“No one had ever heard anything like it”: Is this Led Zeppelin’s most original moment?
Originality is sought by many and achieved by very few – much like a Blue Peter badge or the ability to pull off a mullet. Particularly within the music world, what is often viewed as originality is actually just a repackaged version of an age-old sound. The pioneering hard rock tones of Led Zeppelin, for instance, were hailed as a new age for rock and roll, but if you dig a little deeper, many of Jimmy Page’s legendary riffs are rooted in the sounds of old-school blues artists.
That is not to say, of course, that Led Zeppelin were without a shred of originality. After all, the groundbreaking outfit completely transformed the rock landscape upon their initial formation in 1968. Jimmy Page boasted an unparalleled level of musical knowledge, thanks largely to his years spent as a session musician, performing on everything from the youthful rebellion of The Who to the pop mastery of Petula Clark. When he came to form Led Zeppelin after the dissolution of The Yardbirds, he managed to incorporate this vastly diverse repertoire into an abrasive hard rock style.
As such, the expansive sound of Led Zeppelin instantly found an audience; music experts might have recognised their parallels to the blues artists of times gone by, but regular listeners had never heard anything similar to the otherworldly guitar tones of Jimmy Page. It was this original sound which saw the group rise to the top of the rock and roll pyramid, thus inspiring a greater degree of experimentation within their discography.
With every subsequent album release, Led Zeppelin seemed to become more daring and inventive. 1975’s Physical Graffiti, in particular, saw the band at their most productive and prolific. Although the album contains a multitude of now-iconic anthems, it was the song ‘Kashmir’ that went on to define the album release.
Reportedly, the song had been in the works for three years prior to appearing on the 1975 album and was built largely around a jam session between Page and drummer John Bonham. Arguably, the finished track captures the originality and defiance at the heart of Led Zeppelin better than any other song. Seemingly, the band were aware of that fact while working on ‘Kashmir’ in the studio.
Page, during a recent interview with Uncut, fondly remembered the recording of ‘Kashmir’, sharing, “On the second day [at Headley Grange], I went through some things with John Bonham. But when we came back the following week, I put more of my own stuff, this adrenaline music I’d worked on at home, to John Bonham, to see what he likes and hope he likes it all.” He added, “I had this other riff, but I didn’t want to lay it on him straight away.” That riff became the basis of ‘Kashmir’.
“Once we started playing ‘Kashmir’, I don’t know how long we played it for but he didn’t want to stop and I didn’t want to stop,” the guitarist continued. “There’s a bootleg where we’re just playing the riff repeatedly, it just locks in.”
Explaining the inherent appeal of the song, Page said, “With ‘Kashmir’, I wanted to record it so that I could try out these other ideas. I had a fanfare that I wanted to lay on top of it. So we start putting the arrangement together. We know that we’re on something, nobody’s ever gone anywhere near this. It was new music; no one had ever heard anything like it.”
Despite its otherworldly quality, or perhaps because of it, ‘Kashmir’ quickly became one of Led Zeppelin’s defining tracks. Even today, decades later, it still stands in a league of its own when it comes to the inventive world of rock and roll, unmatched for many years.
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