Beth Orton | photo by Tierney Gearon
XPN’s Gotta Hear Song of the Week: “I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain” by Beth Orton and The Chemical Brothers
Singer-songwrier Beth Orton has teamed up with UK electronica vets The Chemical Brothers to release a “new” song, a cover of Tim Buckley’s “I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain.”
About the song, Orton recently wrote on her Facebook page:
During the process of making my last record Kidsticks, I felt a liberation around how I made music and how I looked at the music of my past. With that same sprit of adventure I am taking a last look over my shoulder at what got lost along the way. I started a little label and I’m calling it Lost Leaves. Today marks the first release of a handful of as yet unheard songs.
I recorded a cover of Tim Buckley’s “I Never Asked to be Your Mountain” with the Chemical Brothers. We must have recorded it around the same time as I made Central Reservation; The Chemical Brothers would have just released Dig Your Own Hole. Sometime in 1998 possibly. I imagine the track got put to one side, slotted into that book that I told myself I’d read someday and never did and the track got forgotten. Found by chance last year but released with every intention I hope you enjoy this offering.
Below, listen to Orton and The Chemical Brothers’ cover of the song, and the original by Tim Buckley.