Sexuality in the Arts

My first love’s mother enjoyed Led Zeppelin’s music.  When I visited her mother a few years ago, her mother mentioned their music had been a part of her.  She suggested she’d enjoyed their music, and I inferred it had been a pleasant part of her social generation and experiences.  When she said it, she said it almost as a confession - as if admitting how much she had enjoyed the music might be revealing something unbecoming or slightly awry.  I responded with a smile, raised eyebrows and a nod, trying to convey I could understand why their music had meant so much to her.  I wanted to dispel any misplaced concern she may have felt.

Before she mentioned Led Zeppelin, I had recounted a story of when her daughter many years ago had asked her what she thought of Axl Rose from Guns n’ Roses.  My best memory was she joked that Axl “oozed” with sexuality.  I remember it, because it was an uncommon thing for a mom to say about the latest rock star of her daughter’s generation.

If our art sometimes reveals parts of our inner thoughts, priorities, and selves, then understanding that art better may help us understand someone we love better.

If a person’s art is inconsistent or nonsensical, it may be revealing of their thought processes.

However, Led Zeppelin’s songs and lyrics are often consistent and sensible.

I love Led Zeppelin because their art has continued to make more sense to me as I’ve listened to it over many years.

In the song “Stairway To Heaven,” which my freshman roommate played every night before going to bed (for mysterious reasons the universe will probably never explain to me), there is the lyric:

“If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now
It’s just a Spring clean for the May Queen”

The “Urban Dictionary” gives these well-written practical interpretive thoughts on those lyrics: 

“A bustle in your hedgerow,” the enigmatic line in Led Zep’s “Stairway To Heaven” classic, has mystified music mavens for decades.  Hopefully, the following will sprinkle a scintilla of elucidation and edification upon this cryptic conundrum.

A hedgerow is a hedge that surrounds many estates in Britain.

Bustle, or noise or activity, used in this sense, means a disturbance close to home.  Something’s happening in your world!

It’s just a spring clean for the May Queen.

Spring cleaning is an old domestic ritual cleaning meant to do away with the troubles of the past year and prepare for the coming year, and often includes disposing of old, useless things that have been lying around.

The May Queen was a maiden chosen by a village to represent the hopes and potential for the coming year.  She was a symbol of beauty, spring and new beginnings.

So here, as an analogy, the lyric refers to getting rid of old and outdated systems in order to allow progress to occur.

OR it can refer to menarche, or the first menstrual cycle, signifying that a girl is coming of age.

OR, it could mean that you have a fuckin’ bee in your bonnet!

~ end of Urban Dictionary excerpt ~

This post is not about “Stairway to Heaven.”  I could probably write pages of interpretive comments on the whole song.  It is one of my favorite songs, for emotional, historical, and many other reasons. 

This post is about those two lines of lyrics.  Humorously, but also somewhat practically, I used to think the lyric was:  “If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be a lawman” - that lyric also made some sense to me, especially coming out of the 1970s.  The song was released during the Vietnam War in 1971.

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Side notes:  My new work is going well, and it is keeping me busy all the time.  I work with several hundred other people.  I’m not a person who much enjoys gossip or small talk, but eating in a cafeteria, I’m constantly listening to everyone’s troubles in conversations around me. 

I am no longer surprised at how many people live inconsistent lives - lives that daily face dramatic social contradictions.  This troubles me.  I don’t get involved in most of the lives around me.  Instead, I sit quietly, and write my concerns on this blog and other places. 

I guess if I have one wish for so many people dealing with so many social conflicts, it might be this: 

I wish for your actions to be consistent with your best intents for everyone involved.  And to the degree you believe you must misrepresent your personal truths, may you examine and face those issues further so that the inner intents of your conscience are consistent with the reality of your actions within your intimate social circles.

So many people can’t seem to find a path to that kind of consistency of thoughts, reasonings, and actions.  But I hope some of the things I’ve written can strengthen others’ abilities to reason - so they can live without so many disarming contradictions.

If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now.  It’s just a Spring clean for the May Queen.  Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run, there’s still time to change the road you’re on.

Love to all,

OneMoreOption

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Led Zeppelin on Wikipedia

Stairway to Heaven on Wikipedia

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