Kashmir

Page used DADGAD tuning and made a demo with Bonham in late 1973. Jones added orchestration in early 1974, and session strings and brass were recorded at Ronnie Lane's Mobile at Headley Grange and at Olympic. Plant wrote the lyrics in 1973 after a US tour, inspired by a desert drive in southern Morocco. None of the band had visited Kashmir.

In 1988 Schoolly D sampled the song on Signifying Rapper, which was then used in the 1992 film Bad Lieutenant. In 1994 Page and Plant sued HBO and had it removed from the film's broadcasts, and unsold copies were ordered destroyed. In 1998 Sean Combs reworked it for his single Come With Me, with Page on guitar.

In 1988 Schoolly D sampled the song on Signifying Rapper. In 1994 Page and Plant had it pulled from HBO's broadcasts of the film Bad Lieutenant.

Live

After its 1975 debut it was played at nearly every concert, around a hundred times according to setlist.fm data. A version from Knebworth in 1979 is on the Led Zeppelin DVD of 2003. The surviving members played it at the Atlantic anniversary concert in 1988, and Page and Plant took it on their 1995 tour with an orchestra. The 2007 O2 performance was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Performance in 2014. Page and Plant recorded a version with an Egyptian and Moroccan orchestra for their 1994 album No Quarter. Page remarked in rehearsals for the O2 show that it helps to have a drummer who understands the part.