Fat Mattress - I Don't Mind (1969)

In The Jimi Hendrix Experience, there was no question that Jimi Hendrix was the leader. He wrote most of the songs, sang lead, and led the direction of the group. This made the group’s bassist, Noel Redding, feel creatively strangled. Redding, who preferred the guitar over the bass, began to dabble with the idea of starting his own band so he could work outside of Hendrix’s giant shadow and create songs he had written himself. In 1968, while still in the Experience, he got together with Neil Landon, Jim Leverton, and Eric Dillon to form this band. Leverton and Dillon had met while both performing in the backing band for Engelbert Humperdinck. Focusing their output on a lighter, folkier sound than the Experience, the band was given a leg up in exposure by opening for The Jimi Hendrix Experience on tour, where Redding, still being a member of both bands, would play both sets. Their most successful song was “Magic Forest,” which was popular in the Netherlands. In August 1969, they played at the Isle of Wight Festival alongside Bob Dylan, The Who, and others in front of a crowd of 300,000 people. During the recording of their second album, Fat Mattress II, Redding and Leverton couldn’t take one another any longer. Redding quit the band and Steve Hammond was called to fill in. During the recording of what would have been their third album, the band called it quits and split up.

This song was written by Neil Landon and Noel Redding in late 1968 before the creation of this band. The duo had written the song, as well as many others, with the intention of releasing it on Landon’s planned solo album. Unfortunately, his solo album was canceled and the duo had a heap of songs that they still wanted to record. Redding, knowing that he’d never have the songs chosen over Hendrix’s for release by the Experience, set out to create this band and have the tracks recorded. This song in particular was the second track to the group’s first album, Fat Mattress, released in 1969. The album itself went to number 134 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart and even featured Jimi Hendrix and Mitch Mitchell on the track “How Can I Live.” I recommend purchasing the album, as all of its songs are as great at this one.



Fat Mattress - I Don't Mind (1969)

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Lyrics:

Looking from my pillow
I see ivy stains and people
Living grass
Looking in my mirror
I see clear blue strings
Of solid looking glass
Another nightly day is here
Illuminated by the powered fuzz

Life is slipping through my mind
I know, I see, I feel
But I don’t mind
I don’t mind
I don’t mind
I don’t mind

Staring holes in secrecy
Invade my mind and detonate my soul
My mind is running incompletely
I don’t think that I will reach my goal
‘til the day I find tomorrow
I will act and smile, not worry much

Time is slipping through my mind
I look, I feel, I heard
That I don’t find
I don’t mind
I don’t mind
I don’t mind

Clouds of happy laughing people
I hear them but they don’t seem to be
I guess I’ll just sit here thinking
Maybe find what I’m supposed to be

Life is slipping through my mind
I know, I see, I feel
But I don’t mind
I don’t mind
I don’t mind
I don’t mind