I Was Shocked

Never once have I heard of Far Corporation, or their version of Stairway. In my area of the US, it was always the LZ version that was on the radio. I even went to a few discos in the early 80s. Never heard that song.

I'm not a die-hard Page fan. He is versatile, and did some unique things. For my money, Hendrix is still king. He was a complete innovator, doing things that nobody else had done before. Unfortunately, we'll never know what else he had in his future.
 
I've never heard of Far Corporation or this version of the song either. Some of the vocal arrangements are kind of neat, but it doesn't build anymore and it's over a minute longer!!!!

I would also like to point out that LZ was a 70's band, not really a 60's band. They have sold over 300,000,000 records worldwide. They were quite literally the biggest band in the world in the mid to late 70's.

Far Corporation was a one hit wonder (the hit being a cover) that was put together by the same producer that gave us Mili Vanili.
 
I would also like to point out that LZ was a 70's band, not really a 60's band. They have sold over 300,000,000 records worldwide. They were quite literally the biggest band in the world in the mid to late 70's.

/QUOTE]

Not in the UK they werent. Although their albums were hits in the UK. It was only 'fans' whoever purchased them because the general public would rarely get to hear them. Mainstream music tv and the main popular music radio channel rarely ever played their music. There were reasons for this.
 
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Far Corporation was a one hit wonder (the hit being a cover) that was put together by the same producer that gave us Mili Vanili.

Quite a lot of UK popular music was kind of? 'manufactured'. The UK music charts is full of music which was manufactured or sung/played by other people from the 1960's through the 70's and even in the 80's. The people who did this were very successful.
 
Yo Orson...we're on the same page on a lot of things but on this topic we're 180 apart...That "Far Corp" version that you are under the impression gave Zepplin's version wings is just not even close to factual... but you being younger and not into 60's /70"s rock..I can understand the jaded perspective. Zep turbo charged rock n roll, similar to how Van Halen did 10 years later...STH is legendary...

From Wiki HERE

"Stairway to Heaven" is often rated among the greatest rock songs of all time. According to music journalist Stephen Davis, although the song was released in 1971, it took until 1973 before the song's popularity ascended to truly "anthemic" status. As Page recalled, "I knew it was good, but I didn't know it was going to be almost like an anthem ... But I knew it was the gem of the album, sure."

"Stairway to Heaven" continues to top radio lists of the greatest rock songs, including a 2006 Guitar World readers poll of greatest guitar solos.

On the 20th anniversary of the original release of the song, it was announced via U.S. radio sources that the song had logged up an estimated 2,874,000 radio plays.

As of 2000, the song had been broadcast on radio over three million times. In 1990, a St. Petersburg, Florida station kicked off its all-Led Zeppelin format by playing "Stairway to Heaven" for 24 hours straight.

It is also the biggest-selling single piece of sheet music in rock history, clocking up an average of 15,000 copies yearly.[15] In total, over one million copies have been sold.

In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine put it at number 31 on their list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

An article from 29 January 2009 Guitar World magazine rated Jimmy Page's guitar solo at number one in the publication's 100 Greatest Guitar Solos in Rock and Roll History.

Just feel like you really have way underestimated how great a song it is in the history and evolution of rock and waaaay overated Far Corp's version and minute influence it had on the originals popularity worldwide...As per my first response on this...several U.S. members here have confirmed your post of Far's version is the first time any of us ever heard it...and it's ok for an 80's disco / electronica era cover version but the original is where the $$$ is.
 
Led Zeppelin | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company
If you hit the "albums" tab, you will notice how much they actually did chart in the UK.

Now I'm not a big zeppelin fan, but it is hard to deny what they did, especially compared to that goofy version of one of their songs.

I am not denying that but the main record buying public would never get to hear their songs.

Throughout the 70's and most of the 80's there was only one main tv music show called 'Top of the Pops' and one main music radio show called 'Radio One' and they would rarely if ever play LZ music because it was all 'singles' based. Hence no LZ.

Most people would know very little about them other than they were from the 60's era. The music tastes of the UK after say 1973 was 'not' LZ based.
 
Yo Orson...we're on the same page on a lot of things but on this topic we're 180 apart...That "Far Corp" version that you are under the impression gave Zepplin's version wings is just not even close to factual... but you being younger and not into 60's /70"s rock..I can understand the jaded perspective. Zep turbo charged rock n roll, similar to how Van Halen did 10 years later...STH is legendary...

From Wiki HERE

"Stairway to Heaven" is often rated among the greatest rock songs of all time. According to music journalist Stephen Davis, although the song was released in 1971, it took until 1973 before the song's popularity ascended to truly "anthemic" status. As Page recalled, "I knew it was good, but I didn't know it was going to be almost like an anthem ... But I knew it was the gem of the album, sure."

"Stairway to Heaven" continues to top radio lists of the greatest rock songs, including a 2006 Guitar World readers poll of greatest guitar solos.

On the 20th anniversary of the original release of the song, it was announced via U.S. radio sources that the song had logged up an estimated 2,874,000 radio plays.

As of 2000, the song had been broadcast on radio over three million times. In 1990, a St. Petersburg, Florida station kicked off its all-Led Zeppelin format by playing "Stairway to Heaven" for 24 hours straight.

It is also the biggest-selling single piece of sheet music in rock history, clocking up an average of 15,000 copies yearly.[15] In total, over one million copies have been sold.

In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine put it at number 31 on their list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

An article from 29 January 2009 Guitar World magazine rated Jimmy Page's guitar solo at number one in the publication's 100 Greatest Guitar Solos in Rock and Roll History.

Just feel like you really have way underestimated how great a song it is in the history and evolution of rock and waaaay overated Far Corp's version and minute influence it had on the originals popularity worldwide...As per my first response on this...several U.S. members here have confirmed your post of Far's version is the first time any of us ever heard it...and it's ok for an 80's disco / electronica era cover version but the original is where the $$$ is.

No I was in the UK and a teen throughout most of the 70's and it was completely different to America.
 
To explain..........In the Uk we had only one main music show called 'Top Of The Pops'. We had one main popular music radio channel called 'Radio One'. They were both ran by the BBC.

To get played or appear on those two music shows/stations your song had to be of a certain criteria and be a certain length.

If it didnt fit the requirements your music would never be seen or heard by the UK music buying public and never be a hit. The BBC ruled the roost.

Remember the scene where Freddie Mercury fights to get Bohemian Rhapsody played on the radio? That was real and down to one renegade DJ called Kenny Everate a friend of Freddie Mercurys. Without him Bohemian Rhapsody would never have got played and heard by the UK masses.

Led Zeppelin never had singles released so would never be played on the main music radio channel or appear on the main music tv show. This is really ironic as 'Top Of The Pops' theme music in the early 70's was 'A whole lot of love' by LZ.

This was basically the norm until the later 1980's when American music shows and MTV and satellite tv started to come into the UK.
 
All that said...I listened to the second version and I liked their interpretation and how they made it work for the musical lane they produced it for..

The singer trying to do Plant's high range vocal parts did an OK job but not even in the same planet of rock screamer that Plant was...and Plant not only sang like a wild man he definitely set the bar of what a cool Rock star looks like...I had a bud who looked a lot like him in the period and it just sucked going anywhere with him because he had the pick of the litter wherever he went....rat bastard! :drunk:

Frickin chick magnet...shit he's 65 now and the girls still flock to him....
 
All that said...I listened to the second version and I liked their interpretation and how they made it work for the musical lane they produced it for..

The singer trying to do Plant's high range vocal parts did an OK job but not even in the same planet of rock screamer that Plant was...and Plant not only sang like a wild man he definitely set the bar of what a cool Rock star looks like...I had a bud who looked a lot like him in the period and it just sucked going anywhere with him because he had the pick of the litter wherever he went....rat bastard! :drunk:

Frickin chick magnet...shit he's 65 now and the girls still flock to him....

Mmmmmmm :thumbs up:
 
All you Zeppelin fans never mentioned this which I also remembered from the early 80's. Now a 'Big Log' in the UK is something we say goodbye to in the morning. But I thought this was a good song. :)

 
It’s a real history of British Pop to research Top of the Pops. Rules, unions, bans, sex, everything was subject of BBC rigid control. I’ve always done a bit of broadcast work and in the 80s did a couple of shows as roadie to one of the bands. I didn’t actually do anything because I wasn’t needed and wasn’t allowed to touch anything, and everyone mimed anyway. People tried to rebel but no matter how big a name they were they had to toe the line, or be off the list. None of the heavier bands were very welcome on TOTP and pretty much the fans of pop, who were the audience, set the tone. Remember back then that leather jackets and long hair meant you were a criminal probably so liking Deep Purple, Zep, Hawkwind, ELP or whatever made you a set of your own in mainstream music. The album charts were so different. Only a few were in both. Breaking the 3 minute barrier was risky. Good Vibrations, Bohemian Rhapsody, John Mile’s Music were risky products back then.
 
I remember as a 15 year old thinking the only music that was around was what your heard on Radio One and saw on Top Of The Pops. The main record buying shops like 'Smiths' only ever stocked the same music for obvious reasons.

A small record selling shop at the far edge of town opened and I went in and heard noises I had never heard before in my life. The people who went in there mostly had long hair.
Some of them smelt funny. One of those Artists did later actually have top 10 hits. I remember it was early Kiki Dee stuff on a fantastic stereo system which was like something out of an Moon rocket to me. 'Tangerine Dream' was another one which sticks in my mind and another called 'Wishbone Ash'.

After that I was a regular viewer of a very late night 'Hippy type' music program with 'Whispering Bob'.

Looking back it just sounds so unreal and like Communist USSR. But that was 1970's Britain.
 
Adding to this and then I will shut up. A lot of successful bands were born in that era of late 1960's to mid 80's. Some made it by producing something that got on 'Top Of The Pops'. Some made it like the Led Zeppelin way of getting big in the USA or elsewhere. But there must have been many more bands which simply gave up because they couldn't get their music heard by the masses and make some money.

What a strange country we lived in back then.
 
I went back and listened to the full version of Far Corp's version and it occurred to me that this might be what the song would have been if it was produced as an Alan Parsons Project song, with Plant and Page as guests. Had I never heard the original, I guess it would be ok.

As for BBC/TOTP controlling the pop music scene, in a way that happens in the US as well. Lots of stations serve up the pablum to the masses not because they are forced to, but because that's where the most money is. The lowest common denominator and all that...

Luckily, we had quite a few independent stations that branched out and played more progressive music. We also had some really good record stores that carried a great selection of records, much better than what you would find in the racks of the big box retailers. They also helped support the local musicians, with in store concerts, and singles and albums put out by those groups.
 
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