This article revisits Graham Nash's musical and romantic relationship with Joni Mitchell, arguing it was one of the most formative influences on his songwriting career. After years of feeling creatively constrained in The Hollies, Nash found greater freedom writing with Crosby, Stills & Nash, but it was meeting Mitchell that most profoundly reshaped his approach to music, exposing him to her unconventional, jazz-influenced songwriting style.

Nash has said the couple of years he spent living with Mitchell were "some of the best times of my life," describing her as "a brilliant woman" who "had a very deep effect on me." Their domestic life together inspired his song "Our House," while their eventual breakup led him to write "I Used to Be a King," and is widely thought to have influenced Mitchell's own emotionally raw 1971 album, Blue.