Songfacts®:

• On this sultry song Bonnie Raitt is looking to take her lover on a slow ride - if you catch her drift. It was written by André Pessis, Bonnie Hayes and Larry John McNally. Pessis also wrote the Huey Lewis & the News hit "Walking On A Thin Line" and several songs for Mr. Big; Hayes also wrote Raitt's song "Have A Heart," and McNally wrote Raitt's "Nobody's Girl."
  
  The song is a good fit for Raitt, who is steeped in the blues. Like B.B. King, John Lee Hooker and other bluesmen she learned from, her songs often have a sensuous energy.
• Raitt played slide guitar on this one, with Robben Ford on electric and Scott Thurston adding both acoustic and electric guitar.
• The song is part of Bonnie Raitt's Luck Of The Draw album, the follow-up to her Grammy-gobbling 1989 album Nick Of Time. Both albums were produced by Don Was and came after she had been dropped by Warners, her labels since her 1971 debut. Raitt was a headliner for most of the '70s but as radio consolidated and Warners stopped supporting her, she hit a nadir in the '80s until Nick Of Time made her more popular than ever. That album went on to sell over 5 million copies and prove there was a huge audience for what Raitt had to offer: smooth, bluesy tunes with some bite. Luck Of The Draw was even bigger, selling 7 million on the strength of the singles "I Can't Make You Love Me" and "Something To Talk About."
• Raitt writes some of her own songs but mostly records songs written by others. She's known for treating those writers very well. In a Songfacts interview with "Slow Ride" co-writer Larry John McNally, he talked about being in the studio when she recorded the track.
  
  "I'm sure you know her recording of 'I Can't Make You Love Me,' he said. "It doesn't get any better than that. I remember stopping by the studio and hearing that coming through the studio speakers. It was a sacred moment. Bonnie with Bruce Hornsby, Don Was, and everyone else in the studio, had captured magic. That's the realm Bonnie lives in, one of magic. I've socialized with her, hung with her backstage, worked with her in the studio and she is everything she seems to be and more."