Led Zeppelin performed 'Kashmir' live at the Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert at London's O2 Arena from the concert film 'Celebration Day'
"Kashmir" was played live at almost every Led Zeppelin concert since its debut in 1975. A version from Knebworth in 1979 appears on the Led Zeppelin DVD(2003). The surviving members performed the song at the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary concert in 1988.
Page and Plant recorded a longer, live version, with an Egyptian/Moroccan orchestra for No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded (1994) and performed the song with an orchestra on their 1995 tour.
It was performed at Led Zeppelin's reunion show at The O2, London on 10 December 2007. That rendition – released on Celebration Day in 2012 – was nominated in 2014 for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance at the 56th Grammys. "'Kashmir' actually isn't that difficult", Page remarked during rehearsals for the show. "But it helps to have a drummer [Bonham] who understands the part and a bass player who can play bass with his feet. Sometimes it sounds like John's [Jones] got three feet. It's intense."
Lyrics
Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face
Stars fill my dream
I'm a traveler of both time and space
To be where I have been
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 in tongues of lilting grace
Sounds caress my ear
There are not a word I heard could I relate
Story was quite clear
Oh
Oh
Oh yeah I been flyin'
Love oh ain't no denyin', no
Oh, ooh yea, I been flyin'
Mama, mama, ain't no denyin', 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
Try to find, try to find what I feel
Oh, pilot of the storm who leaves no trace
Like thoughts inside a dream
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 in June, when movin' 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
Oh
When I'm on, when I'm on my way, yeah
When I see, when I see the way, you stay-yeah
Tryin' to find, tryin' to find where I been yeah, yeah
Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah, when I'm down
Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah, well I'm down
Ooh, let me take you there
Songwriters: John Bonham / Robert Anthony Plant / James Patrick (Jimmy) Page
Kashmir lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc