“Kashmir” – Song by Led Zeppelin from the album Physical Graffiti
Released: February 24, 1975
Label: Swan Song
Songwriters: John Bonham, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant
Producer: Jimmy Page
Led Zeppelin perform their epic song ‘Kashmir’ at Knebworth in 1979. ‘Kashmir’ was released in 1975 on the album ‘Physical Graffiti’ and became a concert staple, being performed by the band at almost every concert since.
Originally titled Driving To Kashmir, the song had begun as a lyric Plant had been inspired to write in the autumn of 1973 after a long, seemingly never-ending drive through “the waste lands”, as he put it, of southern Morocco. It’s meaning had nothing to do with Kashmir, in northern India, at all.
Kashmir, also known as Cashmere, is a lush mountain region North of Pakistan. India and Pakistan have disputed control of the area for years. The fabric Cashmere is made from the hair of goats from the region. The area is also famous for growing poppies, from which heroin is made.
Plant thinks John Bonham’s drumming is the key to this: “It was what he didn’t do that made it work.”
The signature guitar riff began as a tuning cycle Jimmy Page had been using for years.
This is one of the few Zeppelin songs to use outside musicians. Session players were brought in for the string and horn sections. Jimmy Page said (Rolling Stone, 2012): “I knew that this wasn’t just something guitar-based. All of the guitar parts would be on there. But the orchestra needed to sit there, reflecting those other parts, doing what the guitars were but with the colors of a symphony.”
