“Stairway to Heaven” may be considered one of the best songs of all time, but it was written from a negative place.

Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were staying in their Welsh mountain retreat in 1970 when they laid down the groundwork for the iconic song. A year later, the duo recorded their fourth album in Hampshire when they went to the pub to work out the final version.

“I was holding a pencil and paper, and for some reason I was in a very bad mood,” Plant recalled, per Louder Sounds . “Then all of a sudden my hand was writing out the words, ‘ There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold/And she’s buying a stairway to heaven …’ I just sat there and looked at the words, and then I almost leaped out of my seat.”

Page liked the lyrics so much that they became the first to be reprinted on a Zeppelin album sleeve. “The wonderful thing is that even with the lyrics in front of you, you know how you listen to something and you might not quite get what the words are but you get your own impression?…