Jimmy Page has unexpectedly released a home demo of an instrumental track that eventually became an elegiac highlight of Led Zeppelin's 1975 album Physical Graffiti. Page uploaded the recording to his YouTube channel.
"As a footnote to Physical Graffiti, I thought you might like to hear the original home demo, recorded in my studio at Plumpton Place of a piece of music that was going to surface as Ten Years Gone," says Page. "I presented this rough mix to the band at Headley Grange in order to do this for real. Robert Plant came up with some lyrics for my music that were extraordinary and then we arrive at the song Ten Years Gone."
"Let me tell you a little story about the song Ten Years Gone," Plant told Rolling Stone in 1975, referring to those lyrics. "I was working my ass off before joining Zeppelin. A lady I really dearly loved said, ‘It's me or your fans.’ Not that | had any fans, but I said, ‘I can’t stop, I’ve got to keep going.’
"She's quite content these days, I imagine. She's got a washing machine that works by itself and a little sports car. We wouldn’t have anything to say anymore. I could probably relate to her, but she couldn't relate to me. I’d be smiling too much. Ten years gone, I'm afraid."
This isn't the first time Page has shared one of his demos. In 2023, to mark the 50th anniversary of Led Zeppelin's fifth album Houses Of The Holy, he uploaded The Seasons, a previously unheard demo version of The Rain Song.
