Credit: Far Out / Atlantic Records / Original Posters

“All these years later”: the 1975 anthem that remains Led Zeppelin’s proudest achievement

Mon 8 June 2026 19:30, UK

There comes a point in everybody’s life when they discover Led Zeppelin.

It’s an unforgettable moment, the musical equivalent of learning how to walk. Where you were once crawling with limited sight and access, is now the place you are striding through, experiencing the breadth and possibilities of music and its endless possibilities.

Naturally, that exploration is soundtracked by ‘Stairway To Heaven’. Largely regarded as their definitive tune, it’s the launch point for any burgeoning Zeppelin fan, the song that will most likely be recommended to them with the cursory advice of ‘wait until you get to the solo’.

It’s a fair recommendation as well, for it does reflect the very best parts of the band. John Bonham’s rolling drums, John Paul Jones’ anchoring bass lines, Robert Plant’s soaring vocals and of course, Jimmy Page’s ambitious guitar playing. But while it represents the glossy veneer of the band, it doesn’t quite strike their heart in the same way Kashmir does. The song that truly stands as their direct representation.

‘Stairway To Heaven’ might be about the solo, but ‘Kashmir’ is about the riff, one that blends with intricate polyrhythms and grand string arrangements to make a sweeping thunderstorm of full-blooded rock and roll, yet more than that, it achieves something very rare in the rock and roll industry, particularly within a four-piece band who were as successful as Led Zeppelin: unity.

The band unanimously agree that this is their finest achievement, for it simply conveys the powerful message they spent years trying to perfect… “It is what it is,” Robert Plant explained when asked about the quality that made it so iconic.

He continued, “It’s just such an achievement – and it is an achievement even now, all these years later. I think it was the personalities of us that made us say, ‘This is it,’ because it’s just enough, and for people, maybe later, it was too much.”

But it wasn’t an achievement for its ambitious approach to writing something elaborate and convoluted, but for its ability to distil rock and roll into a distinct sound. It was powerful and concise, largely because of the relationship Page and Bonham struck up through the music.

“We locked in, with a fusion between the guitars and the drums. There was a great understanding between us,” Page explained, adding that the moment they forged that union was the moment everything changed, and the pair engaged in a repetitive performance, transfixed by the magnitude of what they had just created. “

We played ‘Kashmir’ over and over, just the two of us, because it was just this great hypnotic beast, with him appearing to reverse the beat.”

The gushing praise every member of this band showers on ‘Kashmir’ is a far cry from ‘Stairway To Heaven’, a song Robert Plant once paid a radio station to actually stop playing. In that light, it is undoubtedly the coup de grace of a band that redefined rock and roll in the 1970s, but not always doing so with elaborate ambition, but with a simple and powerful intent, to leave everything on a record.