Joni Mitchell shares ‘You Turn Me On, I’m a Radio’ demo featuring Neil Young
Canadian singer-songwriter legend Joni Mitchell has shared a demo version of her 1972 single ‘You Turn Me On, I’m a Radio’ featuring Neil Young.
The newly released recording comes as a part of Mitchell’s most recent archival release, Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975). It’s the second such archival release from Mitchell, this time covering the span between her albums For The Roses, Court And Spark, and The Hissing Of Summer Lawns.
Mitchell recorded the demo at Wally Heider Recording in Hollywood, California, on April 18th, 1972. The recording sessions came ten months after the release of Blue and just a few weeks before Mitchell departed for a European tour with Jackson Browne.
Neil Young provides electric guitar and harmonica on the demo recording, alongside bassist Tim Drummond and drummer Kenny Buttrey, both members of Young’s band The Stray Gators. Young would later attend the sessions for the single version of ‘You Turn Me On, I’m a Radio’, but his contributions were left off the final mix.
‘You Turn Me On, I’m a Radio’ would be included on Mitchell’s 1972 album For The Roses and was released as the LP’s first single. It was Mitchell’s first major hit, topping out at number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reaching the top ten in her native Canada.
Mitchell and Young had been acquainted for a number of years before the pair recorded together. The pair met in Canada before separately moving to California in the late 1960s. Mitchell wrote ‘The Circle Game’ as a direct response to Young’s ‘Sugar Mountain’, while Young returned the favour with ‘Sweet Joni’, a song he briefly performed in 1973 but never included on an official release.
Young and his bandmates Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young scored a hit single rock version of Mitchell’s ‘Woodstock’ in 1970. At the time, Mitchell was dating band member Graham Nash. Mitchell played at a few concerts on CSNY’s infamous 1974 ‘Doom Tour’, and the pair crossed paths again at The Band’s 1976 farewell concert, The Last Waltz.
Young has gone on record praising Mitchell as a songwriter. “I love Joni. She’s wonderful,” Young told The Zach Sang Show in 2022. “She’s one of the greatest artists of our generation. She may be the greatest artist of our generation.”
Check out the demo version of ‘You Turn Me On, I’m a Radio’ down below.
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