Slow

Album: Popular Problems (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song finds Cohen arguing that his slowness is a lifelong predilection and not just a sign of encroaching mortality:

    It's not because I'm old
    It's not the life I led
    I always liked it slow


    Cohen is self-depreciating about his preference for a dilatory pace both in terms of slow sex ("Let me catch my breath. I thought we had all night") and his dedication to taking time to find the right words and the right melody for his creative output.

    "Being a songwriter is like being a nun: you're married to a mystery," Cohen said to hearty laughter during a playback for the Popular Problems album. "My methods are obscure and not to be replicated. A song will yield itself if you stick with it long enough. But you've got to stick with it for a very long time."

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