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Pavement Return To The Road With A Very Unserious “Stairway” Cover
Pavement took the stage at Oakland's Mosswood Meltdown festival to perform for their first audience since November, maintaining their multi-year reunion momentum. During their set, the group delivered a tongue-in-cheek rendition of Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven,' focusing on the song's later verses whilst vocalist Stephen Malkmus substituted the original lyrics with deliberately inaccurate alternatives.
The cover featured comical lyrical departures, with Malkmus incorporating phrases such as 'I like mangos' and other nonsensical phrases that bore little resemblance to the actual track. The intentionally irreverent performance aligned with the band's established persona, appearing amidst their own material including the song 'Harness Your Hopes.'
In short
- Pavement performed an irreverent cover of Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven' at Oakland's Mosswood Meltdown festival with deliberately nonsensical lyrics
- The '90s indie rock band marked their first show in several months, continuing their ongoing reunion tour
Explained simply
Pavement is an alternative rock band that emerged in the 1990s and became influential in indie music before splitting in 2010. They reunited several years ago and have been touring intermittently, maintaining a devoted following. The band is known for their playful, irreverent approach to rock music and their willingness to be deliberately absurd.
Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven' is one of the most iconic rock songs ever recorded, released in 1971 by the legendary British-American band. The nearly eight-minute track is widely regarded as a masterpiece and is one of the most frequently covered songs in music history, though usually treated with great reverence.
At the Mosswood Meltdown festival in Oakland, Pavement performed a humorous rendition of the song that replaced the original lyrics with deliberate nonsense such as 'I like mangos'. The irreverent cover aligns with the band's established persona of playful, tongue-in-cheek humour.
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