STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN 40 YEARS LATER

I discovered this song a few months after the album was released; and when I say "discover" is not as some sort of hyperbolic symbolism; in communist Cuba, especially in 1972; still with Castro's admonishing words  in his closing of the congress of education and culture (a Caribbean brand of culture revolution) echoing in our minds, you didn't get a review of the latest releases of pop, rock, and music in general in the regular mail. If all went well, and you were lucky enough, you caught a glimpse of a smuggled album disguised under the cover of some Cuban LP.

It was in the 9th floor of the Hermanas Giralt building (the Sayas,s apartment) that I usually came to hear the latest from Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Grand Funk, Erick Clapton, and the likes; anyone who had a new album had to come by to listen to his or her "treasure" in a decent fashion. The Sayas had a 1961 stereo; does anyone remember the old tapes?, not even cassette tapes, but the actual huge reels with miles of tapes where the music was recorded; the reels were contained in a box on which my then friend, Arquimedes Sayas Jr. (Juanito), glued a label with the name of the band and the album's number; thus, Led Zeppelin I, Led Zeppelin II and so forth. For Cuba, then, this was the best one could hope for and the quality of the sound was pretty decent by any standards. I spent long hours listening to all those songs, and when I first heard the words in Stairway to Heaven I though I had been hit by a bus; little did I understand then about the metaphoric lyrics Plant had generously sprinkled over a master piece of rock played in a Celtic setting. As years went by and my life took a sharp turn the meaning of the words started to dawn on me until 40 years later I know that:

The lady is no longer sure, perhaps she never was, that all that glitters is gold.
I could never, for the life of me, find the lady in the first place, nor was I able to see her white light
All the stores were closed when I got there, and I had to find other ways to get what I wanted. Usually, I entertained the crowd with the tales of my life.
We called the tune repeatedly, but no piper led us to reason; instead, we followed a soft spoken ragged man who led us to lunacy and left us on our own.
Dawn indeed came by, but it was cloudy, and we couldn't see it, we lived in an endless night for many a moons; and only thousands of moons later were we able to hear the laughter reverberating amongst the trees.
My head was humming, very much so, and fearful of being once again lured by the soft spoken man, I ran as fast as I could until I stopped at a juncture, panting, hoping to choose the right path. I feared then, and I know now, that there's no time to change once you've chosen a road.
And I have raced ever since, still surprised as my soul is much larger than my shadow
Nothing turned to gold unless I polished it strenuously; I listened very hard until I was able to hear, loud and clear, the same old tune I had kept singing all these years; then, I stopped at the very edge of sanity and, somehow, I feel I was able to avoid the fall off the cliff, at least for now.