While the ongoing health crisis has brought the cancellations of live shows and the (hopefully) temporary shuttering of performance venues around the world, far less has been said about the ongoing closure of another pillar of the industry: music stores. In a Sunday post on her Instagram, rocker St. Vincent cleverly showed some love to the guitar shops that have remained closed with a solo, instrumental “performance” of Led Zeppelin‘s “Stairway To Heaven”—a sound just as closely tied to the guitar shop experience as the stores themselves.
As St. Vincent, real name Annie Clark, noted along with her “Stairway” video, “Since guitar stores have been closed, I thought you might have missed the sound of someone fumbling through “stairway to heaven.” (Not pictured but honorable mention, “smoke on the water” “sweet home Alabama” “black dog” “where ever I may roam”). Love to all my guitar players out there. I know. I miss it too.”
For those unfamiliar, the “no ‘Stairway'” rule has been an unspoken bylaw of guitar shops for decades—i.e., “We know you’re excited that you just learned a Jimmy Page riff, but we’d rather not hear someone botch every third note through the biggest amp in the shop all day, every day.” Over the years, “Stairway to Heaven” being overplayed in guitar shops has become a cultural reference almost as widely known as the song itself:
Wayne’s World – “No Stairway” Scene