Led Zeppelin 2007

So here's something different. I'm back to music from my earlier years, but this time it's not exactly Simon and Garfunkel - it's Led Zeppelin instead.  Guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones, singer Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham got together in 1968, when I was 15 and getting into pop music big time. There followed ten years of fabulous sound that remains influential today. All four members were stars of their field. Page's guitar sound and Bonham's drums are distinctive, Plants vocal aerobatics were unique and Jones' bass and keyboards, sometimes underestimated, helped create the Zeppelin sound. Sadly Bonham died in 1979 and they disbanded, feeling they would no longer be Zeppelin without him.

They have rarely reunited since, but one very notable occasion was 2007 when they did a charity concert at the O2 in London (left). The performance I have chosen is from that night, when Plant was 63, Plant 58 etc. Drums were played by John Bonham's son, Jason Bonham. They have already been playing or about 90 minutes, hence Page's slightly dishevelled look! The song is "Kashmir" written in 1975, and often claimed to be their finest achievement. Even the band themselves claim this, it is said. The strange thing is that I remember listening to it once or twice at the time, and then leaving it aside for years as being  bit odd or complicated. Until recently. 

I realise now it is the very qualities of the song that put me off when I was younger (like whiskey or Stilton, some might say!)  For instance, it is written largely chromatically, ie not only using the normal notes of a tonic scale.  Secondly it is in (new word for me) polymeter, that is to say it has two diffferent rhythms going on at the same time. In the opening section the guitar is in 3 rhythm while the drums are in 4. At other points the musical subtelty get too technical for me, with changes of major and minor, of mode etc. As for the words, which varied sometimes according to performance, especially towards the end of the song, there is no direct meaning to the reference to the place Kashmir. In fact it was written after a drive in the desert of Morocco. It's sort of about searching, the unattainable, and companionship on the journey....  possibly!

It is a wonderfully constructed piece, slowly gathering layers and energy. At the end Jones, adding tones of organ and orchestra, underlies a climax of rising sections with Page, while Bonham goes absolutely crazy on the drums, and Plant wants to take us there... where? I'm not sure  - but I love the journey, especially as played by a band with the three survivors averaging 60!.   If you want to read some analysis of the song  look here.

 

Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face  And stars fill my dreams
I am a traveller of both time and space  To be where I have been

To sit with elders of the gentle race  This world has seldom seen
They talk of days for which they sit and wait  All will be revealed

Talk in song from tongues of lilting grace Whose sounds caress my ear
Though not a word I heard could I relate The story was quite clear

Oh, baby, I been blind  Oh, yeah, mama, there ain't no denyin'
Oh, yes, I been blind  Mama, mama, ain't no denyin',

All I see turns to 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 the way I feel

Oh, pilot of the storm who leaves no trace  Like thoughts inside a dream
Here is 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 in June  When moving through Kashmir

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

Oh, when I’m on my way,  And when I see, I see the way to stay

Ooh, yeah yeah, oh, yeah yeah,  But I'm down oh, yeah yeah, oh, yeah
Yeah, but I'm down, so down  Ooh, my baby, oh, my baby
Let me take you there
Come on, oh let me take you there    I can take you there