Oh here’s to my sweet Satan.
The one whose little path would make me sad, whose power is Satan.
He will give those with him 666.
There was a little toolshed where he made us suffer, sad Satan.
Apparently this is what you’ll hear if you play Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” backwards. In a word, bullshit.
I’d first heard this rumour when I was a teenager, but couldn’t find the time, technology or the inclination to put the theory to the test.
I’d all but forgotten about it for almost 17 years until I saw Simon Singh (author of the Big Bang) speak at an Irish Skeptics talk in September 2005.
In his talk, Simon Singh demonstrated how the truth can get in the way of a good story by using Led Zeppelin’s song, “Stairway to Heaven” as an example. He played a bit of the song, then again backwards and asked if anyone in the audience had heard any reference to “satan”. I don’t remember anyone willing to admit to hearing anything but gibberish.
Then, Simon put up a few lines on the screen, including the following from the quote above, “There was a little toolshed where he made us suffer, sad Satan” and played the song backwards for a second time.
The lyrics were now clearly audible. Slightly weird, I’ll admit. What Singh demonstrated was that we can too easily accept silly theories which are based on authoritative opinions rather than facts and how we can make up ‘facts’ to support our theories. Needless to say, the power of suggestion played a role in there somewhere too.
What’s all this got to do with wine?
It’s all too easy to accept how a wine tastes or should taste based on what an expert tells us it tastes like, what the label tells us about the terroir or on how much it costs (the more expensive the bottle, the better it will be). Essentially, it’s easy to buy into the bull.
So, what I’m trying to say, when trying a wine: keep an open mind, keep learning and don’t too readily believe accepted wisdom. Besides, wine is a personal, subjective thing and perhaps no two peoples’ taste buds are alike. The next time you hear me or anyone else describe a wine with “pepper notes”, take it with a pinch of salt.
