River Man

River Man was written during Drake's early weeks at Cambridge; his friend Paul Wheeler, who heard it then, thought it exceptional, and connected it to the daily walk across the river into town. It is in five-four time, which some writers trace to Dave Brubeck's Take Five and Joe Boyd to the bossa nova of João Gilberto, and it asks about a girl named Betty and a river man who may or may not have the answers. Drake never explained it. Boyd said Drake thought of it as the centrepiece of the album.

Robert Kirby felt he could not write what Drake wanted for it, so Boyd hired Harry Robinson, an experienced arranger, and Drake hummed him the string lines; Boyd remembers him naming Delius, Wood remembers Ravel. Two weeks later Robinson came back with the score. The song was recorded live with the orchestra, Drake on a stool in the middle of the studio, and Danny Thompson on double bass.

Versions

Drake played it on his John Peel session of 5 August 1969, alone with his guitar; the producer, Pete Ritzema, was a little disappointed that he left gaps where the strings would be. That session survived only as an off-air recording, released in 2014, and it is one of the two uploads in the hypersongs web. The other is Tim Pope's 2004 video for the remastered single, which reached forty-eight in Britain. Drake played the song live only a handful of times. It has been covered by Brad Mehldau, Norma Waterson, Lizz Wright, Chrissie Hynde, The Unthanks and Robyn Hitchcock, among many others, and sung by Marika Hackman at the 2024 Proms.