Rock legend Robert Plant could often be his own harshest critic – but there was one Led Zeppelin song he ranked above the rest.
The band arrived in a blaze of glory, with their opening three albums – recorded within 18 months of each other – establishing them as global stars. The famously non-titled fourth reinforced this, but it was ‘Physical Graffiti’ which would spawn a song the singer himself would“perfect”.
The song, of course, is ‘Kashmir’. With its pummelling drums, crushing guitars, and swirling arrangement, the track is a pristine Led Zeppelin moment, topped off by a towering Robert Plant vocal.
“I wish we were remembered more for ‘Kashmir’ than ‘Stairway to Heaven’. It’s so right,” he once toldQ Magazine.The singer continued: “There’s nothing overblown, no vocal hysterics. Perfect Zeppelin.”
’Kashmir’ is a perennial favourite of the singer, who name-checked it in a 2018 discussion with Dan Rather. “It was a great achievement to take such a monstrously dramatic musical piece and find a lyric that was ambiguous enough and a delivery that was not over-pumped,” he said.
The song remains an incredible achievement, something all four band members treasured. Indeed, Robert Plant was particularly taken by the unusually delicate drumming from John Bonham.
“It was what he didn’t do that made it work,” Plant explained. “It was almost the antithesis of the music, this lyric and this vocal delivery that was just about enough to get in there.”
Indeed, when Led Zeppelin reformed for a one off set at London’s O2 Arena ‘Kashmir’ was part of the set list.
Related: Classic Albums – ‘Led Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti’