Slow Down
Encyclopedia
"Slow Down" is a 24-bar blues written and performed by Larry Williams
Larry Williams
Larry Williams was an American rhythm and blues and rock and roll singer, songwriter, producer, and pianist from New Orleans, Louisiana...

. Released as a single in 1958, it was a rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

 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
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

 in 1965 and 1964, respectively.

The Beatles version

The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

 covered the song early in their career and eventually recorded a version and released it on their Long Tall Sally
Long Tall Sally (EP)
-Other releases:*In the United States, the EP was split and released on The Beatles' Second Album and Something New ....

EP single in the UK. Not long after, the song was released in the U.S. on its own, as the B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...

 of 1964's "Matchbox
Matchbox (song)
"Matchbox" is a rock and roll and rockabilly song written by Carl Perkins and first recorded by him at Sun Records in December 1956 and released on February 11, 1957 as a 45 single on Sun Records. It has become one of Perkins' best-known recordings...

" single (also a 12-bar blues, from the Long Tall Sally EP), reaching #25 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

. It was also included in the 1988 Past Masters and 1994 Live at the BBC
Live at the BBC (The Beatles album)
Live at the BBC is a 1994 compilation album featuring performances by The Beatles that were originally broadcast on various BBC Light Programme radio shows from 1963 through 1965. The monaural album, available in multiple formats but most commonly as a two-CD set, consists of 56 songs and 13 tracks...

compilation albums.

Ian MacDonald
Ian MacDonald
Ian MacCormick was a British music critic and author, best known for Revolution in the Head, his forensic history of The Beatles which borrowed techniques from art historians, and The New Shostakovich, a controversial study of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich...

 criticised the performance as "one of the Beatles' least successful rock-and-roll covers", lacking "bottom, drive and basic cohesion" and stated that "[Lennon's] 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.

Personnel

  • John Lennon
    John Lennon
    John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...

     – vocals, lead guitar
    Lead guitar
    Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...

  • Paul McCartney
    Paul McCartney
    Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...

     – bass
    Bass guitar
    The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

  • George Harrison
    George Harrison
    George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...

     – rhythm guitar
    Rhythm guitar
    Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...

  • Ringo Starr
    Ringo Starr
    Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...

     – drums
    Drum kit
    A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

  • George Martin
    George Martin
    Sir George Henry Martin CBE is an English record producer, arranger, composer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"— a title that he often describes as "nonsense," but the fact remains that he served as producer on all but one of The Beatles' original albums...

     – piano
    Piano
    The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

Personnel per The Beatles Bible

Other cover versions

The Jam
The Jam
The Jam were an English punk rock/New Wave/mod revival band active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were formed in Woking, Surrey. While they shared the "angry young men" outlook and fast tempos of their punk rock contemporaries, The Jam wore smartly tailored suits rather than ripped...

 recorded a version on their debut album, In the City. It was also a regular feature of their early live sets.

Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...

 performed an abridged, searing hard-rock cover of the song during their June 25, 1972, concert at the The Forum (Inglewood, California)
The Forum (Inglewood, California)
The Forum is an indoor arena, in Inglewood, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. From 2000 to 2010, it was owned by the Faithful Central Bible Church, which occasionally used it for church services, while also leasing the building for sporting events, concerts and other events.Along with Madison...

, as part of the medley following Whole Lotta Love
Whole Lotta Love
"Whole Lotta Love" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin. It is featured as the opening track on the band's second album, Led Zeppelin II, and was released in the United States and Japan as a single. The US release became their first hit single, it was certified Gold on 13 April 1970, when it...

. The recording is featured on the popular bootleg Burn Like a Candle
Burn Like a Candle
Burn Like a Candle is a bootleg recording of the English rock group Led Zeppelin's performance at the Los Angeles Forum on June 25, 1972. It was originally released on CD format in the 1990s by the Smoking Pig label....

but not on the officially-released album of the show, How the West Was Won.

Hawkwind
Hawkwind
Hawkwind are an English rock band, one of the earliest space rock groups. Their lyrics favour urban and science fiction themes. They are also a noted precursor to punk rock and now are considered a link between the hippie and punk cultures....

 offshoot Inner City Unit
Inner City Unit
Inner City Unit is a British punk/space rock band fronted by ex-Hawkwind founder Nik Turner on saxophone with Judge Trev Thoms or Steve Pond , Dead Fred , Baz Magneto, Dave Anderson or Nazar Ali Khan , and Mick Stupp or Dino Ferari on drums.-History:Thoms and Ferrari were both key members of...

 frequently covered the song at live shows. In the months prior to his death in 1980, former Tyrannosaurus Rex
T. Rex (band)
T. Rex were a British rock band, formed in 1967 by singer/songwriter and guitarist Marc Bolan. The band formed as Tyrannosaurus Rex, releasing four folk albums under the name...

 percussionist Steve Peregrin Took
Steve Peregrin Took
Steve Peregrin Took was an English musician. He is best known for his membership of the duo Tyrannosaurus Rex with Marc Bolan...

 had been frequently providing guest lead vocals on the song.

The Dutch rock band Golden Earring
Golden Earring
Golden Earring are a Dutch rock band, founded in 1961 in The Hague as the Golden Earrings . They had international chart success with the songs "Radar Love" in 1973, "Twilight Zone" in 1982, and "When the Lady Smiles" in 1984. In their home country, they had over 40 hits and made over 30 gold and...

 recorded a version on their 1981 2nd Live
2nd Live
2nd Live is an album by Dutch hard rock band Golden Earring, released in 1981 .-CD 1:#"Don't Stop the Show"#"My Town"#"No for an Answer"#"Heartbeat"#"Save Your Skin"#"I Don't Wanna Be Nobody Else"#"Long Blond Animal"-CD 2:...

album and also released "Slow Down" as a single.

The song was covered as a part of the Backbeat soundtrack
Backbeat (soundtrack)
Backbeat is the original soundtrack of the 1994 film Backbeat starring Stephen Dorff, Sheryl Lee, Gary Bakewell and Ian Hart. The music was produced by Don Was.The album won the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music."The Backbeat Band" consists of:...

 by a supergroup
Supergroup (music)
In the late 1960s, the term supergroup was coined to describe "a rock music group whose performers are already famous from having performed individually or in other groups"....

 consisting of Dave Grohl
Dave Grohl
David Eric "Dave" Grohl is an American rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter who is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter for Foo Fighters; the former drummer for Nirvana and Scream; and the current drummer for Them Crooked Vultures...

, Dave Pirner
Dave Pirner
David Anthony "Dave" Pirner is an American songwriter, singer, and producer best known for being the lead vocalist and frontman for the alternative rock/grunge band, Soul Asylum.-Biography:...

, Thurston Moore
Thurston Moore
Thurston Joseph Moore is an American musician best known as a singer, songwriter and guitarist of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside of Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label...

, Mike Mills
Mike Mills
Michael Edward "Mike" Mills is an American multi-instrumentalist and composer who was a founding member of the alternative rock group R.E.M.. Though known primarily as a bass guitarist, backing vocalist, and pianist, his musical repertoire includes also keyboards, guitar, and percussion instruments...

, Greg Dulli
Greg Dulli
-Biography:Greg Dulli was born and brought up in the working-class city of Hamilton, Ohio. Although he was raised a Catholic, he is now agnostic. Dulli first came to public attention in the late 1980s with The Afghan Whigs when he joined D.C. transplant bassist John Curley and Louisville, Kentucky,...

 and Don Fleming (of Gumball
Gumball (band)
Gumball was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1990. The original lineup consisted of Don Fleming , Eric Vermillion , and Jay Spiegel . In 1992, a fourth member was added, Malcolm Riviera who had previously played with Fleming and Spiegel in the Velvet Monkeys.-History:After Fleming...

).

Brian May
Brian May
Brian Harold May, CBE is an English musician and astrophysicist most widely known as the guitarist and a songwriter of the rock band Queen...

 recorded a version in 1997, intending to release an album of covers, tentatively called Heroes. He changed the nature and approach of the album, dropping the "covers" idea and focusing on his collaborations and new songs of the time. "Slow Down" survived the change and appeared on the new album, Another World
Another World (Brian May album)
Another World is the second full studio album delivered by Queen guitarist, Brian May. Recorded at his home studio after the completion of the last Queen album, Made in Heaven, the album was released in the UK on 1 June 1998 and on 15 September of that year in the US. The album itself started life...

, released in 1998. This version features May on vocal and lead guitar, Cozy Powell
Cozy Powell
Colin Flooks , better known as Cozy Powell, was an English rock drummer who made his name with many major rock bands.-Early history:...

 on drums, Jamie Moses
Jamie Moses
Jamie Moses is an Anglo-American rock guitarist who joined, in mid-1990s, the Tex-Mex band Los Pacaminos, led by Paul Young and, between 2005 and 2008, was rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist for Queen + Paul Rodgers....

 on guitar, Spike Edney
Spike Edney
Philip 'Spike' Edney is a British musician who, since early 1970s, has performed with a number of bands, most notably, Queen, where his participation, starting in 1984, has been so extensive that some writers have described him as the "fifth member of Queen". In the earlier phase of his career,...

 on keyboards and Neil Murray
Neil Murray (British musician)
Philip Neil Murray is a Scottish bass player, best known for his work in Whitesnake and Black Sabbath.-Early days:Originally a drummer, Murray formed his first band with school friends in 1967 and his musical tastes were heavily influenced by the mid-1960s 'blues boom' bands and musicians,...

 on bass. It was recorded on the same day as the five recorded covers of "Maybe Baby
Maybe Baby (song)
"Maybe Baby" was originally recorded by The Crickets in 1957. It was written by Norman Petty and Buddy Holly and reached 17th in the US charts but 4th in the UK charts - see Buddy Holly discography...

", "It's Only Make Believe
It's Only Make Believe
"It's Only Make Believe" is the title of a song written by Jack Nance and American country music artist Conway Twitty, released by Twitty as a single in July 1958. The single topped both U.S...

" and "(Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame
(Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame
" His Latest Flame" is a song recorded in a hit version by Elvis Presley and published by Elvis Presley Music in 1961. It was written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman and originally recorded by Del Shannon on the album "Runaway With Del Shannon" which was released in June 1961. The more famous and...

", all for the Heroes album. The first two tracks ended up as B-sides to various singles from the album and "Marie" was not released, though it was leaked to the public (much to May's consternation) in 2006.

American rock band Zebra
Zebra (band)
Zebra is a hard rock band founded in 1975 in New Orleans, Louisiana. It features Randy Jackson , Felix Hanemann and Guy Gelso . Their mainstream debut on Atlantic Records was in 1983 with their eponymous album, highlighted by the singles "Tell Me What You Want" and "Who's Behind The Door"...

 covered the song on their debut album, as did the King Earl Boogie Band on their live album Loaded & Live, released in 2009.

A version also appears on the joint album by Jools Holland
Jools Holland
Julian Miles "Jools" Holland OBE, DL is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer, and television presenter. He was a founder of the band Squeeze and his work has involved him with many artists including Sting, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, The Who, David Gilmour and Bono.Holland is a...

 and Tom Jones
Tom Jones (singer)
Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...

 released in 2005.

The Japanese band Carol (featuring Eikichi Yazawa
Eikichi Yazawa
is an influential Japanese singer-songwriter, and important figure in Japanese popular music.Yoko Yazawa of The Generous is his daughter.-Biography:...

on vocals and bass) performed a cover quite similar to the version recorded by the Beatles, sans piano.
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