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Whether you’re aware of it or not, ladies and gentlemen, I have a pretty darn good memory for recalling some of the most innocuous and insignificant events that have taken place over the course of my lifetime.
I don’t know if it’s the way I’m hard wired or not. Perhaps I have a subtle network or mnemonic devices planted in the depths of my skull which allow me to remember these things.
I could list off a plethora of examples to you right now, however it may be easier for you to read some of the nonsense… errr recollections I’ve published here over the last several years in an ambitious endeavor to liven up an otherwise dull internet.
Most recently, you can find those total recalls in my blogging experiment of telling two truths and a lie, as well as my testimony about a certain rabbit hunting trip which took place over 20 years ago in central Wyoming.
Today, ladies and gentlemen, I’m going to discuss four simple notes played on a guitar.
For any of you who have heard and know the song “Stairway To Heaven” by Led Zeppelin, you’ll recognize that first set of notes played at the intro of the rock and roll masterpiece. There’s no mistaking it for anything else. If you hear it come up on the radio, you yell, “Oooo, Stairway” and you crank the volume.
Any headbanger worth their salt is also going to play the air guitar along with the solo while recreating it with their piehole.
“Beeeeeeeeer neer neer neer neer neer ne-ne-neeeeeeer”.
Et cetera.
The song’s a classic. Plain, clear and simple as that.
For Christmas, Juniorette gave me a Zeppelin CD. Celebration Day is a 2 disc, 1 DVD recording of a concert the group did 5 years ago.
I don’t really have to tell you it rocks, do I?
For sometime now, I’ve been harping on the kids that a lot of the stuff they listen to today are greatly influenced by Led Zeppelin. I’m pretty sure I’ve thrown the word “foundational” in there too.
It’s quite ironic, because Junior is studying music in college. He hasn’t come out and told the old man that the foundations of music don’t reside in a band that helped to define a genre.
Now that I’ve painted the background, let’s get to the crux of this line of bull.
Wayne’s World was another one of those movies spawned from an ongoing Saturday Night Live skit. It featured a couple of headbangers who broadcasted a talk show on public access in Aurora, Illinois. The skit was popular, and as a result the brain trust behind it made a movie of the same name.
I remember seeing it a few times in the theaters, and laughed my hiney off at all of the places I was supposed to. All these years later I guess I’ve become desensitized to it. I just don’t chuckle at it the same way I used to, however I can still appreciate the actions of the lovely and talented Tia Carrere bringing a whole new meaning to the Ballroom Blitz.
Man alive.
There’s a scene in that movie where Wayne (played by that dude who offered his voice for Shrek) pines over a guitar that he’s dying to own. He goes to the shop where the guitar is displayed and asks to try it out.
In the theatrical release, Wayne plays those four notes I discussed earlier. It was a dead on. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind or anyone else’s in that theater that Wayne was playing a Zeppelin classic. When I heard that in the theater, I said “Cool. Stairway”, and started looking for the volume nob. Meanwhile, on screen, the shop salesman stops Wayne and points to a sign that says “No Stairway to Heaven”.
Big picture, it was a funny bit. As I said before, the song is a classic. Classics are standbys, and I would expect that guitar salesmen are pretty darn sick and tired of hearing people play it when they’re testing out a guitar.
Just in case you haven’t caught it, I’m going to point out the symbol here that I remembered from way back when.
In the theatrical release, Wayne played the first four notes to Stairway to Heaven. It sounded like the beginning of that song.
I would imagine one would be hard pressed to actually be able to watch that movie in theaters today. Fortunately, the magic of DVD allows us to watch the movie whenever we want to. I have my own copy of it.
There’s a problem with the DVD though.
When you get to the scene where Wayne is testing out the new guitar and starts to play Stairway, it sounds nothing of the sort. It’s a completely different set of notes and doesn’t even follow the same progression. Even still, the guitar salesman manages to recognize it as Stairway.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD1KqbDdmuE&w=560&h=315]
For reasons only known to the films producers and the songs publishers, the notes which Wayne played were changed once the flick was released for home use.
Wayne makes a statement once he’s shown the sign. “No Stairway? Denied!”
I’ve got to wonder if that statement had a deeper meaning than what was presented on screen.
Rock on, people.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7FUo_XaJs4&w=560&h=315]
