Driving through Kashmir

This morning on the way to campus I listened to one of the songs I use to motivate myself, Led Zeppelin's Kashmir. It's good for that purpose because it reminds me of the days when I was younger, and was just getting interested in the things that would lead to an academic career. I discovered Led Zeppelin for myself when I was about 14 or 15, when my brother-in-law introduced me to their music. This was just after the first boxed set was released. Until then my favourite bands were Guns N' Roses and Metallica. I had heard Led Zeppelin songs on the radio before then, like Black Dog and Immigrant Song and Stairway to Heaven, but never sat down and listened to their albums. Once I did, they instantly became my favourite rock & roll band and have been ever since.

Their music captured so many of my interests like no other band has. At that age I was just beginning to explore the mythology and folk tales of Europe, from the classical myths of Greece to the Norse myths, Arthurian legends and the folk tales of Britain. I was reading Tolkien, Geoffrey Ashe, and Kevin Crossley-Holland.[1] Led Zeppelin seemed to be interested in the same things. Their songs are mythic, epic, blues, rock, heavy metal and folk. Their lyrics reference Tolkien, the Icelandic sagas, British prehistory and barbarian migrations. When I look back at the books I was reading at that time, I can see that it was the beginning of a quest that I can trace directly through my academic career to my current research. And listening to Led Zeppelin always reminds me of the excitement and enthusiasm I had (and still have) for the pursuit of knowledge and joy of intellectual discovery.

One song in particular inspires such nostalgia more than any other, the one mentioned in the title of this blog post, Kashmir. It has always been my favourite Led Zeppelin song. It is their most mythic, most epic tune. And the opening lines sum up for me everything I aspire to:

Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dreams.
I am the traveler of all time and space, to be where I have been.
Sit with elders of a gentler race, this world has seldom seen.
Talk of days for which they sit and wait, when all will be revealed.

The line "I am the traveler of all time and space, to be where I have been", resonates with me especially. I see it as a metaphor for the path of an historian/archaeologist, which is reinforced two lines later, "when all will be revealed." Of course, it is impossible to know everything, but it is something to strive for. Or maybe the path to that place consists of contemplating dust.

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[1] Geoffrey Ashe, The Quest for Arthur's Britain (New York: Praeger, 1968), Kevin Crossley-Holland, British Folk Tales (New York: Orchard Books, 1987), Kevin Crossley-Holland, Folk-tales of the British Isles, Pantheon fairy tale & folklore library (New York: Pantheon Books, 1988).