Led Zeppelin - Kashmir (1975)

96 Views Added 1 year ago

Possibly the best Led Zeppelin song ever created. Yet, this song is NOT actually about Kashmir. My research indicates that the setting of its genesis was during a long drive through the hot, sun-beaten Sahara desert in Southern Morocco. The lyrics reveal a semi-surreal fantasy experienced by singer Robert Plant during the drive with the band following a live concert in 1973. The Eastern instruments Jimmy Page had been working with when composing, such as the sitar, helped produce the right sound and melody the group was looking for. By degrees, the composition gained its title "Kashmir" ... a land where none of the band members had ever visited at the time ... and came to symbolize the entire Eastern world, including northern Africa. But the song is a dream of another mystical place while existing in a brown bleak desert. It reaches out to other worlds, dark ones, bright ones.

This video is not about Kashmir either. The song excites certain ideas and passions, possibly differing ones from person to person, yet, I feel the universal elements within the song bind all to a similar vision, dark, other worldly, serene, sensual, exotic, and even violent. But no matter what, 'the song remains the same.'

Film footage used:

Dune (1984)
Dagon (2001)
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Mata Hari (2017)
Piccadilly (1929)