Lyrics for Slip Slidin' Away as interpreted by angel2kiss

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

Interaction
Mail to a friend Send Lyrics to a Friend
Share on Facebook

Stumble It
Add to Del.icio.us Add to Del.icio.us




  • 29 Comments
  • Printer Friendly Lyrics
oldest first     Expand All
angel2kiss
07-29-2002

Rated 0 
Well i added this song, i think its really nice, the lyrics are brilliant he is an amazing poet!

Log in to reply
chunkymonkey102
04-14-2004

Rated 0 
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

Log in to reply
nillad1000
04-28-2004

Rated 0 
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.

Log in to reply
luckye225
09-27-2004

Rated 0 
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

Log in to reply
breathefreshair04
12-30-2004

Rated 0 
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.

Log in to reply
forsakenangel25
07-22-2005

Rated 0 
powerfully beautifull yet depressing yet true,ever since i heard this song it has stayed with me.

Log in to reply
XxFreebirdxX
02-16-2006

Rated 0 
I love how there are seperate stories in this song, and each story, although short, tells so much. Paul Simon truly is a wonderful and graceful song writter. Timeless song.

Log in to reply
thelesserthreat
07-09-2006

Rated 0 
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.

Log in to reply
nuggetbb
07-17-2006

Rated 0 
I agree with all of the other posts here...I think this is one of the most beautifuly sad songs of all time...I think Paul wrote this about himself too. The man that comes from his home town is him, the woman who became a wife is his first wife, once again the father with the son is him. He speaks of all of this "slidin'" he has done in his life and it relates to everyone who has ever wanted more, but just can't seem to find it, so they slip slide closer to death.

Log in to reply
edguidry
12-30-2006

Rated 0 
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.

Log in to reply
fryboy85
01-31-2007

Rated 0 
That one line gets me every time, made me want to tear up the other day while at work:
"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"
That is so true but we gotta forget about the past and press on to the future

Log in to reply
jdhockey526
02-27-2007

Rated 0 
This song makes me want to go home and kiss my wife and hug my kids. Every time I hear it I'm reminded of what is really important as I'm gliding down the highway.

Log in to reply
Interpretationalist
05-01-2007

Rated 0 
I read somewhere that this song alludes to Franz Kafka's "The Castle". In this story the closer the protagonist comes to the castle the further it appears to be. Thematically this suggests that it is easy become segued the closer you get to your destination... whatever that may be. A good maxim would be: Don't slack because the job ain't done!

Log in to reply
Erica07
07-05-2007

Rated 0 
He wore his passion for his woman like a thorny crown...
My love for you is so overpowering
I'm afraid that I will disappear..

Those are my favorite lines.
I think the song is about how the closer we get to what we want most in life (the one we love most), suddenly seems to become out of reach for some reason, we're pulled in another direction. When things don't work out the way we plan them it is God's will to decide what is best for us, or so we hope. The man seems to be so in love with his present girlfriend, that he almost fears the relationship because the love he feels for her has so much power over him. He loves her so much that it is painful "thorny crown". Maybe the paradox is that he loved her so much that he had to leave her, in fear of losing her some other way perhaps because he is moving away. We thus slip slide away from what we want most in life, although only God holds the power to control these situations, we have to believe that he will light our path and guide us in the right direction. My boyfriend and I just broke up and he used this song in his msn, I believe speaking to me. So I'd like to believe this interpretation!

Log in to reply
ang
12-30-2007

Rated 0 
I agree with Fryboy85. Every time I hear that part I feel overwhelmed by the sadness of it.
"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."

It's so amazingly sad and beautiful.

Log in to reply
jkid1190
02-12-2008

Rated 0 
it seems to me, and im sure this has already been said one way or another, that this song is saying that the closer we get to what we want the less we care about getting it. for example, i remember how i used to want to drive a lot, and now that i am of driving age i really dont care too much about it. the storyies in this song, though short and from different walks of life, all seem to tell the same tale. its a sad song, but it still is great. simon is right up there with billy joel in my oppinion.

Log in to reply
cerlo
02-27-2008

Rated 0 
We live our lives trying to get what we want and when we get those things we are still not satisfied and eventually we die. The song is all about this vision of live. The first part is about a man who has married the girl he has ever wanted but he is so devoted to her he is losing his life and eventually will leave her. The second part is about a girl who got married but is unsatisfied because she thinks of other chances she did not take in her life: she has regrets and is unsatisfied. The third is about a man who was about to do what he proposed to himself but failed at the very end and he is unsatisfied. At the end Simon thinks about all this and says: "ok, this is life, we can't do anything about that and only god knows about that". To me this vision of life is not so wrong, though this vision is not the only one. Anyway, a great song, no doubt about that!

Log in to reply
vainer
05-04-2008

Rated 0 
"You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip slidin' away"

"We work our jobs
Collect our pay
Believe we're gliding down the highway
When in fact we're slip slidin' away"

I think this means that we believe we're going somewhere with our lives and either stuggling or making progress, but we are ultimately moving closer towards death, slidin away.

Simon sings about different scenarios in life, but we being to understand the totality of life and how it works, but any illusions of progress and "gliding down the highway" are not true.

Log in to reply
theofficealliance
09-25-2008

Rated 0 
"He wore his passion for his woman
Like a thorny crown"-could paul simon be relating how passionate this guy was for a woman to how passionate Jesus was for us?

Log in to reply
theofficealliance
09-25-2008

Rated 0 
..adding on to what i just put above...i know that paul simon liked gospel music, so could this possibly be true? also, does anyone know why paul simon wrote this song?

Log in to reply
theofficealliance
09-25-2008

Rated 0 
sorry, but also--is it true that paul simon alluded this song to the castle by franz kafka? and is it true that his record company made him add in the last verse and that simon got the idea for this when lsitening to a song called slipping and sliding?
best line is "Believe we're gliding down the highway
When in fact we're slip slidin' away". i agree w/ 'thelesserthreat' that we're all going in the wrong direction toward material things. we are all in fact just slip slidin away. i also think it means that we are all in the same boat and we're all just headed toward death in the end.

Log in to reply
theofficealliance
09-25-2008

Rated 0 
wow, sorry but one more thing, does anyone know any background info on the album this was a part of?

Log in to reply
truckymacucky
10-25-2008

Rated +1 
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.

Log in to reply
FuToo
12-06-2008

Rated 0 
I always thought the line was:

"She said a good day
Ain't got no end."

As in, on good days, being a wife and mother keeps her so busy she doesn't have the time to give in to her disappointment.

Log in to reply
edguidry
12-15-2008

Rated 0 
Great sad song! I agree--I think he is saying that we work so hard to acquire something that really isn't all it's cracked up to be. Constantly pursuing goals that will ultimately leave us unsatisfied.
There is another goal or plan for our lives that we don't know and probably won't understand until life is over (the information's unavailable to the mortal man).

Log in to reply




  • Add Your Comments
What does this song mean to you?

You must be logged in to post your comments.

Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.





Popular
Top:   Lyrics, Artists, Albums
Random:   Lyric, Artist, Album

Your Ad Here