Road - I'm Trying (1972)

Noel Redding started the band Fat Mattress while still enrolled as the bassist of The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Although he would often play in both bands in the same night, he played his last concert with the Experience in June 1969. He quit Fat Mattress later that same year. Living in Los Angeles and deciding what to do next, he was contacted by Hendrix’s manager, Michael Jeffery, a few months after Woodstock (August 1969) about getting back together with Jimi Hendrix and Mitch Mitchell to reform the Experience. All three members got together for an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, but no concerts or recordings ever came about. Instead, Redding got together with ex-Rare Earth member Rod Richards and drummer Les Sampson to form this semi-supergroup in the beginning of 1970. Together, the new band only recorded one album, self-titled Road and released in 1972, sharing lead vocals throughout the album. The LP was criticized as being a “watered-down, post-Experience” attempt at hard rock and was quickly forgotten. A short time after the release of the album, the band called it quits and Redding and Sampson went on together forming The Noel Redding Band, while Richards attempted a solo career and had stints with various bands in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

The opening track on their only album, this song was written and sung by Rod Richards. Although Redding had been a guitarist originally, he switched to the bass when joining The Jimi Hendrix Experience. He switched back to the guitar for his band Fat Mattress; and found himself back on bass for this band.



Road - I'm Trying (1972)

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Lyrics:

I’m trying
To forget the past
I’m trying
How long will it last?

Hope I can do something
What I want you for

Well, maybe
Someday, somewhere
You’ll remember things you said
We should finish them
As you said hi to me
That was love to me

I’m trying
To forget the past
Hope you won’t be long
Feelings coming strong

I’m trying
Oh, I’m trying
I’m try…

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

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Castles Made of Sand (1967)

Credited for the development of hard rock and metal, this group was only active from 1966-1970. Each of their three studio albums was critically acclaimed and continues to be influential today. The band’s front man, Jimi Hendrix, frequently tops the rankings as “the greatest guitar player of all time.”

This song was released on their group’s second studio album, Axis: Bold as Love. It was claimed by Jimi’s brother, Leon, to be about Jimi himself and his family. Regardless of whether or not this is true, the song’s lyrics can still be enjoyed between the intricate backward guitar solos.



The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Castles Made of Sand (1967)

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Lyrics:

Down the street you can hear her scream “You're a disgrace”
As she slams the door in his drunken face
And now he stands outside
And all the neighbors start to gossip and drool
He cries “Oh, girl you must be mad”
“What happened to the sweet love you and me had?”
Against the door he leans and starts a scene
And his tears fall and burn the garden green

And so castles made of sand
Fall in the sea
Eventually

A little Indian brave who before he was ten
Played war games in the woods with his Indian friends
And he built a dream that when he grew up
He would be a fearless warrior, an Indian chief
Many moons past and more the dream grew strong until
Tomorrow he would sing his first war song and fight his first battle
But something went wrong; surprise attack killed him in his sleep that night

And so castles made of sand
Melts into the sea
Eventually

There was a young girl, whose heart was a frown
'cause she was crippled for life and she couldn't speak a sound
And she wished and prayed she could stop living; so she decided to die
She drew her wheelchair to the edge of the shore
And to her legs she smiled “You won’t hurt me no more”
But then a sight she'd never seen made her jump and say
“Look, a golden winged ship is passing my way”
And it really didn't have to stop, it just kept on going

And so castles made of sand
Slips into the sea
Eventually