“Guinnevere” is probably the most magical songs ever written. I fell in love with the song the first time I heard it. It happened about 25 years ago, when I got the vinyl “Woodstock” as a present, and there it was, sung live by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. It mesmerized me from the first listen, and it stuck in my head forever. The wonderful tune was written by David Crosby and got released on the debut album by David, Crosby & Nash (Neil Young wasn’t part of the team then) in 1969. Although the lyrics contain medieval names, terminology, and motifs, it’s actually a personal love song. Crosby said about the song that it was “about three women that I loved. One of who was Christine Hinton - the girl who got killed who was my girlfriend - and one of who was Joni Mitchell, and the other one is somebody that I can't tell. It might be my best song." The song has an almost elvish melody, harmonies that sound mystical and unusually strange time signatures (at least for a folk song.)
Lyrically, the song deals with the importance of freedom, aside from its love theme. It has been speculated that "Guinnevere" could be referring to Nancy Ross, who lived with David Crosby and “drew pentagrams on the wall.” She would leave Crosby in 1966 for Gram Parsons, a rich guy from Florida, in the orange/citrus business. These facts make the "Nancy Ross" theory more believable: in the song, Crosby sings that Guinnevere "drew pentagrams," and that "peacocks wandered aimlessly underneath an orange tree."
The first arrangement of the song included a rhythm section, but the band decided to drop them from the tune before the release of the album. Well, thank God they did that! For those interested in the “original” arrangement, here it is:
Miles Davis covered and recorded the song in 1970. The song appeared on “Circle in the Round,” released 1979, and again on “The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions.” It came out from the same "electric" sessions of early 1970 that included sitar and tabla, a session that yielded "Great Expectations", "Orange Lady" and "Lonely Fire" (released on Big Fun). Later in 1970 Herbie Mann recorded a cover version, appearing the next year on his album “Memphis Two-Step.”
My fascination for the song was so big that I insisted on including it in the repertoire of my band “La Colonie Volvox,” 20 years after I first heard it on the “Woodstock” record. Here is a live version that I and my bandmates recorded on a concert in Skopje.
