haha i put sum b-cuz its shorter than some. i dunno i gess i just a little lazy

another tolkien inspired Zeppelin song

This song is neither tolkein nor Led Zep's journey through NE Africa. This is Jimmy Page thinking about what it would be like to walk through space and finding heaven. He also: talks to God, sees signs of the apocolypse, and WATCHING the Israelites roam the desert.

Oh jesus fucking christ big basser. None of Led Zeppelin's songs pertain to religion.

Not sure what it's about but I frickin love it! This is their second best right behind Stairway.

this is the best song bu zep, period.

by**

i like the person who thought that puff daddys version came out before this. also i like how people think that kashmir is in northern africa. its on the border of india. last i checked india is miles from africa. maybe my map is horribly wrong

well me and my friend had to do a project at skool about a song and we picked kashmir. heres the thing.


Message in the Music
Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir

In 1969, a new music group put out their first CD, not knowing that they would still be releasing merchandise in 2003. A common household name, this group offers an alternative to today’s common pop and rap music. In 1969, the Hindenburg had come to the world of music. Led Zeppelin was born. The song we are about to play is called Kashmir, which was originally released in the album Physical Graffiti in 1975, after six long years of fame and popularity. With such fame comes tour after tour, travelling around the globe performing for millions of fans worldwide. One has to wonder what kind of toll it takes, playing music without rest, not having time to settle down in a place we would call home. We can even imagine that it might creep into a song’s lyrics, venting the desire for rest from the stage of the world. We believe that the lyrics of Kashmir portray that very desire of the group Led Zeppelin, sharing with us their experience of travelling and the need to rest.
The first stanza of lyrics starts to tell us about Zeppelin’s past. “Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream, I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been”. The group tries to compare the distances they’ve travelled across the globe to the vast, infinity of space. They also reinforce that with their reference about stars. Dreams are also vast, and have no limits, the limits of their travels can only be measured by our imagination. “To sit with elders of the gentle race, this world has seldom seen, They talk of days for which they sit and wait and all will be revealed” we think refers to the people Zeppelin met on their tours. Not the big shot celebrities, but the little people who offer them tidbits of wisdom and information. The word elders referring to the wisdom they have, and the phrase “this world has seldom seen”, refers to the fact that your everyday person isn’t well known compared to the stardom of the group.
The next stanza starts to tell us how monotonous Zeppelin begins to find their career. “Talk and song from tongues of lilting grace, whose sounds caress my ear, but not a word I heard could I relate, the story was quite clear”. We think that the song Zeppelin sings about is their own music. They’ve preformed so many concerts, sung the songs so many times that their own lyrics have begun to lose meaning to themselves. It’s like when you repeat a word so many times that you forget what it actually means. They view themselves as simple robots, singing to their fans, but not knowing what they’re singing any more.
The third stanza, while short, also refers to the traveling the group has done. “Oh, I been flying... mama, there ain’t no denyin’, I’ve been flying, ain’t do denyin’, no denyin’”. These two sentences have a basic meaning of traveling, but also can be taken on a literal level. By “Flying”, Zeppelin is telling us about all the plane rides they’ve taken to travel to concert locations.
“All I see turns brown, as the sun burns the ground, and my eyes fill with sand, as I scan this wasted land, trying to find, trying to find where I’ve been”. We think that these phrases describe how Zeppelin felt on tour. Around them, they had no idea where they were, only that they were on tour and had to sing. They couldn’t recognize anything around them, a vast wasteland of no meaning to Zeppelin; they look and try to find their home, where they’ve been before the touring.
“Oh, pilot of the storm who leaves no trace, like thoughts inside a dream.” We think that this signifies how elusive that their home had become for Zeppelin, and how no matter how hard they tried to grasp a chance to go back to a restful lifestyle, it would simply slip through their hand like sand. “Heed the path that led me to that place, yellow desert stream, my Shangri-la beneath the summer moon, I will return again, sure as the dust that floats high and true, when movin’ through Kashmir.” We think that these lines express Zeppelin’s desire for others to not lose grasp of their homes and families. “I will return again”, refers to the fact that after all is said and done, Zeppelin will finally be able to settle down again. The sentence about the dust and Kashmir once again refers to the fact that all the foreign places they had went to were deserts of no meaning to them. Each place they went was just another gig, no longer an interesting place to visit.

“Oh, father of the four winds, fill my sails, across the sea of years, With no provision but an open face, along the straits of fear” This is technically the end of the song, for the next few lines are just “oo’s and ah’s” and things like that. These lines are almost a prayer, asking to be guided through the tough times so that easy times can be found ahead.

In conclusion, our beliefs are that Led Zeppelin wrote this song to symbolize their journey all over the world, rarely seeing home and their families.

I agree with ledskynyrd, this is the BEST Led Zeppelin song EVER!!! I love the part where it goes "Oh, I been flying... mama, there ain't no denyin', I've been flying, ain't no denyin', no denyin'" The glisses are AWESOME!!!!!

this song is awesome, but it doesnt beat stairway...it lacks the wide variation from stairway...as to the question of travel, at their 2-12-75 concert in Madison Square Garden, Robert Plant says it "takes the vibe of travel and experience and flashes on environment"
to people wondering about the title and lack of use of it in lyrics, i say there's nothing wrong with that. not uncommon. just look at Over the Hills and Far Away, Black Dog, Four Sticks, The Crunge, and D'Yer Mak'er to name a few....they don't even have it once.

this is my favorite song by led zepplin, err after wonton song actually, i like that some one wrote about kashmir. the holy land that was fought over so long and i can see it relating to lotr somehow hehe

anyone who doesn't like led zeppelin is retarded.seriously.i don't think there is one song by them i don't like.

Good one brembo13 :) . Best one so far compared to these other guys here, who mostly discuss only how it sounds(though yes, it does sound awesome).

i love the world @ true, man. I haven't heard anything i don't like from them either. I like either this or Gallows Pole the most. Can't decide...

Ramblin'

this song seems to be to me exactly what brembo13 described it as and they explain it very. I hope brembo13 will continue to put their thoughts and comments on these boards more often because they are using them for the purpose they were made for.

okay Im done. bye.

Great song!!

I think brembo has done a great job trying to determine what each part of the song means. However, i think it is supposed to be more of a story.

The first few lines talk about how they would travel alot and talk with people, "elders", about life. They would talk about the day when " all would be revealed". Maybe meaning what happens when you die.

I think the next part about "lilting grace" and "not a word i heard could i relate, the story was quite clear". I think this is about how they would listen to music of other cultures and though they couldnt understand it, (perhaps the lyrics) it still was "clear" that it didnt matter cause it was still music.

Then i think it just goes into how they have traveled so much and they give a little prayer to get back home. Pretty much what brembo said at this point.

I think most Zeppelin songs are just supposed to be written so that each person can take what they want to out of each song. With mesages about love, life, etc. I think i have listened to every song about 1000 times. Everything you go through in life can be depicted in at least one of the songs.

"The lyrics to kashmir were inspired by the long drive from Goulimine to Tantan in Southern Morocco, the area once called Spanish Shara."-from a book included in the complete studio recordings.

(for those of you who don't know, Morocco is a country in Northwest Africa)

"The whole inspiration came from the fact that the road went on and on and on," Plant explains. "It was a single track road which cut neatly through the desert. Two miles to the East and West were ridges of sandrock. It basically looked like you were driving down a channel, this dilapidated road, and there was seemingly no end to it."-
STRAIGHT FROM ROBERT PLANT.

mucho gusto.

i dont know why so little people know this. i'm not sure how they came up with the song, but kashmir is a state in NW india. there has been a war going on there for a long time. apparantly, the muslims populate kashmir, which borders india. the hindus want them to leave as its part of inda, and pakistan is mostly muslim. but kashmir is home to the muslims, so they wont leave. it is in no means part of africa.

Ok I think we shoud sort some things out here.

1 Kashmir was inspired by Plant & Pages travels in Morocco.

2 Morocco is in Northwest Africa on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.

3 The lyrics talk about a lost Shangrala, which is in Kashmir.

4 I think that the lyrics might also have something to do with enlightenment which no one else has seemed to think about.

I can't believe how many ignorant ass-holes there are here pretending to be Led Zeppelin fans. For a start the meaning of this song has been asked and answered numerous times - I can't believe how many people keep asking the same thing or stating the same thing over and over again. Learn to fucking read, morons! And as far as the Puff Daddy/ P Diddy/whatever version of Kashmir - as a *true* Led Zeppelin fan and muso through and through, I say what's wrong with it? It's not the original and the original rocks, but so what - it's just another version of it, and it's great to put LZ in front of kids of the next generation. Learn to appreciate more forms of music, please. I really bloody wonder about people sometimes.

Writing is very hard work, especially song writing. It is not something that is done successfully while "on drugs" yet certain pinheads want to constantly attribute rock tunes to drugs and sex. While certain songs certainly are "about" drugs, I seriously doubt that successful songs were written while "on" drugs, especially hard drugs.

Anyone who thinks this song is inspired by Tolkien is an idiot. The Silmarillion was not ublished until 1978, so how could a story from that inspire a song released in 1975?

I love the remake by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. A violin does the lead vocals.

JPJ said himself it's about morroco.