I drink a lot of beer… sometimes with my lady, most times with my my friends. Often times I drink alone. All this consumption leaves me with bottles… lots of bottles. After carefully surveying the minefield for fallen solders I deliberately pack up said bottles and place them in the appropriate bin that my Landlord has been gracious enough to set up for me just outside my home. Before the night is out a rustling can be heard outside my window as a disproportionately small asian woman collects all of the bottles I've so graciously left out for her in the appropriate bin. She knows they'll be there, we've danced this dance before. She is selective, she has no need for cans, or half gallons of milk. She's come for the bottles, and the bottles she will have. Closer to the morning a truck pulls up front, running just behind schedule the sanitation worker is relieved to find a light load of milk containers and cans waiting for him. He quickly scoops them from the appropriate bin and contemplates actually finishing his route ahead of schedule, not a bad way to end the week.
In 1970 Jimmy Page writes the solo for Stairway to Heaven alone in the basement of a house on Loch Ness. He uses a Fender Telecaster that was given to him by Jeff Beck. The Tele is adorned with Day-Glo Dragons which Page has painted himself. He took an interest in painting and studied in a fine art school after becoming ill touring the english country side in a van with his buddies. The song becomes the most played ever on American radio and in a moment of chance some twenty years later a young boy pulls a ratty old cassette tape out of a bag full of ratty old cassette tapes. The cover has no words, only four symbols and an old man carrying a bundle of sticks on his back. The boy excitedly pops the tape into the stereo that his grandmother has so graciously set up for him in the corner of his bedroom. He presses play and in a few short minutes decides the entire course of his life.
Some people get it, most don't… He makes a lot of friends that do, and even falls in love a few times. All along This Road he takes accurate notes and remembers them in the form of song. He uses these songs to start a band and put in motion the plan. The one born so long ago sitting by the stereo, listening to a cassette tape. The plan brings with it many failures, but even more successes and the boy becomes a man. In a moment of calm some years later he sits by the window listening to Stairway, thinking in reverse and feeling the passing of time. His concentration is broken by the clattering of bottles outside and at that moment he decides he needs a beer.
