"Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin & Page and Plant

#8 Kashmir -- Led Zeppelin 1975/Page & Plant 1994

When Led Zeppelin released their arguably most acclaimed album, Physical Graffiti, in 1975 (remastered in 1990), I was somewhere in the transition from Navy journalist to civilian. My music purchases had virtually stopped during my time in the Navy – no turntable, no spending money, too busy – but I was a Led Zeppelin fan just from radio play. I made an exception with Physical Graffiti, first heard at a friend’s.

 If you ask Boomer rock and roll fans for favorite groups or their favorite songs, many mention Led Zeppelin, and the song that comes to mind is “Stairway to Heaven.” Some might even cite “Whole Lotta Love.” But the song that tops the list for most diehard fans is “Kashmir.” It was met with critical acclaim, but it had its detractors. Rolling Stone declared it “monotonous.” But they didn’t like “Stairway” when it was first released. The band had never been to Kashmir, but Plant based his lyrics on a visit he’d made to a barren desert area near Morocco.

 While I wore the grooves out on my copy of Physical Graffiti – remember, it was a double album – I began to regret that I would never see Led Zeppelin in concert. Their US tour of 1977 was something of a disaster, with a mini riot in Florida, Plant coming down with laryngitis, culminating in the death of Plant’s 5-year old son from a stomach virus. Plant immediately flew back to the UK and the tour was over. He thought about quitting the band, and what looked like an irreparable rift between Plant/Bonham and Page/Jones was created when the guitarist and bassist didn’t attend the funeral. There were many other problems, all culminating in John Bonham’s death in 1980. The band agreed they couldn’t go on without their iconic drummer and broke up.

Cover of Page and Plant's No Quarter:
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded live
 album  (Atlantic/Fontana).


 Fast forward to 1994 – Robert Plant and Jimmy Page reunited in a 90-minute MTV “Unledded” special recorded in London, Wales, and Morocco. More bad blood was drawn when Jones claimed he wasn’t even invited to be included in the project, and then Page and Plant named the related album No Quarter, which is a Led Zeppelin song that is attributed to Jones. However, Page and Plant performed some new work as well as several Led Zeppelin standards such as “Thank You,” “Gallows Pole,” and the contentious “No Quarter.”

 The highlight for me was their performance of “Kashmir,” accompanied by a Moroccan string band and Egyptian orchestra (including  Hossam Ramzy, as music director, who you should check out -- He died in Brazil in 2019.), clocking in at 12:27 (the original ran for 8:37). 

I also fulfilled my dream of seeing at least half of Led Zeppelin in concert in '94, when I went to the Pyramid in Memphis, TN, with friends to see Page & Plant perform in support of their No Quarter album. It was so great, I took both my sons and my oldest's girlfriend to see them at Barton Coliseum in Little Rock, Arkansas a month or so later.

 To hear the original from Physical Graffiti, click on the Spotify URL below:

 Spotify: Kashmir from the album Physical Graffiti

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