This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
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 from my home town
He wore his passion for his woman like a thorny crown
He said "Delores, I live in fear
My love for you is so overpowering
I'm afraid that I will disappear"
Slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip slidin' away
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 not rain"
She said "A bad day's when I lie in bed
And I think of things that might have been"
Slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip slidin' away
And I know a father who had a son
He longed to tell him all the reasons for the things he had done
He came a long way just to explain
He kissed his boy as he lay sleeping
Then he turned around and he headed home again
Slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip slidin' away
God only knows, God makes his plan
The information's unavailable to the mortal man
We're working 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
Slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're 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 from my home town
He wore his passion for his woman like a thorny crown
He said "Delores, I live in fear
My love for you is so overpowering
I'm afraid that I will disappear"
Slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip slidin' away
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 not rain"
She said "A bad day's when I lie in bed
And I think of things that might have been"
Slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip slidin' away
And I know a father who had a son
He longed to tell him all the reasons for the things he had done
He came a long way just to explain
He kissed his boy as he lay sleeping
Then he turned around and he headed home again
Slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip slidin' away
God only knows, God makes his plan
The information's unavailable to the mortal man
We're working 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
Slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip slidin' away
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I am interested in the answers to two questions about this (brilliant) song:
1) Is it the story of one single family? (passion --> marital stagnation --> alienation)
2) How much is autibiographical? I've always felt that verse three must be.
Please let me have your thoughts...
@ShineYouDiamond<br /> <br /> 1) This could definitely be interpreted as the story of a single family. Initially we see a passion romantic relationship, although there are hints of pain as well -- passion is compared to a "thorny crown", the woman's name "Dolores" translates to "sorrows", and the man expresses fear of losing himself in love. They get married but as time passes his wife starts feeling depressed and wondering "what might have been" if she had made other choices. The relationship falls apart and the man leaves his wife and son. Later, he returns, intending to explain to his son why he left, but in the end he just kisses the boy and leaves without waking him up. The last verse reflects on the bigger picture about how we go about our day to day lives without realizing that life may be slipping away from us.<br /> <br /> 2) Paul Simon wrote this song in 1975, when he had just divorced Peggy Harper after a 5-year marriage. They had a 3-year-old son at the time. So it's likely that this song was inspired at least in part by autobiographical events.