42 Meanings
Add Yours
Follow
Share
Q&A
Slip Slidin' Away Lyrics
Chorus:
Slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip slidin' away
I know a man
He came to my home town
He wore his passion for his woman
Like a thorny crown
He said Delores
I live in fear
My for you is so overpowering
I'm afraid that I will disappear
Chorus
I know a woman
Became a wife
These are the very words she uses
To describe her life
She said a good day
Ain't got no rain
She said a bad day's when I lie in bed
And think of things that might have been
Chorus
And I know a father
Who had a son
He longed to tell him all the reasons for things he'd done
He came a long way
Just to explain
He kissed his boy as he lay sleeping
Then he turned around and headed home again
Chorus
God only knows
God makes his plan
The information's unavailable
To the mortal man
We work our jobs
Collect our pay
Believe we're gliding down the highway
When in fact we're slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip slidin' away
He came to my home town
He wore his passion for his woman
Like a thorny crown
He said Delores
I live in fear
My for you is so overpowering
I'm afraid that I will disappear
Became a wife
These are the very words she uses
To describe her life
She said a good day
Ain't got no rain
She said a bad day's when I lie in bed
And think of things that might have been
Who had a son
He longed to tell him all the reasons for things he'd done
He came a long way
Just to explain
He kissed his boy as he lay sleeping
Then he turned around and headed home again
God makes his plan
The information's unavailable
To the mortal man
We work our jobs
Collect our pay
Believe we're gliding down the highway
When in fact we're slip slidin' away
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
I think he is trying to say that even though we always want to do something, eventually we shy away from whatever we want most. We will never be satisfied and we will never be completed. Somewhat depressing, but still a great insight into our nature.
To me, the song is saying that people tend to spend all of their time and energy working towards something that isn't all it's cracked up to be. It tells us to be careful what we devote our lives to--make sure it's what we really want.
@edguidry Slip sliding away means wasting our time, and our lifes. This was a common theme used by Paul Simon, consider "have a good time" or "still crazy after all these years." We do all the things we're supposed to do: get married, have children, keep a job, we think we're gliding down the highway, but in fact we're slip sliding away.
@edguidry Slip sliding away means wasting our time, and our lifes. This was a common theme used by Paul Simon, consider "have a good time" or "still crazy after all these years." We do all the things we're supposed to do: get married, have children, keep a job, we think we're gliding down the highway, but in fact we're slip sliding away.
many points people have made make sense.
To me, the song says that we know nothing about why we do things.
We are told, get a job, get your pay, get married.
But even when we do these things, and we are successful, we are sliding closer to the real end.
A wife thinks she must toil for her household and for her children.
A father thinks he must teach his son what he knows.
And God, that thing, the most overpowering of all these pretences, God is the only one who is sure of itself. The rest of us, we fear, we know deep down where things are really going.
A father kisses his son only to "go back home again" to his "true role" as provider and teacher.
wives and husbands must justify their choice of who to marry and their careers, to their friends, their kids, but most of all, to themselves.
We are still no closer to the real 'why?'s of life.
And slip slidin' away towards death
And slip slidin' away towards death
i live in fear-- my love for you's so overpowering, i'm afraid that i may disappear
amazing. paul simon is a great songwriter
wow. takes on a totally different meaning when you actually listen/read the lyrics. the underlying music portrays a reflective, jimmy buffetish type summer dreamstate (if that makes any sense atall) while the words tell amazing stories..several amazing stories.
I think that the song is trying to give a sense that you need to enjoy the feelings in life, the people that pass through it; mostly because of the last few lines where he talks about how working a job and making money, and in general focusing on the material and the 'proper', makes us think we're sailing along when we're really sliding away from what life's really about.
this song is about living in the now. the more you near your destination, the more your slip slidin' away from what lifes all about. life is about the path, not the destination. paul tells us to stop focusing on the future and enjoy today. its only a sad song in the sense that these people don't live in the now.
This song has meant different things to me over my life. Earlier in life I felt the tremendous pull of physical and emotional love, so strong I could disappear. Currently it is a metaphor for losing ones subservience to the ego ie. losing that particular sense of oneself, for feeling more of a connectedness with all living and non-living things, for reaching the final destination. When I die I hope to be in a state of enlightenment. How a person could write something so insightful, truthful and honest at such a young age just amazes me. Paul Simon is one of my heroes.
[Edit: says it better]
@Alpacastoli And don't get me started on Graceland!
@Alpacastoli And don't get me started on Graceland!
@Alpacastoli totally get what you mean about the song changing as you change. its wild how paul simon can write something that grows with you
@Alpacastoli totally get what you mean about the song changing as you change. its wild how paul simon can write something that grows with you
Well i added this song, i think its really nice, the lyrics are brilliant he is an amazing poet!
this song is so beautiful for its depressing meaning i mean he is basically saying that the closer u get to something the farther u end up and u cant change your life cause it is pre determined