“Guinnevere” by Crosby, Stills, and Nash

"Guinnevere" was a David Crosby song from 1968 that found its home on Crosby, Stills & Nash's acclaimed debut album, released by Atlantic in 1969, and Crosby himself reckoned it might be the best thing he ever wrote. He plays the guitar in a strange tuning, EBDGAD, over odd time signatures, and he and Graham Nash sing it together; the trio produced it themselves, with Bill Halverson recording and mixing alongside them.

The words hold the woman being sung to up against Queen Guinevere, and Crosby later explained that the song was about three women he had loved: his late girlfriend Christine Hinton, Joni Mitchell, and a third he wouldn't name. Robert Christgau traced it back to a three-note motif from Miles Davis's 1960 album Sketches of Spain.

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