Jimmy Page posing next to the Sundragon Nymph (Facebook/Jimmy Page)
Jimmy Page said he played “Kashmir” “over and over” with John Bonham while writing the song for the album Physical Graffiti because the song was a “great hypnotic beast”.
Page spoke to author Dylan Jones about the making of Physical Graffiti for his book “1975: The Year the World Forgot” which was published in June.
“It was always important for me to sketch things out with John Bonham, as there was always so much improvisation,” Page says in the book. “We locked in, with a fusion between the guitars and the drums. There was a great understanding between us.”
“We played ‘Kashmir’ over and over, just the two of us, because it was just this great hypnotic beast, with him appearing to reverse the beat,” Page continued. “I knew it was going to be like a round, with all these wonderful cascades on top. I couldn’t wait to play him the material as I knew he would really enjoy it.”
Elsewhere in the book, which devotes an entire chapter to the making of Physical Graffiti, Page said: “Quite early on I got nervous about listening to other things, because I didn’t want to appear to be influenced by anyone else. Of course, I heard what other people were up to, but I never let it influence me.”
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