All band members agreed this was one of their best musical achievements. Robert Plant said it was "One of my favorites... it was so positive, lyrically." Page has answered the question "What is the greatest Zeppelin riff of all" by citing this song.

Plant wrote the lyrics in 1973 while driving through the Sahara Desert on the way to the National Festival of folklore in Morocco. Kashmir is in Southern Asia; he was nowhere near it. In Mojo magazine, September 2010, Plant explained: "'Kashmir' came from a trip Jimmy and me made down the Moroccan Atlantic coast, from Agadir down to Sidi Ifni. We were just the same as the other hippies really." The original title was "Driving To Kashmir."

Speaking with Dan Rather in 2018, Robert Plant said: "It was a great achievement to take such a monstrously dramatic musical piece and find a lyric that was ambiguous enough, and a delivery that was not over-pumped. It was almost the antithesis of the music, this lyric and this vocal delivery that was just about enough to get in there."

Led Zeppelin played this in every live show from it's debut in 1975 to their last concert in 1980.

Lyrics

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

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

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

Oh, oh.

Oh, I been flying... mama, there aint no denyin

Ive been flying, aint 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

Trying to find, trying to find where Ive been.

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

Ohh.

When Im on, when Im on my way, yeah

When I see, when I see the way, you stay-yeah

Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah, when Im down...

Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah, well Im down, so down

Ooh, my baby, ooooh, my baby, let me take you there

Let me take you there. let me take you there

Songwriters: John Bonham / Robert Anthony Plant / James Patrick (Jimmy) Page

Kashmir lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc