First appearing on The Beatles’ Long Tall Sally EP, ‘Slow Down’ was a cover version of Larry Williams’ 1958 song, and was originally the b-side to his hit single ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzy’.
‘Slow Down’ had been a part of The Beatles’ live repertoire between 1960 and 1962, and they had stopped playing it prior to its revival during the A Hard Day’s Night sessions.
In the US, the song was released as a single in August 1964, with ‘Matchbox’ as the b-side. It was also included on the Something New album.
A version of ‘Slow Down’, recorded on 16 July 1963 at the BBC Paris Theatre, London, was included on Live At The BBC. Taped for the Pop Go The Beatles programme, it was one of two BBC recordings of a Larry Williams song (a version of ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzy’ was completed on 26 May 1965).
In the studio
‘Slow Down’ was taped swiftly in six takes in the afternoon of 1 June 1964. The rhythm track of take three was the best, and onto this was overdubbed a double-tracked Lennon vocals.
George Martin added a piano part three days later. None of the performers appear to have taken it too seriously, with vocal fluffs (most noticeably during the line “But now you’ve got a boyfriend down the street”), a somewhat workmanlike guitar solo and generally sloppy playing.
But that’s the essence of rock ‘n’ roll, and John Lennon’s vocal has enough brio to make the result worth searching out by Beatles fans.
Lyrics
Well, come on pretty baby, won’t you walk with me?
Come on, pretty baby, won’t you talk with me?
Come on pretty baby, give me one more chance
Try to save our romance
Slow down
Baby, now you’re moving way too fast
You gotta gimme little loving gimme little loving
Ow! If you want our love to last
Well, I used to walk you home, baby, after school
Carry your books home, too
But now you’ve got a boyfriend down the street
Baby what you trying to do?
You better slow down
Baby, now you’re moving way too fast
You gotta gimme little loving, gimme little loving
Brrr! If you want our love to last
Well you know that I love you, tell the world I do
Come on, pretty baby, why can’t you be true?
I need your loving baby, oh so bad
The best little woman I ever had
Slow down
Baby, now you’re moving way too fast
You gotta gimme little loving, gimme little loving
Ow! If you want our love to last
I’m fairly certain that you, and no doubt many others, are mishearing the lyrical clash in the second verse. On one track, John is singing, “now you’ve got a girlfriend down the street,” and on the other track, he’s singing “now you don’t care a dime for me.” This latter line can be heard clearly by itself on the Beatles’ rendition of this song on “The Beatles at the Beeb.”
What I hear is on one track he sings “Now you’ve got a boyfriend”, on the other he sings “Now you’ve got a girlfriend”.
You are absolutely correct. I thought you were wrong until I actually listened to the song and I realised you can hear “Now you don’t care a dime for me” and “Now you’ve got a boyfriend down the street”. The way he pronounces care makes it sound a lot like girl which had me fooled. If you don’t believe me, check it out yourself.
I read that the Larry Williams lyric originally had “….and now you got a fella with a diamond ring”. But this Beatles Slow Down is another example where Lennon (for all his verbal talents) gets his lyric confused and misdelivered.
I always thought the line mentioned a diamond ring and that was when I first heard it when i was 12 years old so glad to hear you mention that.
Lennon may have made Lyrical changes between BBC taping and EMI Taping
who played guitar solo ? John again ?
I suspect that it was actually George on lead & John on rhythm – that guitar solo sounds a bit note-y for John. But I’m relying on memory, “Slow Down” being one of my least-played tracks, so I could be mistaken. I’ll have to give it a listen or two tonight.
It’s an awful solo, John was a shaky guitarist, the pieces fit. I counted eleven mistakes in the solo alone, and the lead guitar is prodding uncertainly throughout the track, in a lazy pluck typical of John’s style (Compare with George’s heavier handling and generally assured timing). By a long way the worst solo the Beatles ever got away with.
And George does, in fact, use his 12-string on I Call Your Name.
Funny I guess it’s a matter of taste but i love the solo 🙂
it’s Lennon playing that solo. and it’s great because it is so rough and raw. the Beatles were a LIVE band, just ask some of those folks from back in ’63. besides, it’s an imperfect world. the solo is better rough with a few glitches, that’s what they were LIVE….
Is that REALLY John playing? Doesn’t even sound like his guitar… it’s a raw sound is it not… more characteristic of the Gretsch and there’s almost NO chords in it… it’s all notes and sliding around playing riffs or attempts at riffs. Lennon was sloppy but he wasn’t known to bite off more than he could chew… like a typist going a bit too fast and increasing the error rate it sounds like George. The notes bend a bit too … that’s got to be George. That’s his guitar sound isn’t it?
The chimey rhythm guitar that begins just before the first vocals are John and they continue from beginning to the end of the song. This is a George Harrison solo played on his Gretsch and working the same Chet Atkins, Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry style that George is known for. Lennon would likely have been playing chords and rather forcefully at that if he had been charged to do a solo. The fact that so many flubs would occur in George’s attempt at a solo and that this song would be released as a single and album track in America and an EP track in England does indicate how little regard George Martin had for the Beatles identity as a guitar based rock and roll band. And with the summer of 1964 coming on and every major rock band in england breaking into the American market it seems odd that such a showcase for Harrison as a guitarist would be treated so cavalierly if any time was at all available to correct this.
Regardless this is a Harrison solo the sound of the Gretsch is clear from its use on every track not played on 12 string or acoustic. Think the opening lines of Don’t Bother Me… the solos on Roll Over Beethoven and I Saw Her Standing There. It has a very bright almost too clear sharp tone to it allowing for very well defined leads whereas Lennon’s Rickenbacker is distinctive for its sound playing chords as can be heard on songs like Misery and the choppy rhythm on I Saw Her Standing There.
Ironically… while the Beatle’s sloppier solo breaks it is probably among George’s most freewheeling showcases as lead guitarist in the Beatles… certainly during the early years before McCartney did so many of the big solos.
You can hear what George is TRYING to do… lots of great bits there that he can’t quite pull off. I wish I could play guitar because there are so many bits here like early in the solo where he’s repeating that figure before the chord change… it’s the same sort of bit that Ed King(?) does flawlessly in Lynyrd Skynyrd’s They Call Me The Breeze… If they’d gone back and let George have at it till he had it right in overdubs it would have been quite an impressive little solo.
Paul did not play the vast majority of the lead guitar solos on Beatles’ records post-64 and certainly nowhere near as Ian MacDonald wrote in his book, because he would falsely attribute guitar parts praised by him to Paul and automatically believe everything Paul states as fact when it’s not always correct.
George still played very good guitar solos on the records as well as in concert – just listen to his solos on “Something”, “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”, “The End”, “Back in the USSR”, “What Goes On”, “Girl”, “Run for Your Life”, “Day Tripper”, “Fixing a Hole”, “All You Need is Love” and “I’m Only Sleeping”.
I just don’t get why Ian MacDonald felt the need to throw any misdirected and undeserved criticism of George’s guitar playing and songs and I actually like “Slow Down”, including George’s guitar solo.
and i too like the song. love the piano it makes the tune for me
Man, I loved that solo also!!
I like it too.
George is playing the solo which i believe is double tracked. And it`s one of his better thought out leads in my opinion.
I love the piano. seems like we are the only two who liked the song oh well
That’s definitely George on lead for this one. John wouldn’t have played that many notes.
You’re correct and the guitar solo clearly resembles George’s style. Ian MacDonald’s book is sincerely wrong in the line-up stating that John and George swapped rhythm and lead roles (not a likely scenario at this point in time) and it was a colossal blunder. How could Mr. MacDonald be so obtuse enough to state this?
The line in the third verse shown above “I need your loving baby, oh so bad” if you listen to it closely sounds like John is singing “I need your butt and baby oh so fat”. I’m not making this up…listen and decide for yourself!
thanks bon vontee, but let me tell you that George was using with such obsession his 12 strings Rickenbaker by the time, but I can’t hear it on any of the 4 songs EP “Long tall Sally” (just in “I call your name”). Maybe because George wasn’t there at the sessions. If you or anybody else know something about it…
George was present at these sessions and the band was still very much a unified 4-piece at this time.
Pointless, semi-interesting factoid: This is the first Beatles track to open with more than 30 seconds (0:35 to be exact) of instrumental work before the vocal begins – by far the longest such intro they’d yet recorded. And unless I’m overlooking something, only 3 other tracks have longer intros: “Love You To”, “Flying” and “Sun King”.
Flying doesn`t really count. Maybe Tomorrow Never knows
That’s because the Larry Williams original begins with a 12-bar instrumental introduction, and the Beatles copied that recording virtually note-for-note and beat-for-beat in their cover.
Dear Brian: Larry Williams wrote, “I need your loving baby, oh so bad, the best little woman I ever had,” and Lennon sang, “I need your body baby oh so bad, the best little woman that I ever had.” Sorry you misheard it… Actually I’m not because I haven’t stopped laughing since I read your comment!!!! You should post it to kissthisguy.com, a collection of misheard (and hilarious) lyrics.
Dear D.B. To YOU it may be an awful solo; Lennon told me in 1971 that he played exactly what he wanted to hear and the dissonance was an early experiment in trying to get a,”Saxophone feel on a guitar.”
Luv, BluzCatKeef
It’s a FANTASTIC solo!BlutzCatKeef I agree with you and I think that John was a darn good lead guitarist too in some points of his career and his musical approach to the guitar reflected his musical genius and attitude,we’re not talking about speed freaks or whatever,the guitar was just a tool in his hands either to play R’nR or to make art,I think that’s what he wanted it to be or liked it to be,some people have the beef other don’t even with 20000000000millions notes:)hasta….
It’s a shame because by the end of his career with the Beatles, John was becoming a very capable lead guitarist. Just look at the work he put out on Get Back, I Want You, and You Never Give Me Your Money. It’s funny to realize how the Beatles were all individually hitting their strides as musicians, but never really reached their potential in their respective solo careers. They just no longer had the mutual drive to keep getting better.
BluzKatKeef: Very interesting comment. I’ve always chalked up this rather aimless solo to George, who despite being quite gifted, often ‘phoned in’ solos during this period. (Check out his rather flaccid solo in “Kansas City” from the Shindig performance as an example). If there’s evidence that John played this solo, can you provide a bit more evidence (time/place/situation) in which John shared this info with you? Many thanks. e
How dare any of you people knock that solo in slow down I think its a great solo one of my favourites if you think its so bad sit down and try to play it parrot fashion and see how long it takes you to play it I bet you wont be able to copy this one in a hurry so stop knocking the best band the world will ever see Ronny
The solo is straight out s**t and I don’t care who’s playing it. Poor management by George Martin who should’ve grabbed Harrison and locked him in the studio till he got it perfect. Same goes for I’ll follow the Sun a few months later.
Geoff Emerick or perhaps Howard Massey made up that story in his book about that “embarrassing” guitar solo on “I’ll Follow the Sun”. In reality, it’s a very nice little solo that suits the recording.
Always did think John was just about the best ever Rock’n’Roll singer, that from someone who has all of Elvis’ records
i guarantee you, there is less than 5 people in the world that can sing that song! but Lennon sings it best. listen to it on headphones and turn it UP…
Ask any 60’s garage band lead singer that tried. Impossible. John developed a distinctive soulful sound.
Ok, You can tell when it’s John playing the solo, Listen to the 1st solo on ” Long tall Sally ” and ” You Can’t Do That ” and then compare to ” Slow Down “.John basically did solos that worked around the the 3 frets of the 1st chord……..
It’s one their best guitar solos. – From someone playing for 40 years.
In terms of the musicianship of the song. I’m not sure I’d agree that it was lack of seriousness, but was more getting the sound they had in Hamburg. The change of Ringo for Pete was primarily because this was how he had played, not needing to be super crisp (as was required for radio play, but not for playing in bars).
Put me in the ‘great solo’ fan group. It starts out, low, growling, then climbs up an octave, gets more excited, and builds up to a frenetic climax, waits a beat in silence, and then screams with the double stop, Almost like someone working himself into a frenzy while arguing with himself I don’t think John would show that kind of planning or control. When he builds in intensity, he starts getting sloppy (but emotional), throws in all kinds of double stops and bending. Plus it sure sounds like one of the Gretsch’s that George used, not the Ric that John typically played for his other solos.
Another brilliant John vocal. And it’s funny to see the hate people have for John’s guitar playing. It’s not even John playing the solo ( which isn’t half bad ), it’s George. The man made “rhythm guitar” a cool instrument for teens. Have some respect.
In the version for the POP GO THE BEATLES show in mid 1963 John sings “well I used to walk you home baby after school, carry your books home too. But now you don’t care a damn for me, baby what you’re trying to do?” In the official version John’s voice is double-tracked, and while the background vocal track (the less prominent) sings the same line as above, the vocal track in the foreground has “But now you got a boyfriend down the street” as the third of those lines. The resulf is that you can hear both sets of lyrics sung at the same time. So I ask: Why did they keep both versions, sung one above the other?
There is a nice sort of symmetry between the out of control nature of the recording and the song’s lyrical content. I think it works. Slow down!!! (We’re losing it here, it’s all out of control!!) The instruments, vocals, and lyrics all reflect this. Lennon’s vocal sound is brilliant. It would have been great to hear this live in 1962.It’s a better cut than it is given credit for. Early punk….
Here’s another vote for fantastic solo. Don’t think some folk get it when they call it meandering.
In the early parts, It builds up tension , with slow bends, getting more and more heated, until
that octave climb screams in release, while still continues frantically, not letting up the intensity.
Then John’s screaming vocal comes back and continues the heat.
The solo seems thought out, when to build, when to lay on the steam. John did not have the
discipline to do this, nor could he play it- when he get excited, he starts double bending notes,
and distorting the sound. THe note play is too well executed to be John.
AND as mentioned, the guitar sound definitely is George, not John.
The greatest Lennon scream EVER.
I’m really nonplussed by the negative comments about this song. What’s not to like?
Fast moving sure and confident rhythm section.
Vocals are great – over dubbed John Lenon at his best with that Twist and Shout scream at the break.
Some really good points about the lead are made here. I always assumed it was George. You guys made me rethink that and I’ll still have to come down as George. His playing was Country Western influenced and that shows in this solo. Bends and twangs and that screech-G7. John was coming into his own as a lead guitarist but wasn’t prominent until “I Feel Fine” . I think, by the time they reached Abbey Road John had passed George as a lead guitar player, leading to some of the rancor that eventually lead to the dissolution of the group.
Loved reading all of the comments here…….
Slow Down has always been a fav of mine, ever since being a kid. It just pounds along and doesn’t give you a moment to catch your breath! Martin’s piano really added a nice dimension to the sound, which makes it better than the live/BBC versions.
What can you say about John and his vocals that hasn’t been said already? Lennon at his finest…and perhaps already tampering with lyrics for fun (Actually when I was playing it for years, I misheard the lyrics too…or did I? I listened a few times just now and some of John’s lyrics can’t be pinned down, like Louie Louie, lol).
The solo: Totally a Gretsch….I used to play a Country Gentleman and had a Tennessean…and Rick 320 and 330…there is no way the Rickys could roll out that bold twangy solo. It has George’s feel all over it. Actually, I put this solo right up there with the one from “I Saw Her Standing There”. Well though out, raunchy but with some twists of sophistication…uses a lot of the Gretsch tonal range in just one solo (not pickup changes either).
Larry Williams original kicked serious ass for 1958 and gave the Beatles a lot to work with….and in their hands they tipped one helluva hat to the original. Lennon’s vocals show why he is rated among the best of all time….pure rock n roll as only John could do. Kudos to Ringo as well for the perfect fills and backbeat to the song. I think Paul just sat back and played his usual polished bass on this one and let the others shine. Slow Down tends to get overlooked, but in my opinion, it’s one of their best cover songs.
On Ringo’s perfect fills, does anyone but me realizes on the last break (OOOHH if you want our love to last) Ringo comes in off time and catches up with the timing? Never seen any mention of this???
The Beatles made very great cover versions of three Larry Williams songs. Larry Williams’ original versions are great. The Beatles’ coverversions are greater than the originals. This is my personal opinion.
It’s an ok solo for the early Fabs. The REALLY stupid-ass, bad solos are on “Boys” and, to some extent, “I Saw Her Standing There.” George just falls over his fingers. there’s no build and release, the solo doesn’t blast the song off into another realm, and that’s all there is to it. People are all about “George, George, George,” but the man would take 6 hours just to do a solo. He wasn’t great, he was good enough. I do like all his early songs as well as the rest of his stuff with the Beatles, like “Don’t Bother Me.”
The other thing about “Slow Down” in particular is this was the period where the supposed genius George Martin turned down Paul’s bass to the point where it isn’t even there, as well as adding his “dink dink dink dink dink” piano, which screamed “I’m English, I’m 31, I wear a suit and tie, I have short hair, I’m uptight and square and stern and I play rock and roll piano like your Grandmother.” Martin effed up “Long Tall Sally’ with the exact same approach, too – lower the bass to one and add dinky-winky piano. Hip and loose and syncopated and delicious, the man was not!
Album filler? Sure. But, still a great little rocker.
The BBC version is better.
More bottom end. Martin didn’t capture it as well. And it’s definitely George playing the solo. Which in it’s slightly sloppy charm I like.
This is, for me, one pinnacle of Rock’n’Roll! I have many doubts that was sloppy playing. Rather, a reminder of their days in Hamburg. Massive sound, howling vocal, orgasmic really.
I can’t believe I’m weighing in on this during a work day, but that’s 2021 for you. I absolutely love their recording of this song, including the solo, which is admittedly odd, but great. The really dissonant bit is pretty messed up for an extremely popular rock band in 1964. Very loose, all around. John’s screams and other odd raspberry-like sounds are epic. I first heard this tune on the Something New and Rock and Roll Music LPs, both of which I had on vinyl, in the early ’80s. Sidenote: This song sounds GREAT following on the heels of “When I Get Home” on the Something New album.
I think that we see a glimpse of what made them such a stand-out live band in Hamburg and in the early Cavern days. John’s voice just searingly cuts through everything. Had he played lead on this one, I suspect the solo would have resembled his lead on “You Can’t Do That.” Same era.
I know many may disagree, but I think their 1964 work is often underrated in my opinion. The often overlooked or actually inferior material would have been some other band’s singles.
I love talking Beatles and have been an obsessed fan since I was like 2 or 3 in the late ’70s.
What I notice about this song is that on the BBC version John Lennon sings mistakenly again;
“Well come on pretty baby won’t you walk with me, come on pretty baby won’t you talk with me?
Whereas on the ‘Pastmasters’ version Lennon sings:
“Well, you know that I love, tell the World,
Come on pretty baby why can’t you be true?
Amit Kshirsagar
-Ann Arbor, Michigan 48108
The Dennis Prager Show, on the Salem Netwotk, features Slow Down in it’s variety of bumper music. My sisters (I had five of them) had just bought Something New in the summer of ’64, and I must’ve heard that song a hundred times before I sailed the record into the woods….”yuck, the Beatles are for girls”, I said to myself practicing my Frisbee skills on popular vinyl.
But that was before Rubber Soul, Sgt. Pepper, and Abbey Road, MY favorite Beatle Records. Ringo was my favorite Beatle, and the rest were just quivering mopheads on a handsomely suited body rather than a stick to me in the very beginning, but as the band matured, my fandom tendency gravitated more toward George than any of the others, and I think the reason is how he had a uncanny talent for signifying just about every guitar note he ever played.
So 59 years later, when I begin listening to the talk of Dennis Prager, I took notice of this odd guitar instrumental in the background of ads and program announcements. At first I didn’t hear the vocals, so I didn’t really know the piece was a pre 1964 Beatle record, but the was no mistaking that signature slide embedded in that bit of nervous attempts to obtain a suitable take for the engineer and producer…there’s no mistaking George Harrison once you learn his favorite chord progression.