An unreleased version of one of the most celebrated songs in rock, Stairway to Heaven, is to come out later this year – after sitting in the vaults for more than 40 years.
An alternative take of the epic track, one of Led Zeppelin’s most famous compositions, will be released on a new version of the band’s fourth album due out later this year.
Guitarist Jimmy Page has sifted through vintage studio recordings to find different versions of each of the eight tracks from the Led Zeppelin IV album – which first came out in 1971 – for a companion disc to accompany the reissue, part of a remastering of the band’s entire catalogue.
The soon-to-be released performance of Stairway – which, legend has it, is barred from some guitar shops, to deter customers from playing it over and over again while trying out instruments – dates from a series of mixing sessions at Sunset Sound Studio in Los Angeles. The version which was eventually released was completed at the Island Records studio in London.
Also to be issued the same day, October 27, is a remastered version of the group’s Houses of the Holy album which again features newly heard takes of seven of the eight songs from that release.
New editions of the band’s first three albums came out last month.
The founding members – Page, singer Robert Plant and bass player John Paul Jones – famously reunited on stage in 2007 along with Jason Bonham, the son of late drummer John, at a tribute concert for Ahmet Ertegun, the founder of the band’s label Atlantic Records.
Stairway is at the centre of a lawsuit launched earlier this year by lawyers acting for the late musician Randy California who are seeking a writing credit over claims the intro to the track bears similarities to Taurus, a 1968 song recorded by California’s band Spirit.
In a 2009 interview the recording engineer for the sessions, Andy Johns, explained that only one track from the mixing sessions at Sunset survived, When the Levee Breaks. Recalling a playback session to hear the progress, he said: “Jimmy and I are sitting on the floor with heads in our hands going ‘What the hell is this?’ Then we played the next one and the next one... and it all sounded ‘orrible.”
“I thought Sunset was a cool place but they had changed the room since I was last there. I don’t know what happened,” added Johns, who died in April of last year.