"Slow Down", the sloppiest Beatle recording

No, you're forgetting the Kansas City b/w Boys single

 

I picked up a nice sleeve for this single from a neighbor. He was getting rid of a box of 78's on garbage night and he says...oh, we got this Beatles picture too.

 

Dunno bout that.
John sounds pretty darn energetic on official release.
Think maybe give it a listen again... Mono preferred.

 

Just goes to show that it doesn't have to be tight and slick in order to be great.
By the way, this type of music is called ROCK 'N' ROLL.

 

Methinks a strawman is being built here.
Stereo
Or
Mono
This track with John belting it out is pretty
Darn good.

And the solo by George rocks.
And is NOT the worst George solo.

The end,

 

Oh man, THAT is just killer!

 

Sloppy? Try Revolution 9

 

"Slow Down?" Yes, it's sloppy, but dammit, this is ROCK & ROLL. A Larry Williams song, at that. The sloppiness came with the territory. Great record as far as I'm concerned.

 

He could do Roll Over Beethoven, I Saw Her Standing There, etc... He could do very good guitar solos back then. This one just ain't.

 

It is a great song, with great energy...I think upon reflection and these posts I do think it was the stereo mix that made it bad (because there is great energy all over the place), but the guitar solo I stand by, though Steve made a point that perhaps George is intimating the sax solo on the original.

 

No, no and no. OMG, I got suckered in by a troll thread.

 

I have always loved this song.

My opinion, file under Beatles: great rocker!

.

 

An all time great vocal.....Tight next to "don't pass me by" or "Helter Skelter".

 

Perfect in its sloppiness.

 

"Baaaaay-by" is sharp.

 

One thing I like about it and why I prefer earlier Beatles, and the Stones had this too, is how the song seems so effortlessly performed. It is as though they are just having a great time, giving it 100%. It has a kind of artlessness that, I guess probably inevitably, had to go in order for them to progress. But this is the music that spawned Beatlemania.

 

'Slow Down' is one of my favourite Beatles rock-and-roll covers, if not one of their most authentic immersions into rock-and-roll in the studio, alongside 'Twist and Shout', 'Rock and Roll Music', 'Money (That's What I Want)', 'Long Tall Sally'/'I'm Down', and their own original 'She's A Woman', lacking their quintessential pop-harmonisation stylings, any noticeable English vocal inflections, etc. 'Sloppiness' aside, it is one of the band's 'few' pure rock-and-roll interpretations other than the BBC Sessions and other earlier non-album/single recordings, as most of The Beatles' covers were of songs that can more accurately be characterised as R&B, girl group, soul, rockabilly, selections from musicals, or generally softer-rock and roll songs (i.e. 'Words of Love').

Sloppiness and hasty recording, aside, I've always loved 'Slow Down' and its inclusion, along with 'Matchbox' (its US 45's companion), on Capitol Records' Something New album alongside the A Hard Day's Night UK LP tracks ('Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand', though...wasn't as wise of a selection). The mono mix, especially, cooks.

 

Is the mono on the 45 different than the mono Something New?

 

You're thinking of Battle Of Marston Moor.

 

Great rock n roller! So what it's sloppy

 

Read on though

 

I've always loved Slow Down. My second favourite of their Larry Williams covers after Bad Boy, which is hands down number one IMO. Dizzy Miss Lizzie comes in at a very distant #3 and really isn't any kind of favourite. I think the Help! album would have been improved by dropping that and adding something else that was contemporary -- I'm Down or Yes It Is.

 

I think my problem with George's solo, other than that it's a classic George first pass solo, is that there is so much energy in every other instrument and vocal then you get this clunker of a guitar part, so it's not just the technique but the composition side of it too, the solo and the song don't go together as well as they could have.

 

Yes It Is (one of my favourite early Beatles tracks) would have been a great fit on the album, as it was on Beatles VI (save for the horrible duophonic mix used on the stereo version of the album). If The Beatles still desired closing out Help (UK) with a more rocking track, then I'm Down would have done the trick, and presumably better than Dizzy Miss Lizzie. It seems I'm Down wasn't particularly favoured for LP inclusion (possibly due to its basis upon Long Tall Sally?), although the band often performed it live throughout '65-'66. Capitol Records never even placed it on any of their '60s Beatles studio records, albeit including both Yes It Is and Bad Boy on Beatles VI (the latter of which was also released in LP format in the UK on A Collection of Beatles Oldies, oddly enough, in 1966).