You’ll be on the stairway to my heart forever.

I respect Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven as the ambitious epic that it is, but I don't really enjoy listening to it. Dull and way too long over sustained listenings.

On the other hand, I don't necessarily respect Phil Collins' You'll Be in My Heart, the ubiquitous Disney standard from the Tarzan movie, but I never get tired of it.

In fact, I kinda love it. Unassuming, generic pop, yet strangely timeless and compelling. It has no pretensions to greatness. And it knows when to end.

The End.

FACEBOOK RESPONSES

Dave N.
This IS heresy!

Me
That's what they said about Galileo.
...and I like Led, I just don't have them on a pedestal

Opening howls of Immigrant Song = one of the best intros ever. Also, I like what Robert Plant has done with with his career post-band. Some really great collaborations and a couple solid albums.

Dave N.
Whew! You were shaking your shoes over sacred soil! Haha.
Funny, though...when I saw them along with Ian Anderson's Jethro Tull way back, Tull stole the show.

Led Z. weren't technically as good as a lot of groups. Neither were Credence Clearwater which I also loved.

I'll let you get back to your Top 40 love fest now.... 'Vicious snicker'...Taking away your Tom Waits card!

Me
Top 40? Sure, as long as you remember Zeppelin isn't exactly indie cred. Loved by the masses, dismissed by plenty of critics The spirit of Thomas Waits is an iconoclastic one about following your own path. I like what I like without apology or remorse - and Phil Collins, long ago, was an edgy rocker himself dabbling in Tull-like prog-rock. Then Disney came calling and he couldn't say no. Kind of like Aerosmith with Michael Bay.

My Tom Waits card is tucked securely in my trucker wallet, right between Wainwright and Ween. And it's booby-trapped. So try and pry it from my cold fingers.

___

Phil Collins
You'll Be in My Heart
Tarzan (official soundtrack)
1999