| Fat Mattress | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 15 August 1969 | |||
| Recorded | 1968–1969 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 35:30 | |||
| Label | Polydor, Atco | |||
| Producer | Fat Mattress | |||
| Fat Mattress chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Fat Mattress | ||||
| ||||
Fat Mattress is the debut self-titled studio album by English rock band Fat Mattress, released on 15 August 1969.
Fat Mattress was formed in late-1968 by vocalist Neil Landon and guitarist and vocalist Noel Redding, who was then playing bass with the popular psychedelic rock band The Jimi Hendrix Experience. [1] Landon and Redding had already written a number of songs for Landon's cancelled solo project and, with the recruitment of bassist Jim Leverton and drummer Eric Dillon, completed writing and began recording their first material. [1] The self-titled debut was completed the next year, and was released in the United Kingdom by Polydor Records on 15 August and in the United States by Atco Records in October. [2] In promotion of the album, the band also released their debut single, "Magic Forest", [3] [4] which reached number 11 in the Netherlands. [5]
Fat Mattress was later reissued in 1992 by Sequel Records featuring five new songs, all of which were later included on the 2000 compilation album The Black Sheep of the Family: The Anthology (which also contained three more previously unreleased songs); [2] Castle Communications subsequently re-released the 15-track reissue on 5 March 1996 under the title One. [6] The album was reissued again on 29 June 2009 by Esoteric Recordings with eight bonus tracks, all of which had already appeared on The Black Sheep of the Family anthology. [7] [8]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| allmusic |   [2] |
The debut album by Fat Mattress was a minor commercial success, charting at number 134 on the American Billboard 200 albums chart (then known as the Pop Albums chart). [9] The album was described, in a review for allmusic, by critic Richie Unterberger as "passable, pleasant late-'60s psychedelia with a far lighter touch than the hard bluesy psychedelic rock Redding played with Hendrix." [2] Unterberger went on to suggest that the album is "often like an amalgam of the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Moby Grape, and Love, with some passing nods to British psychedelia by Traffic [...], the Move, and the Small Faces; there's even a bit of a Monkees-go-spacy feel to 'I Don't Mind.'" [2]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocalist(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "All Night Drinker" | Neil Landon, Jim Leverton | Landon and Leverton | 3:18 |
| 2. | "I Don't Mind" | Landon, Noel Redding | Redding and Landon | 3:51 |
| 3. | "Bright New Way" | Landon, Leverton | Leverton | 3:48 |
| 4. | "Petrol Pump Assistant" | Landon, Redding | Landon | 3:01 |
| 5. | "Mr. Moonshine" | Landon, Redding | Landon and Redding | 4:04 |
| 6. | "Magic Forest" | Landon, Leverton | Leverton and Landon | 3:05 |
| 7. | "She Came in the Morning" | Landon | Landon | 3:47 |
| 8. | "Everything's Blue" | Redding | Landon | 2:50 |
| 9. | "Walking Through a Garden" | Redding | Redding | 3:20 |
| 10. | "How Can I Live" | Landon, Redding | Landon, Redding, and Leverton | 4:26 |
| Total length: | 35:30 | |||
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocalist(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11. | "Little Girl in White" | Redding | Redding | 4:08 |
| 12. | "Margarita" | Landon, Leverton | Leverton and Landon | 4:14 |
| 13. | "Which Way to Go" | Leverton | Leverton | 3:03 |
| 14. | "Future Days" | Leverton | Leverton and Landon | 4:02 |
| 15. | "Cold Wall of Stone" | Jeanette Jacobs, Landon, Leverton | Landon | 2:36 |
| Total length: | 54:33 | |||
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocalist(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11. | "Naturally" | Landon, Leverton | 3:02 | |
| 12. | "Iridescent Butterfly" | Landon | Landon | 3:42 |
| 13. | "Magic Forest" (mono single version) | Landon, Leverton | Leverton and Landon | 2:57 |
| 14. | "Little Girl in White" | Redding | Redding | 4:08 |
| 15. | "Eric the Red" | Landon, Leverton, Redding | none | 2:57 |
| 16. | "Black Sheep of the Family" | Steve Hammond | 4:29 | |
| 17. | "Hall of Kings" | Landon | 5:34 | |
| 18. | "Which Way to Go" (performed by Jim Leverton) | Leverton | Leverton |
|
|
|
| Region | Date | Label | Format | Catalog | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 15 August 1969 | Polydor | LP | 583,056 | [2] [10] [11] |
| United States | October 1969 | Atco | LP | SD 33-309 | [2] [10] [12] |
| Canada | 1969 | Polydor | LP | 543,075 | [13] |
| Germany | 1969 | Polydor | LP | 184,305 | [14] |
| United Kingdom | 1992 | Sequel | CD | 1019 | [2] [15] |
| United Kingdom | 5 March 1996 | Castle | CD | NEX196 | [6] |
| United Kingdom | 29 June 2009 | Esoteric | CD | 2134 | [7] [8] |
Psychedelic rock is a rock music genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound effects and recording techniques, extended instrumental solos, and improvisation. Many psychedelic groups differ in style, and the label is often applied spuriously.
David Noel Redding was an English rock musician, best known as the bass player for the Jimi Hendrix Experience and guitarist/singer for Fat Mattress.
Electric Ladyland is the third and final studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, released in October 1968. A double album, it was the only record from the Experience with production solely credited to Hendrix. The band's most commercially successful release and its only number one album, it was released by Reprise Records in the United States on October 16, 1968, and by Track Records in the UK nine days later. By mid-November, it had reached number 1 on the Billboard Top LPs chart, spending two weeks there. In the UK it peaked at number 6, where it spent 12 weeks on the British charts.
Are You Experienced is the debut studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, released in May 1967. The album was an immediate critical and commercial success, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time. It features Jimi Hendrix's innovative approach to songwriting and electric guitar playing, which soon established a new direction in psychedelic and rock music as a whole.
Electric Mud is the fifth studio album by Muddy Waters, with members of Rotary Connection playing as his backing band. Released in 1968, it presents Muddy Waters as a psychedelic musician. Producer Marshall Chess suggested that Muddy Waters record it in an attempt to appeal to a rock audience.
The Psychedelic era was the time of social, musical and artistic change influenced by psychedelic drugs, occurring from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. The era was defined by the proliferation of LSD and its following influence in the development of psychedelic music and psychedelic film in the Western world.
The Music Machine was an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1966. Fronted by chief songwriter and lead vocalist Sean Bonniwell, the band cultivated a characteristically dark and rebellious image reflected in an untamed musical approach. Sometimes it made use of distorted guitar lines and hallucinogenic organ parts, punctuated by Bonniwell's distinctively throaty vocals. Although they managed to attain national chart success only briefly with two singles, the Music Machine is today considered by many critics to be one of the groundbreaking acts of the 1960s. Their style is now recognized as a pioneering force in proto-punk; yet within a relatively short period of time, they began to employ more complex lyrical and instrumental arrangements that went beyond the typical garage band format.
Psychedelic folk is a loosely defined form of psychedelia that originated in the 1960s. It retains the largely acoustic instrumentation of folk, but adds musical elements common to psychedelic music.
Christopher Gordon Blandford Wood was a British rock musician, best known as a founding member of the rock band Traffic, along with Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi and Dave Mason.
"Hey Joe" is an American song from the 1960s that has become a rock standard and has been performed in many musical styles by hundreds of different artists. The lyrics tell of a man who is on the run and planning to head to Mexico after shooting his unfaithful wife. In 1962, Billy Roberts registered "Hey Joe" for copyright in the United States.
Psychedelic music is a wide range of popular music styles and genres influenced by 1960s psychedelia, a subculture of people who used psychedelic drugs such as DMT, LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin mushrooms, to experience synesthesia and altered states of consciousness. Psychedelic music may also aim to enhance the experience of using these drugs and has been found to have a significant influence on psychedelic therapy.
"I Don't Live Today" is a song by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, released on their debut album Are You Experienced (1967). In a 1968 interview, Hendrix said it "was dedicated to the American-Indian and all minority depression groups". The song was part of the Experience concert repertoire and Hendrix often repeated the dedication during his introductions.
Radio One is a live album by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. It was released posthumously in November 1988 by Rykodisc and compiles tracks recorded between February and December 1967 for broadcasts by BBC Radio. The album peaked at number 30 on the UK Albums Chart while it charted at number 119 on the Billboard 200 in the United States. After Hendrix's family gained control of his legacy, Radio One was supplanted by the more comprehensive BBC Sessions in 1998.
Neil Landon was an English singer, who has been credited with singing on a number of hits in the UK Singles Chart. In addition, he was a singer and songwriter with the band Fat Mattress, which he co-founded with guitarist/singer Noel Redding.
Fat Mattress were an English rock band that formed in Folkestone in 1968. Founded by guitarist and vocalist Noel Redding, during his time as bassist for The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and vocalist Neil Landon, the band was completed by multi-instrumentalist Jim Leverton, drummer Eric Dillon and keyboardist Mick Weaver. The band released two albums – Fat Mattress and Fat Mattress II – before splitting up in 1970.
Fat Mattress II is the second and final studio album by English rock band Fat Mattress, released in 1970.
H. P. Lovecraft II is the second album by the American psychedelic rock band H. P. Lovecraft and was released in September 1968 on Philips Records. As with their debut LP, the album saw the band blending psychedelic and folk rock influences, albeit with a greater emphasis on psychedelia than on their first album. H. P. Lovecraft II failed to sell in sufficient quantities to reach the Billboard Top LPs chart or the UK Albums Chart, despite the band being a popular act on the U.S. psychedelic concert circuit. Legend has it that the album was the first major label release to have been recorded by musicians who were all under the influence of LSD.
Jim Leverton is an English professional musician, with a career spanning nearly fifty years, including as a sidesman to the Jimi Hendrix Experience's Noel Redding, Steve Marriott, Blodwyn Pig and the Canterbury scene band Caravan.
Apple Pie Motherhood Band was an American psychedelic rock band formed in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1967. One of the several groups involved in the "Bosstown Sound", a commercial ploy designed to compete with the San Francisco Sound, the band developed a blend of psychedelia, blues rock, and hard rock, which was exemplified and expanded upon on their two albums. The group went through several line-up changes before disbanding in 1970.
(Turn On) The Music Machine is the debut studio album by the American garage rock band The Music Machine, released on Original Sound Records on December 31, 1966. It arrived just months after the group's hit single, "Talk Talk", propelled to number 15 on the national charts. Although the album was hastily recorded to capitalize on the Music Machine's popularity, (Turn On) The Music Machine became a moderate hit on the Billboard Top LPs chart, and is hailed today as a classic garage rock album. Another single, "The People in Me" was also released in support of the album.
