Slow Down

Song facts

From Wikipedia:

“Slow Down” is a 24-bar blues written and performed by Larry Williams. Released as a single in 1958, it was a rhythm and blues hit that influenced the growing Rock & Roll movement of the time. It was released as a 7″ single (45RPM). The A-Side was “Dizzy Miss Lizzy” and the B-Side was “Slow Down”, which were both covered by The Beatles in 1965 and 1964, respectively. […]

The Beatles version

The Beatles covered the song early in their career and eventually recorded a version and released it on their Long Tall Sally EP single in the UK. Not long after, the song was released in the U.S. on its own, as the B-side of 1964’s “Matchbox” single (also a 12-bar blues, from the Long Tall Sally EP), reaching #25 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was also included in the 1988 Past Masters compilation. The song likewise appeared on the Capitol album “Something New“. A performance specifically recorded for broadcast by the BBC was released on the album Live at the BBC in 1994.

Ian MacDonald criticised the performance as “one of the Beatles’ least successful rock-and-roll covers“, lacking “bottom, drive and basic cohesion” and stated that “The guitar solo is embarrassing and the sound balance a shambles“. He also pointed out the edit at 1:14 whereupon the piano momentarily disappears and McCartney’s bass becomes inaudible. Starr can likewise be heard to lose time during the song. […]

From The Usenet Guide to Beatles Recording Variations:

• [a] mono 4 Jun 1964.
  UK: Parlophone GEP 8920 (EP) Long Tall Sally 1964, Parlophone PSLP 261 and PCM 1001 Rarities 1978-79.
  US: Capitol 5255 single 1964, Capitol T 2018 Something New 1964.
  CD: EMI EP box set 1991.
• [b] stereo 22 Jun 1964.
  US: Capitol ST 2018 Something New 1964, Capitol SKBO-11537 Rock and Roll Music 1976.
  UK: Parlophone PCSP 719 Rock and Roll Music 1976.
  CD: EMI CDP 7 90043 2 Past Masters 1 1988.

Stereo [b] has the vocal and piano much louder (or one might say the rest is softer), and a cry “ow” is heard only in [b] just before the guitar at the end.

The vocal has a doubletracking error at what should be “now you got a boyfriend down the street” in verse 2. This is heard less distinctly in mono [a], as if the bad track were mixed down at that point, but it is there, marking it as the same vocal and not different as reported elsewhere. The bad vocal track seems to have “girlfriend” for “boyfriend”– however, on the BBC radio version (11 months earlier than this EMI recording) John sings “now you don’t care a dime for me”, which is possibly what is here too.

Last updated on March 13, 2016

Lyrics