River Man is a Nick Drake song from his 1969 album Five Leaves Left. It was recorded in 1969 and released on Island Records in the UK (Elektra in the US), later remastered and issued as a 2004 single with the B-side Day Is Done and a Tim Pope video. A folk baroque / baroque pop track of 4:21 duration, it features a string arrangement by Harry Robinson and Drake playing in standard tuning in a 5/4 time signature, with production by Joe Boyd and Robert Kirby. The song is often regarded as the centerpiece of the album, and its lyrics center on a narrator addressing Betty and a figure known as the River Man, with the river serving as a metaphor for time or fate; the coda repeats Oh, how they come and go as the strings swell. The Peel Sessions performance on 5 August 1969 and influences cited by critics include theBrazilian guitarist João Gilberto and Dave Brubeck's Take Five.
