Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Rock and roll: 101 versions of Stairway To Heaven" (downloadable)

Our good friends at NYC's WFMU Beware of the Blog (one of my favorite blogs, especially for the vast variety of legal downloads of the crazy, sublime, and obscure) have assembled 101 versions of the Led Zeppelin tune "Stairway To Heaven." And they're all downloadable... jump here to listen, read about, and download these 101 versions of STH...Following is some text and the artist's names from BOTB....

Stairways to Heaven, Stairways to Hell (MP3s) - Here are 101 versions of the song you often hear strummed at the Guitar Center, from british music hall versions to a backwards version, Much of this came from former FMU DJ KBC's CD of the same name, which took much of it's content from this 1992 LP. "

The artists from WFMU's web post on the 101 (including, among others, Iron Maiden, The London Symphony Orchestra, The Hard-ons, Dolly Parton, and many more):

Dusty Cowshit Hard-Ons Little Roger & amp; The Goosebumps Rock Lobsters
Neil Pepper SCTV Glass Harp Leonard Teale Beatnix
Ludwig Von 88 Leif Norbergs John Paul Young Pardon Me Boys
Kalocin Fargone Beauties Richard Cheese Robyne Dunn
Rolf Harris GS Incorporated Australian Doors Show
Dixie Power Trio Kate Ceberano & Ministry of Fun Thomas Dimuzio
Sandra Kahn & Michael Turkic Pat Boone Tiny Tim & Brave Combo
Nashville Super Pickers Congo Natty
Foo Fighters Vienna Symphonic Orchestra Dolly Parton
Nileppez Del Dread Zeppelin Leningrad Cowboys & The Red Army Chorus
Frank Zappa Vegimite Reggae
Dutch artist Jeroen Offerman learned how to sing Stairway backwards. Here's a page about it from listener Neil's blog, with the full video. Thanks Mike and Neil!
Here's version number 39, an instrumental from Redd Kross. Thanks Arthur!
Mitsuhiro Nishiwaki (Musicbox) Nick Barker and The Reptiles Splice of Life, Inc
Venetian Snares and Speedranch Norelpref Barry Crocker & The Doug Anthony Allstars
Etcetera Theater Company Helen Jones James Kochalka Superstar
Jodie Gillies Judi Connell London Symphony Orchestra
Far Corporation Stanley Jordan Sydney Philharmonia
Those Darn Accordians Toys Went Berserk
Also, here is the Stairway Suite page, with MP3 samples of the song as if it were composed by six well known composers.
Iron Maiden Me First and The Gimme Gimmes
Milish Rodrigo y Gabriela
National Cynical Network DJ Earworm
Heavy Fuel A Pretty Sunset
Die Zorros Richard Cheese Michael Mills (Spoken Diatribe)
Bellanova Gregorian Masters of Chant Guster
Vogelfrai Not Moby Final Fantasy X
Unknown Jose Padilla
Todd Taylor Camper Van Beethoven Mary Schneider, Yodeling Queen of Australia
Sisters of Mercy White Skull Sons of Ishmael Whipper Snappers
Stereofeed String Quartet Orchestra National De Jazz Havanarama
Reverend Billy C Wirtz Zakk Wylde Johnny Bic
The Raleigh Ringers The Sauerkraut Project Steve Morse
The Lounge-O-Leers Helloween The Dick Twang Band (Dick's page)
The Symphonic Led Zeppelin
Dash Rip Rock (Stairway to Freebird) Short Attention Span Stairway
Jana Iron Horse Ann Wilson

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