I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain
Featuring
Produced by
I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain Lyrics
I never asked to be your mountain
I never asked to fly
Remember when you came to me?
And told me of his lies
You didn't understand my love
You don't know why I try
[Pre-Chorus]
And the rain was falling on that day
And damn the reason why
[Interlude]
[Verse 2]
I've been gone too long
Now I'm home to stay
And I'm sailing all my sins
And I'm climbing all my fears
You can't swim my waters if I can't walk your land
[Interlude]
About
“I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain” is a song by the English singer-songwriter Beth Orton in collaboration with the UK electronic duo The Chemical Brothers, covering the 1967 Tim Buckley’s classic.
Released on June 1, 2018 for Orton’s independent label Lost Leaves (which opened its catalogue), indeed it was recorded at least twenty years before: in fact, she linked up with The Chemical Brothers in the studio shortly after the release of their LP Dig Your Own Hole, in order to work on a co-operative project including both new songs and covers: as Orton concentrated on the first ones, because of her increasing experiments with song-writing in order to find her unique style, the audio support containing “I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain” was put between the pages of a copy of Lev Tolstoj’s main book War and Peace.
So, when Orton discovered the volume and opened it, she had a nice tape ready to be released, as well as other ones which are supposed to be released under Lost Leaves, too…
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
Somehow we have forgotten this psychedelic gem we had done with Beth [Orton] in the ‘90s, but we are extremely happy she has found the old recording and she has released it.
I’ve always loved this song because of this wild and cosmic feeling; it seems we have taken it to another dimension, but I hope we have succeeded in keeping the rawness and the passion of the original song.
– Tom Rowlands, member of The Chemical Brothers, press release.
