I Don't Remember - Background, Writing, and Recording

Background, Writing, and Recording

The song was written by the band's lead singer, Bernard Fanning, following a night he spent drinking with bassist John Collins towards the end of the recording phase of Dream Days at the Hotel Existence. The song was written by Fanning on guitar, but he later wrote the main riff on piano, which was then converted into a lead guitar riff performed by Ian Haug. The guitars for the song are all tuned down one step; while the guitar finger positioning is played as though in the key of C major, the detuning brings the key of the song down to Bb, with the song leading off with Bb's relative minor, G minor. During the recording phase, Fanning suggested "softening" the main riff by returning it to the piano, and even recorded this concept; however this piano version did not end up in the final album mix, nor was it included as a B-side on the single.

"I Don't Remember" was recorded in Los Angeles during pre-production for Dream Days at the Hotel Existence. It contains a simple acoustic riff, similar to several songs on previous albums including Vulture Street. While recording the song in January 2007, Fanning said in an interview that:

It's a song about making mistakes and trying to reconcile what they were — but then in the end, in the wash up — it doesn't really matter whose fault it was, as long as it gets reconciled.

This meaning was also evident in the song's lyrics. In the second line, Fanning states that "I made a mistake that I'll never surpass", before explaining that it does not matter whose fault it is, in saying "I know you needed someone to take the fall/I know you needed someone to blame it on". In the second verse, Fanning again reiterates that he feels pain in the mistake that was made, when he says "I found my heart and it broke like glass/I made that mistake that I'll never surpass".

John Collins said of the song:

I hope the song sounds exciting, without sounding ... big rock? Without sounding country, and sound interesting, 'cause I think that the basis of the song if you play it on the acoustic is there, and it's up to us to stuff it up now.

When Powderfinger first played the song to Benmont Tench, who would feature in a piano role throughout the album, he remarked that it reminded him of Buffalo Springfield, who was an inspiration of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Fanning replied that "we were thinking more of the Heartbreakers", indicating the musical style intended in "I Don't Remember", but also paying homage to Tench, whom the band would work with extensively. Tench performed with the band on the album version of the song.