Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
New stereo mix and remaster, sourced from the original stereo mix.
"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.
On 5 August 1969 Drake recorded the song for BBC's Peel Sessions, in his only session for the show.
The song is in a 5/4 time signature and is one of the few songs Drake wrote to be played in standard tuning. Boyd speculated that the composition was influenced by the Brazilian guitarist João Gilberto, and the critic Ian MacDonald suggested the rhythm was developed based on Dave Brubeck's "Take Five". Although most of the arrangements on Five Leaves Left were by Drake's friend Robert Kirby, this arrangement was by Harry Robertson (aka Harry Robinson), after Kirby said he "hadn't gotten to 5/4 in music school yet." Drake asked Robertson to make the strings sound like Frederick Delius.
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. However, the only similarity to the poem is the existence of a Betty.
New stereo mix and remaster, sourced from the original stereo mix.
"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.
On 5 August 1969 Drake recorded the song for BBC's Peel Sessions, in his only session for the show.
The song is in a 5/4 time signature and is one of the few songs Drake wrote to be played in standard tuning. Boyd speculated that the composition was influenced by the Brazilian guitarist João Gilberto, and the critic Ian MacDonald suggested the rhythm was developed based on Dave Brubeck's "Take Five". Although most of the arrangements on Five Leaves Left were by Drake's friend Robert Kirby, this arrangement was by Harry Robertson (aka Harry Robinson), after Kirby said he "hadn't gotten to 5/4 in music school yet." Drake asked Robertson to make the strings sound like Frederick Delius.
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. However, the only similarity to the poem is the existence of a Betty.
![The Mamas & the Papas - Go Where You Wanna Go (2024 Stereo Mix) [Reupload]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZLJBfnsD9xo/mqdefault.jpg "The Mamas & the Papas - Go Where You Wanna Go (2024 Stereo Mix) [Reupload]
Go Where You Wanna Go is a 1965 song written by John Phillips. It was originally recorded by the Mamas & the Papas on their LP If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears and given limited release as a single. However, the record was withdrawn, and its A-side was reassigned to California Dreamin. Go Where You Wanna Go later became a hit for the 5th Dimension.
P.F. Sloan played guitar on the song. John Phillips said that he wrote it about Michelle Phillipss affair with Russ Titelman, a songwriter and record producer.")
