"River Man" is the second listed song from Nick Drake's 1969 album Five Leaves Left. According to Drake's manager, Joe Boyd, Drake thought of the song as the centrepiece of the album. In 2004, the song was remastered and released as a 7" vinyl and as enhanced CD single, including a music video by Tim Pope.
Musical structure and lyrics
The song is in a 5/4 time signature and is one of the few songs Drake wrote to be played in standard tuning. The string arrangement was composed by Harry Robertson (aka Harry Robinson) after Drake's friend Robert Kirby felt he couldn't compose it alone, although he did most of the arrangements on Five Leaves Left.[1]
Drake did not reveal the identity of the 'Betty' character in the lyrics, although Trevor Dann speculated that she may have been drawn from Betty Foy, a character in Wordsworth's "The Idiot Boy", a poem Drake had studied while attending Cambridge.[2] However, the only similarity to the poem is the existence of a Betty.[3]
Covers
The song has been covered numerous times.
In 1978, British folk/jazz acoustic duo Mick Linnard and David Hughes covered the song on their debut album Russell Square, produced by Bill Leader <--"The Leader Tradition" ?!--> for Transatlantic.
R. Stevie Moore recorded the song in 1987, which later appeared on the Nick Drake tribute album CD Brittle Days (Imaginary, 1992).
The first 1000 copies of Sidi Bou Said's 1993 album Broooch included a bonus 7", of which a recording of "River Man" is featured on the b-side.
The American jazz singer Andy Bey included an arrangement of the song with a string section, guitar and bass on his 1998 album Shades of Bey (Evidence Music). Bey used what he called a 'soft palette' singing technique. Music producer Herb Jordan brought the song to Bey's attention, the success of which brought Bey and Nick Drake a new and wider audience.
Jazz singer Kurt Elling is featured on "River Man" from the album Rhythm Sessions by guitarist Lee Ritenour (Concord, 2012).
On Joe Boyd Presents Way to Blue: The Songs of Nick Drake (Navigator, 2013), a compilation which features a new vocal interpretation by Teddy Thompson over Harry Robinson's original string arrangement.
