From yesterday’s radio reference by Modest Mouse, we tune in and turn back to 1972 and to a single from the Canadian singer-songwriter’s fifth album, For the Roses. Prolific and perhaps at the height of her powers back at this time, beguiling the folk world with her lyrics and looks, her record company asked her at this point in her career to write a hit. Always clever and refusing to get boxed in to anything on others’ agenda, she responded with that ever successful formula – songs about radio that generally get airplay by DJs because of the subject – yet subverted it in a number of ways with double-edged lyrics: "And I'm sending you out this signal here, I hope you can pick it up loud and clear” is an arch example of a message to label bosses, but the song is also about a relationship, referring to phone-ins, static, giving out signals, and playlists with a number of double-entendres, as well as ironic digs at men, and the radio industry.
Driving into town
With a dark cloud above you
Dial in the number
Who's bound to love you
Oh honey you turn me on
I'm a radio
I'm a country station
I'm a little bit corny
I'm a wild wood flower
Waving for you
Broadcasting tower
Waving for you
And I'm sending you out
This signal here
I hope you can pick it up
Loud and clear
I know you don't like weak women
You get bored so quick
And you don't like strong women
'Cause they're hip to your tricks
It's been dirty for dirty
Down the line.
Equally clever, of course, is the music. Mitchell uses a variety of guitar tunings and obscure chords, making it difficult to copy her work. Instead of the standard EADGBE guitar tuning, she appears to play on a “drop D” combination of DADF#AD. In the recording studio, she was surrounded by famous and no doubt admiring players, Graham Nash, David Crosby, and Neil Young, but only Nash’s harmonic remains on the final official version. The song was also recorded by country singer Gail Davis in 1982, as a dedication to Mitchell.
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