With a discography as looming as Led Zeppelin’s, it’s tough to pick a favourite track.
Now, imagine actually being one of the musicians in the band, with all those songs being the beloved and nurtured brainchildren of your creative mind, and imagine how tough it would be to pick.
That’s typically the answer journalists get. How could a musician ever possibly dare to pick a favourite song? Each track is like an artist’s child; how could they ever choose between their offspring?
However, with enough time and enough pushing, they tend to cave. Especially for the artists of the 1960s and ‘70s, they’ve had decades now to reconsider their output from a slight distance, viewing it all with less attachment and more objectivity than their prior closeness to their old work allows them.
Led Zeppelin have always been big on protecting that. The purest example of that is the band’s split, as after the sudden death of their drummer, John Bonham, they refused to change or sully their sound with a replacement. Most acts with the level of status and power they had would simply find a replacement. They refused, instead announcing their split with a statement that read, “We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend, and the deep sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were.”
They signed it off simply, ‘Led Zeppelin’, and that was that. The band have never reunited as the remaining members are dedicated to never bringing the group back when one vital corner of it can never return.
That’s a strong example of the level of care and tenderness the group have toward the art they made, so when they have caved and discussed a favourite track, it clearly means something. And it means something even more, given that Robert Plant and Jimmy Page agree on what their best work is.
“I wish we were remembered for ‘Kashmir’ more than ‘Stairway to Heaven’”, Robert Plant told Louder Sound. To him, there is no better epitomising track of the band than that one, as he added of his favourite tune, “It’s so right; there’s nothing overblown, no vocal hysterics. Perfect Zeppelin.”
Page agrees with that as the power of the 1975 track is unanimous amongst the members. Despite the effort and the experimentation Page poured into other songs like ‘Whole Lotta Love’, this one wins out as he stated, ”I suppose ‘Kashmir’ has to be the one.” The band knew that from the beginning, though, as he even once described the making of the track as “frightening”.
He explained, “The intensity of ‘Kashmir’ was such that when we had it completed, we knew there was something really hypnotic to it, we couldn’t even describe such a quality.”
That only came true once it was released into the world, gripped listeners and has not let them go yet as the power seems to never fade.
