm

There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven. (she is tithing)
When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for. (The bible is the word of God, with the bible, she can get into Heaven.) Revelation 3:8
Ooh, ooh, and she’s buying a stairway to heaven. (She is tithing and she she thinks that will get her into Heaven)

There’s a sign on the wall but she wants to be sure (points out the significance of the next line, hint hint)
‘Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings. (parables, which the bible is full of, and the words in this song have two meanings)
In a tree by the brook, there’s a songbird who sings, (reference to John the Baptist and Jesus)
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiving.
Ooh, it makes me wonder, (think!)
Ooh, it makes me wonder.

To read more, visit http://www.sunsetwestproductions.com/forever/stairway.htm

2. Judas Priest interpretation by various plaintiffs (mothers of boys who committed suicide)

Perhaps some of you may have heard of the suicides of teenagers from listening to Judas Priest albums. In court, it was claimed that subliminal messages were found in the album when it was played backward, and this activated suicidal impulses. Yeah, I know, doesn’t make sense.

In one example, in the song “Better by you Better than me” they say the words “do it”, and these words urged the boys to kill themselves. It would take somebody already suicidal to receive encouragement from these words without taking account the surrounding lyrics.

Judas Priest wasn’t the only rock band under trial, but these cases are important in legal history because it will influence the future of free speech, crack pot science, and the views on the subliminal perception.

So far as I know, there was no success in the trial for the plaintiffs (whew!!!) But in the past there has been a lot of precedence for crack pot science… such as in 1986, a Philadelphia jury awarded a woman $900,000 because a CAT scan ruined her psychic abilities. (New York Times, March 29, 1986). And of course, an “expert doctor” was there to support her case. Anyway, that’s a whole ‘nother story.

1. Helter Skelter by Charles Manson

This is probably the worst misinterpretation out there in the history of Rock ‘n Roll. Charles Manson and family took the Beatles’ album and read it as a prophecy. Manson thought that the Beatles were sending them a message about “Helter Skelter”, where the blacks would rise up and destroy all the whites. The family was supposed to go to this underground city while this was happening, and come back out to rule the blacks when it was over. They were also supposed to initiate the Helter Skelter, by murdering a bunch of people.

Charles Manson was the lead interpretor, and he infused the Beatles’ lyrics with the book of Revelations from the Bible. Manson also believed that he was the second coming of Christ.

Here is a sample of the interpretation taken from Wikipedia:
The song Rocky Raccoon:
Rocky Raccoon means “coon,” vulgar term for a black man

Of all the Beatles songs known to have been connected with Helter Skelter, this is the only one that mentions the Bible. (It is possibly the only Beatles song at all that mentions the Bible.) A play on the Gideons International practice of leaving Bibles in hotel rooms, the references are to a Bible left in the room of the title character by a “Gideon”:

So one day [Rocky Raccoon] walked into town/ Booked himself a room in the local saloon/ Rocky Raccoon/ Checked into his room/ Only to find Gideon’s Bible… Now Rocky Raccoon/ He fell back in his room/ Only to find Gideon’s Bible/ Gideon checked out/ And he left it no doubt/ To help with good Rocky’s revival.

Manson made the connection. In the period before his trial, he was visited at the Los Angeles County Jail by David Dalton and David Felton, who were preparing a Rolling Stone story, about him, that appeared in the magazine in June 1970. In an article in the October 1998 issue of the periodical Gadfly, Dalton, recounting the visit to Manson, relayed the remarks Manson made to Felton and him about “Rocky Raccoon”:

“Coon,” said Charlie. “You know that’s a word they use for black people. You know the line, ‘Gideon checked out/ And left no doubt/ To help good Rocky’s revival.’ Rocky’s revival — re-vival. It means coming back to life. The black man is going to come into power again. ‘Gideon checks out’ means that it’s all written out there in the New Testament, in the Book of Revelations [sic].”

To read more, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helter_Skelter_(Manson_scenario)

These bad interpretations come mainly from insanity. If these people knew anything about the bands listed here, their interpretations would not make sense. Another thing is that there is no context for their interpretation - it’s just that they saw what they wanted to believe.

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