Topic: Kashmir...6/4?

[Jon E]

OK, like many of us before I was dragged into a conversation about Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" and what time signature it was in, etc.

Am I the only one who thinks/feels the easiest way to represent the "main" part of Kashmir is to chart in 6/4?  When I said this, I was looked at as if I was crazy for not going along with the idea that it was a drums in 4, guitars in 3, polyrhythmic, psychedelic, mind-blowing masterpiece.  I've always been a "keep it simple" kind of guy so 6/4 fits the bill for me.  In googling around, I have found virtually no other references to it being in 6/4 vs. 4:3 poly.

Am I dead wrong?  Has my old-age affected my acute time sensing mastery?  Or am I simply having too many conversations with guitar players??

[Bart Elliott]

Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" is in 4/4 Common Time. What may be confusing is that the phrases are six measures long. There is one 9/8 measure in the instrumental section following the first vocal  section.

Try listening to the recording, thinking in 4/4, but with six measure phrases. You are probably thinking 6/4 because you are thinking of four measure phrases.

The drums play the same groove practically all the way through the tune, so it doesn't really matter what meter you are thinking in! LOL

[Bill Bachman]

There's no "right" answer unless the guys in Zep say so, but I feel it in 3/4. I'd go with 6/4, but the chord changes and melodic rhythm happen/repeat every 3 beats. The rhythm guitar plays, "1e+, +a3" over and over while the drums play straight over it. (The first bar has the bass one 1 & 3 with the snare on 2, the second bar has snare on 1 & 3 with the bass on 2.)

But yes, I'm with Bart in basically going, "boom, bap, boom, bap" with as much grease as possible until the song ends. That's great stuff!