Led Zeppelin’s ‘Physical Graffiti’ at 40: Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil Looks Back

Now the Soundgarden story gets strange. When we first got together, we were listening to a lot of post-punk and progressive hardcore, stuff like Bauhaus and Black Flag, after practice. Yet our friends are pointing out how our music has elements that remind them of Sabbath, Zeppelin and the Doors, and we started getting that a lot: “Zeppelin, Zeppelin, Zeppelin,” and we were like, OK, let’s check some of this out. We were all very acquainted with it individually, but collectively we weren’t sitting around the table listening them. So initially we would deny that influence.

Eventually, after practice we’d be like, “Let’s check out Led Zeppelin IV. Let’s listen to Houses of the Holy.” Like, “Yeah, I guess I can kind of see that a little bit.” It became very important to us, because of the comparison, so we would listen to it and start referencing it. Ultimately, we started to re-embrace the Zeppelin, Beatles, Sabbath and Pink Floyd. I think they were always there. At some point, we had to look back and say, “This has a lot to do with our upbringing.” It’s a weird story, but it may explain why, for a few years, we denied the Zeppelin-Sabbath influence.

One of my favorite Zeppelin songs that took years to grow on me was Physical Graffiti’s “Kashmir.” I think the reason why it took so long was there’s this amazing heaviness about it and this cool guitar riff, but then there’s these other elements that, when I was a young punk-rock guy, I saw as superfluous or unnecessary ornateness, sort of an art-nouveau thrills-and-stuff that perhaps I didn’t understand because I just wanted to get down to the power chords and play it really fast. “Kashmir” is an amazing song but I didn’t have the patience to listen to the orchestrations. My love for Zeppelin changed and grew over time.

“When the riff kicks in, it’s like, ‘Oh, my God!'”

Similarly, I remember when my friends would play “In the Light,” John Paul Jones’ synthesizer didn’t grab me as a kid. This is a band that has one of the greatest guitarists ever, and this part is going on for a bit. I was like, “This is Zeppelin?” “Yeah, this is Zeppelin.” And when the riff kicks in, it’s like, “Oh, my God.” Then it was obvious: Here’s this great guitar riff, and it’s heavy, and it’s Jimmy Page. Now if you were to put on “In the Light” and skip to the riff, I would say, “Whoa, wait, wait, wait, rewind, you have to hear the whole thing.” I have that understanding and love and appreciation now.

I’ve met Jimmy Page a few times. He came to our show when the Stooges were opening up for us in Hyde Park in London. We were talking about how great Iggy Pop was, and he said he had never seen them before, and I thought, “Wow, that’s strange because I’ve seen them twice and you’re older than me, and the Stooges were the late Sixties.” I figured they would’ve crossed paths, but he said he hadn’t seen them before, and he was really into them. Then he stayed to see us and watch our set. He also said hello to us when we opened for Black Sabbath last year. He was very friendly and was supportive and flattering to the band and our playing as, of course, I was to him. I know that I was being sincere and I assumed he was, too.