Video hit Jimmy Page & Robert Plant
Jimmy Page & Robert Plant - Kashmir (with Egyptian Orchestra)
"Kashmir" is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin from their sixth album Physical Graffiti, released in 1975.
It was written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant (with contributions from John Bonham) over a period of three years with lyrics dating to 1973.
The song became a concert staple, being performed by the band at almost every concert since its release. Page and Plant released a longer live version, recorded with an Egyptian/Moroccan orchestra, on No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded (1994) and continued to perform the tune with an orchestra on their 1995 tour.
The song includes many distinctive musical patterns of classical Moroccan, Indian and Middle Eastern music. Page explained, "I had a sitar for some time and I was interested in modal tunings and Arabic stuff. It started off with a riff and then employed Eastern lines underneath."
Orchestral brass and strings with electric guitar and mellotron strings appear in the song. This is one of the few Led Zeppelin songs to use outside musicians. Session players were brought in for the string and horn sections.
According to Jones, "the secret of successful keyboard string parts is to play only the parts that a real string section would play. That is, one line for the First Violins, one line for Second Violins, one for Violas, one for Cellos, one for Basses. Some divided parts [two or more notes to a line] are allowed, but keep them to a minimum. Think melodically".
Lyrics
The lyrics were written by Plant in 1973 immediately after Led Zeppelin's 1973 US Tour, in an area he called "the waste lands" of Southern Morocco, while driving from Goulimine to Tantan in the Sahara Desert.
This was despite the fact that the song is named after Kashmir, a region in the northwestern part of the Himalayas.
As Plant explained to rock journalist Cameron Crowe:
“The whole inspiration came from the fact that the road went on and on and on. It was a single-track road which neatly cut through the desert. Two miles to the East and West were ridges of sandrock. It basically looked like you were driving down a channel, this dilapidated road, and there was seemingly no end to it. 'Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dreams...' It's one of my favourites...that, 'All My Love' and 'In the Light' and two or three others really were the finest moments. But 'Kashmir' in particular. It was so positive, lyrically”.
Plant also commented on the challenges he faced in writing lyrics for such a complex piece of music:
“It was an amazing piece of music to write to, and an incredible challenge for me ... Because of the time signature, the whole deal of the song is… not grandiose, but powerful: it required some kind of epithet, or abstract lyrical setting about the whole idea of life being an adventure and being a series of illuminated moments. But everything is not what you see. It was quite a task, ’cause I couldn’t sing it. It was like the song was bigger than me. It’s true: I was petrified, it’s true. It was painful; I was virtually in tears”.
The whole inspiration came from the fact that the road went on and on and on. It was a single-track road which neatly cut through the desert. Two miles to the East and West were ridges of sandrock. It basically looked like you were driving down a channel, this dilapidated road, and there was seemingly no end to it. 'Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dreams...' It's one of my favourites...that, 'All My Love' and 'In the Light' and two or three others really were the finest moments. But 'Kashmir' in particular. It was so positive, lyrically”.
In an interview he gave to William S. Burroughs in 1975, Page mentioned that at the time the song was composed, none of the band members had ever been to Kashmir.
The lyrics:
Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face, stars fill my dreams
I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been
To sit with elders of the gentle race, this world has seldom seen
They talk of days for which they sit and wait, all will be revealed
Talk and song from tongues of lilting grace, sounds caress my ears
But not a word I heard could I relay, the story was quite clear
Ohh
(Chorus)
Oh, oh
Oh, oh
Oooh, baby I've been flying... No, yeah, mama, there ain't no denyin'
Oooh yeah, I've been flying, mama, mama ain't no denyin', no denyin'
Oh, all I see turns to brown, as the sun burns the ground
And my eyes fill with sand, as I scan this wasted land
Tryin' to find....Tryin' to find where I've been.
Oh, pilot of the storm that leaves no trace, like thoughts inside a dream
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Heed the path that led me to that place, yellow desert stream
My Shangri-La beneath the summer moon, I will return again
Like the dust that floats high in June, when moving through Kashmir.
Oh, father of the four winds, fill my sails, across the sea of years
With no provision but an open face, along the straits of fear
Ohh
(Chorus)
When I'm on, when I'm on my way, yeah
When I see, when I see the way they stay, yeah
Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah, when I'm down...
Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah, well I'm down, so down
Ooh, my baby, oooh, my baby, let me take you there
Let me take you there
Let me take you there