Ten Years Gone

Physical Graffiti, 1975

In the spring of 1974, Zeppelin returned for their third visit to Headley Grange, taking Ronnie Lane’s mobile studio (cheaper than the Stones’) and engineer Ron Nevison. Only Page still slept there though. The rest of the band preferred the more plush nearby Frensham Pond Hotel.

Eight lengthy new compositions rapidly emerged, four of which would not only form the basis of arguably their greatest album, Physical Graffiti, but which would send Zeppelin’s music into another realm: In My Time Of Dying, Kashmir, In The Light, and this track, Ten Years Gone.

All were deeply mystical musical moments, and aside from the strident Kashmir, all began at a glacial pace, with the sublime Ten Years Gone – its woozy moonlit mood light years ahead of something as prosaic by comparison as Since I’ve Been Loving You

– beginning as an instrumental piece which Page used 14 guitar tracks to over the hypnotic harmony section. Plant’s lyrics, some of his best, ostensibly concern a former girlfriend he left when she demanded he choose between her and his fans.

But that’s not what this hauntingly swampy, euphoric, cathedral-like invocation is really about, of course. For its true meaning, one would have to look long into one’s own wounded past. MW

“I wish we were remembered for Kashmir more than Stairway To Heaven. Perfect Zeppelin.”

Robert Plant