Slow Country

Slow Country is the fourteenth track on Gorillaz' 2001 debut album, Gorillaz.

Recording and Information

This track was one of the first songs from the debut album finished, and had originally more chill reggae aspects to it, in place of the more melancholic tone of the final version. According to 2-D on the Rise of the Ogre book, his humming at the end of the song was just him singing along to the melody when he didn’t know the mic was on.

Slow Country was originally one of the three Gorillaz songs considered to be singles during the early stages of the band, alongside "Clint Eastwood" and "Tomorrow Comes Today". To help promote the songs, a remix of each one was made, the Ed Case Refix of "Clint Eastwood" by Ed Case featuring Sweetie Irie, the Middle Row Remix of "Tomorrow Comes Today" by Carl Humphrey and Curtis Lynch Jr.'s remix of Slow Country featuring Spragga Benz. They were made both as a way of increasing the populatiry of the songs, getting them airplay in clubs and dancehall places all over England and to work out which singles got the most plays, so that they could then be moved to a much more public release. "Clint Eastwood", however, got much more popular through its refix, after the Tomorrow Comes Today EP had already been released, leading the band to release that song as a single, and not Slow Country.

Lyrics

Album version

City life
Calling me all the time
Me and my soul
Geared to other
Never get a little chance
So what you doing?
Gotta get money
Can't quite do it...

I can't stand the loneliness
Can't stay in loneliness
Can't stand your loneliness
Can't stay in loneliness

Shit nightlife
Been trying not to laugh though
You won't get money
From doing what you lovin'
I'm moving out of city
Better hove a second chance
Kicked a lot of problems
We kicked a lot of them

I can't stand the loneliness
Can't stay in loneliness
Can't stand your loneliness
Can't stay in loneliness

la la la la la la la la la la
la la la la
la la la la la la la la la la
laaa lalalala laaa la la la la
mmmm mmmm

I can't stand the loneliness
Can't stay in loneliness
Can't stand your loneliness
Can't stand your loneliness

Can't stand your loneliness
Can't stand your loneliness
Can't stand your loneliness
Can't stand your loneliness, no no not the loneliness...

Live version

City life
Calling me all the time
Leave my soul
In deep deep water
Never get a second chance
So what you doing?
You better make money
To keep it up moving

I can't stand your loneliness
Can't stay in loneliness
Can't stand your loneliness
Can't stay in loneliness

Shit nightlife
There's nothing else to laugh though
And I don't know where my [...] is
[...]
So I'm moving out of the city
Been trying to find a second chance
We'll get a lot of problems
We kicked a lot of them

I can't stand your loneliness
Can't stay in loneliness
Can't stand your loneliness
Can't stay in loneliness

la la la la la la la la la la
la la la la
la la la la la la la la la la
laaa lalalala laaa la la la la
mmmm mmmm

I can't stand your loneliness
Can't stay in loneliness
Can't stand your loneliness
Can't stay in loneliness

Can't stand your loneliness
Can't stay in loneliness
Can't stand your loneliness
Can't stay in loneliness, no no not the loneliness...

Oh, no no no...

Video

Gorillaz - Slow Country - Gorillaz

Trivia

• The track samples "Ghost Town" by The Specials.
• It is one of the few tracks, alongside "Starshine" and "5/4", to have different lyrics on their live versions.
• This is listed as the first track on the un-mastered version of the Gorillaz album.
  • This is also one of the tracks on that album that remained unchanged prior to its final release.
• The Spacemonkeyz Remix is called Strictly Rubbadub