David Crosby, who wrote this track, told Rolling Stone magazine about it: "That is a very unusual song, it's in a very strange tuning with strange time signatures. It's about three women that I loved. One of whom was Christine Hinton, the girl who got killed who was my girlfriend, and one of whom was Joni Mitchell and the other one is somebody that I can't tell. It might be my best song." Hinton died in a car accident in 1969 at 21, leaving Crosby devastated. His song "I'd Swear There Was Somebody Here" is also about her.
In the same Rolling Stone interview Graham Nash added: "Crosby sent me a tape of 'Guinnevere' in 1968 and it was one of the things that [made me] really realize that this man was a profound thinker and a great musician. I still have people coming up to me saying, you know, 'I broke my hand trying to play 'Guinnevere.' Until David reminds 'em that it's in a tuning. 'Guinnevere' and 'Déjà Vu' were on the same tape and it was then that I realized that Crosby was something special. And we've had a great time singing that song 'cause we never do it the same way twice."
"Guinnevere" is one of the tracks on Crosby, Stills & Nash, the trio's first album. When it was released, fans confused Nash with Crosby because Crosby's name appears directly above Nash's on the album sleeve. Nash told Rolling Stone: "We're all sitting in the wrong order because we decided to call ourselves Crosby, Stills and Nash. It flows off the tongue better than any other combination. That's why people keep calling me Crosby. They think I wrote 'Guinnevere.'"
See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.
Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.