Album: Greatest Hits, Etc. (1977)

Charted: 36 5

License This Song 

• 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's 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 no rain
  She said a bad day's when I lie in bed
  And 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'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
  
  He's slip slidin'
  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 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
  
  Slip slidin' away
  Slip slidin' away
  You know the nearer your destination
  The more you're slip slidin' away
  Mmm Writer/s: Paul Simon
  Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 47

• Scott from Dallas, TxI respectfully disagree with Paul Simon concerning the repetitiveness of the chorus. I think it expresses well the mundane banalities of life that provide the comfortable numbness that fends off the terror of daring to face uncertainty and insecurity to pursue our dreams. It makes sense that the song should not grow, but stay on that plateau like the lives described whose lives don't change even to their last breaths.
• Jake from North CarolinaI disagree with Simon's judgment on this song-- I think it's perfect and one of his best. Less hermetic than a lot of his stuff, and not a second longer than it needed to be.
• Pdarwin25 from Nashville, TnI understand what Mr. Simon says about his meanings in the song. I am elderly, not as elderly as Mr. Simon - but to me - there is really only one destination we all have as mortals and it is usually seen in association with ... "and taxes". Often as one's health dips and recovers, then dips and recovers again - it is reminds me of this song by Paul Simon. It really does seem that I am "slip slidin' away". God bless you, Mr. Simon. I listen to and enjoy your songs. You are a man with something to say.
• Larry from Dallas, TxWithout Jesus Christ, we're all just "slip slidin' away".
• Seventhmist from 7th HeavenAt the time this came out, the driver of my school bus was named Delores. She took a considerable amount of teasing about it from her riders, but she got a kick out of it.
• Brian from West VirginiaThe Father/Son verse always makes me cry. It is so powerful, the idea that the Father, who evidently has not been there for his son, gets up the nerve to talk to his son, tell him why he did what he did, why he was not there for him. Once he is there, he realizes that this whole thing is not for his son, its for him and the best thing he can do for his son is not to burden his son with his guilt.
• Tom from Perth, Western AustraliaHi Dave - England - said "Don't over think it, don't waste time. Forgive and forget, say sorry, live and love to the best of your ability while you still have time. The clock is ticking for all of us."
  
  True... Have gone through 'the process' myself now...
  
  Made a promise to them... Then... Broke it...
  
  Too late now to go a long way just to explain... Anyway, maybe sometimes bearing the burden of regret is better than the neurosis of perpetual self-exhoneration.
• Dave from EnglandI have missed a few of the annual visits since I posted last, (Dave from Morecambe, had to re-register.), thought I would not have to come here again. 9th aniversary of my mum today, father went nearly 6 ago, saw my dad off exactly this time last week. The man, the woman and the father have now all slip-slided. The nine year journey is over, but lessons have been learned. I may have had a life depicted by a literal experience of the lyrics, possibly unique in that respect. None of us are 'gliding,' we are all 'slip sliidin'. Dont over think it, dont waste time. Forgive and forget, say sorry, live and love to the best of your ability while you still have time. The clock is ticking for all of us.
• Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn October 8th 1977, the NBC-TV network aired 'The Paul Simon Special'*...
  One day later on October 9th Paul Simon's "Slip Slidin' Away" would entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #81; fifteen weeks later on January 22nd, 1978 it would peak at #5 {for 1 week}...
  {See the 3rd post below}...
  * The 'Special' was produced by 'Saturday Night Live' producer Lorne Michaels; and four years later in 1981 he would also produce the 'Simon & Garfunkel in Central Park' concert.
• Tom from Perth, AustraliaHi Dave from Morecambe, United Kingdom
  
  Been a while since I posted here. Glad it worked out on your terms... Known many for whom it doesn't. Cheers.
  
  5th anniversary, probably my last post on this. They are both dead now, but explained. Hope my own understand.
  
  - Dave, Morecambe, United Kingdom
  
  Yes, Tom from Perth, I did. Fathers day, 2010
  
  - Dave, Morecambe, United Kingdom
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  To Dave, Morecambe, UK. Will the son go a long way to hear dad explain?
  
  - Tom, perth, Australia
• Dave from Morecambe, United Kingdom5th anniversary, probably my last post on this. They are both dead now, but explained. Hope my own understand.
• Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn January 22nd 1978, "Slip Slidin' Away" by Paul Simon peaked at #5 (for 1 week) and spent 20 weeks on the Top 100...
  It reached #2 in Canada and #4 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary Tracks chart...
  Was track 1 of side 1 on his 1977 compilation album 'Greatest Hits, Etc.', the album peaked at #18 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart...
  And this week as it peaked at #5 he was also on the Top 100 at position #53 with Art Garfunkel & James Taylor with a covered version of Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World"...
  Mr. Simon celebrated his 72nd birthday three months ago on October 13th (2013).
• Vinnie from Victorville, CaOK..I going to comment here on this and my situation will probably catch a lot of flack...I "share" my wife...to some you may not agree, but we are consenting adults...but the guy she meets doesn't know that I know EVERYTHING that is going on. And yesterday he texted her a few lines of this song. She has told him repeatedly that there will never be anything more than just the fun they have...no relationship, no leaving me or her wanting him to leave his wife for her...But he still continues to try and get her to tell him that she loves him also...yes...he has told her he is in love with her...so when he sent that text I googled the meaning of this song and i found this site and these comments. So for me, the reason i think he sent the text with a few of these song lyrics to her was to imply that he is the man in the first verse;
  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
  
  And I think he has put it in his head that she could be the woman referred to in the 2nd verse
  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"
  
  He is much older than her, and he is not happy in his marriage, he's not unhappy, but he doesn't experience anything to the effect of what he does whenever they meet up. So in our opinion, he is a hopeless romantic, who is forlorn and needing something to grasp that makes his life worthwhile. And when she reiterates to him that nothing more will come of what it is, he sees his life as slip sliding away...he wants something that he will never have. And as close as he can get to her he still realizes that it will never be, although he dreams that maybe in her mind she is not happy either and is doing this because she lacks something from me also. We can't tell him the truth because we have been using him, and we are going to bring this to a close, and it's all due to these type of texts becoming more and more frequent. It has come to the point where it's just not healthy for him any longer. This took a very bad wrong turn and was never meant to go this way. So call us bad people, but this post was just meant to add to the meaning/interpretation of these lyrics.
  
  
  
  
  
• Esskayess from Dallas, TxAfter this song came out, the morning host of a local radio station would play it every morning there was ice on the roads. He started to get annoyed phone calls tellng him to cut it out, but he never did.
• George from Glen Burnie, MdThis song tells me that one can reach for the stars.....
• Dave from Morecambe, United KingdomAnnual visit to what has now become a ritual. This years update is that the man who I travelled a long way to hear his explaination; is now slip-slidin himself. If he dosn't see the day out, I will freak out and believe in all kinds of s--t that shouldnt happen. Yeh. s--t happens, but not like this! At least I met them both...
• Jake from New York, NyCould the meaning be that we have our dreams and plans, but the more we pursue our own, the more we miss God's true meaning for our lives? Once we get what WE want, the emptier we are. Only in doing what God wants for us are we happy.
• Magic Kenny from Irvine, CaIt's about how we reflect on life passing us by - and the regrets we have in that life for the choices we've made. First verse: a man's overpowering love for the (wrong?) woman causes him to "lose" his identity. Second verse: a woman who "became a wife," whose "good days" aren't so good, and who's "bad days" are spent wondering how much life has to offer - and how she made the wrong choice in a husband. Third verse: a father who abandoned his son and traveled far to tell him why, to explain - only to leave, knowing he couldn't ever make his son understand why his dad left him. Last verse: we think we've got it all figured out, but ONLY in the moment. When we look back, we'll wonder why we didn't do things differently.
• Rick from Palm Springs, CaMarc from Perth hit it right on the head. I have known Ph.D candidates who can’t finish their thesis; Ph.Ds who are useless after they get their degrees because they didn’t want to DO anything, just be a Dr. Guys who work their butts off to get a law degree then become teachers or forest rangers. Guys who chase beautiful women and then treat them shabby after they get them or they “almost do this or almost do that.” Right on Marc.
• Charlene from Coquitlam, BcRediscovered this beautiful song on my daily commute (in the rain ironically). Moved me enough to search around to see what others had to say. This lead me to Songfacts ... glad I discovered this place. Look forward to joining the community!
  - Charlene, Coquitlam, BC
• Gracie from Toronto, OnI think the song is about mortality "slip slidin away"; your destination is death "the nearer your destination the more you're slip slidin away".
  
  Then the song goes on to illustrate some of the ways that one might waste their opportunities in life:
  
  The "man who wore his passion for his woman like a thorny crown" says to me that he was being crucified by her and that he was losing himself by loving her "my love for you is so overpowering i'm afraid i might disappear".
  
  I think you get the picture. The song ends by stating "we think we're travelling down the highway, but in fact we're slip slidin away". This statement illustrates our denial of death and our feelings of immortality.
• Dave from Morecambe, United KingdomYes, Tom from Perth, I did. Fathers day, 2010
• Tom from Perth, AustraliaTo Dave, Morecambe, UK. Will the son go a long way to hear dad explain?
• Angela from Knoxville, TnTo me this song is about illusion. It is about the way we chose to perceive life. Just when we think we have figured life out, we realized that it is an illusion of perception.
• Dave from Morecambe, United KingdomDont know how old this thread is, as I have only looked at this site for the first time today, for reasons that will become apparant. Lance, Calvin and Marc have all raised good points, yet there is also a more literal poignancy to me. I put this song on my mothers 'hospital' ipod in 2008. Having been a chid of the 60's, and brought up on S&G, Dylan, Floyd etc, I thought nothing of it. Unfortunatly she died a while later, listening to her music through a difficult time. After that, from death-bed conversations, I decoded a number on a scrap of paper, hidden for years. The phone number I rang, halfway round the world, was answered by my genetic father, who I had no knowledge of for 40 odd years. I will only find out later this year if 'he came a long way'. She died one year and two hours ago (09/02/09). I am still unaware as to whether she was a mate of Paul Simon,(she wasn't called Delores!) but I feel I have the ultimate definitive 'meaning' of the song covered in all aspects. Maybe the 'dad' that brought me up was verse one? I certainly thought 'I was glidin' down the highway'. Anyway read them again, after reading this, and should it realy be about mud-wrestlers, DONT TELL ME!
  
  
• Lance from Denver, CoJust my thoughts, but could the "destination" he is referring to be death? The nearer we get to our own deaths, the more we realize all the things we never did, or the things we wish we could take back. The last verse is what gets me thinking this. He says we believe we are just gliding down the highway and that everything is good, when in fact we are slip sliding away and wasting our time...
  
  I also like like the thoughts that Marc in Australia shared as well. Nicely put!
• Al from City Lights, VaI'm so glad I stopped in here. The thoughtful well written remarks are a ray of sunshine in comparison to YouTube. It is only those thoughtful well written remarks that inspired the passion to sign up and leave this comment.
  Very nice.
  
• Wes from Pietermaritzburg, South AfricaPete, you insightful Auzzie, you. Sorry everyone else, but detailed and comprehensive surveys, the validity of which can't be doubted, seem to point to the song in fact being about 2 mud wrestlers. I think in my heart I knew it all along.
• Trina from Oklahoma City, Okmarc from perth, australia: please get out of my head. i could not have, in a million years, articulated my thoughts more precisely than your comment. it's good to know someone else feels exactly the same as i. thanks...
• Calvin from Austin, TxSorry, Sircha, but I think the wisdom of the song is that "a good day ain't got no rain." The woman's life can be summed up with something that sounds like a epitaph: she became a wife. That's obviously a melancholy way to describe her ambitions and dreams and adventures. But, at the same time, a day without rain is a good day. And, when she is sad, it's usually about all the missed opportunities and what might have been. I'm not trying to argue for one, fixed interpretation, but where is the poignancy if we try to "one up" that condition or "grow out of" seeing sunny days as good days? And, avoiding pain would make for a valueless life.
• Jude from Ashland, OhWonderful...one of Paul Simon's best.
• Sircha from Perth, AustraliaAnd when I was young, unbelievably young,
  I prayed for good days without rain.
  And now that I'm older and wise (or insane)
  I pray for good days without pain.
  
• Farrah from Elon, NcI love this song. It's very poignant.
• Joyce from Acworth (orig. Cincinnati, Oh), GaI've been listening to and liking this song since the year it came out. Back then the lyrics weren't tinged with sadness the way they are now. To me, this song is about getting to a certain point in your life without even realizing how, knowing it's not what you thought it was going to be, knowing you've made wrong choices but feeling powerless to change them, so you just make the best of it the only way you know how. I can see myself in the wife. This song yanks at my heart every time I hear it, and depending on my mood, brings tears to my eyes. It's beautiful and sad.
• Marc from Perth, AustraliaI've always thought this song was an existential statement about the ironic disparity of value between desire and attainment. That is, when you have attained the goal you find your desire for it is "slip slidin' away" towards another as yet unattained goal. The verse about the father I find deeply affecting. I imagine an absentee dad rehearsing for years the reasons he abandoned his son. But after he "came a long way just to explain" he recognizes his son's pure innocence and realizes that his imagined grand speech is a litany of self-indulgence and his desire to justify himself evaporates so he "kissed his boy as he lays sleeping then he turned around and headed home again"
• Nora from N/a, FlTo me, if i may put in 2 cents--- This song is about life passing you by ...no matter how you live , no matter what you try to improve on..life passes you by anyway...."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..."
  
• Liquid Len from Ottawa, CanadaThanks Nick for the best explanation so far.
• John from Guildford, EnglandIt's probably way off target, but Franz Kafka's novel 'The Castle' is about someone desperately trying to get access to the castle (in this case, representing Kafka's father), but the nearer he seems to get to it the further away it actually is.
  Oh, and something which is definitely true - Paul came up with this song after playing around with the rock and roll song Slippin' And Slidin'.
• Pete from Nowra, AustraliaBrian !!!! glad you worked it out..don't tell anyone
• Jim from Toledo, OhThanks Nick, from deerfield beach, for using only the biggest words and most complicated syntax to interpret a straightforward song. my many thanks and gratitude go out to you and your family. glad to see that college education of yours paying some well-earned dividends
• Nick from Deerfield Beach, FlIn geometric spacial proximity, the closer on object comes to the other we see that the margin for error decreases. The nearer you get to something the greater the probabliity of deviation from that goal prevents us form actually getting where we want to get. In other words the nearer your destination the more your slip sliding away. At least that is how I see it.
• Brian from La Mesa, CaI really had the impression that Pete from Nowra was joking, you guys.
• Corey from Indianapolis, Indefinitely not about mud wrestling. always one of my favorites, about the futility of certain things of life- just don't try 'em.
• Jay from New York, NyHow in the world could a song with lyrics like "He wore his passion for his woman like a thorny crown", "My love for you's so overpowering I'm afraid that I will disappear", and "God only knows, God makes his plan, the information's unavaiable to the mortal man" be about mud wrestling? While lyrics can certainly be interpreted in many ways, there is no way anyone who has heard these lyrics can think they are about mud wrestling. There is nothing in these lyrics to support that interpretation.
• Sarah from Pensacola, FlTo me this song has always symbolized the feelings of "chasing a dream." It's like you can't get close enough--as soon as you have something you thought you wanted, you want something else.
• Oc from Westchester, NyI don't think this song is about mud wrestlers. It is a depresing song about death, "Slip Slidin' Away." Simon's final verse discusses how g-d's plan is unknown to man, but no matter what everyone dies.
• Pete from Nowra, Australiaheard it was a song about 2 mud wrestlers gettin' it on...... but i could be wrong
  
  

More Songfacts:

What's Love Got To Do With ItTina Turner

Tina Turner hated "What's Love Got To Do With It" but when her manager convinced her to record it anyway, it became her big comeback hit.

Uptown FunkMark Ronson

The actress Michelle Pfeiffer gets namechecked in the 2014 megahit "Uptown Funk" ("Michelle Pfeiffer, that white gold"). When it was released, "Riptide" by Vance Joy was on the charts; that song also mentions her ("Closest thing to Michelle Pfeiffer that you've ever seen").

Love Is A BattlefieldPat Benatar

"Love Is A Battlefield" was written as a ballad, but Pat Benatar's guitarist/husband turned it into an uptempo song.

Fortunate SonCreedence Clearwater Revival

The Creedence Clearwater Revival song "Fortunate Son" is about how the Vietnam war was being fought by soldiers without the privilege or connections to get out of it. "It's the old saying about rich men making war and poor men having to fight them," John Fogerty said.

Seven Nation ArmyThe White Stripes

Jack White titled "Seven Nation Army" after how he would mispronounce "Salvation Army" when he was little.

Station to StationDavid Bowie

David Bowie's "Station to Station" is over 10 minutes long. Bowie was doing a lot of drugs at the time and later said, "I have only flashes of making it."

Editor's Picks

Charlotte Caffey of The Go-Go'sSongwriter Interviews

Charlotte was established in the LA punk scene when a freaky girl named Belinda approached her wearing a garbage bag.

Jon Anderson of YesSongwriter Interviews

From the lake in "Roundabout" to Sister Bluebird in "Starship Trooper," Jon Anderson talks about how nature and spirituality play into his lyrics for Yes.

Spooner OldhamSongwriter Interviews

His keyboard work helped define the Muscle Shoals sound and make him an integral part of many Neil Young recordings. Spooner is also an accomplished songwriter, whose hits include "I'm Your Puppet" and "Cry Like A Baby."

Angelo Moore of FishboneSongwriter Interviews

Fishbone has always enjoyed much more acclaim than popularity - Angelo might know why.

Macabre Mother Goose: The Dark Side of Children's SongsSong Writing

"London Bridge," "Ring Around the Rosie" and "It's Raining, It's Pouring" are just a few examples of shockingly morbid children's songs.

Did They Really Sing In That Movie?Fact or Fiction

Bradley Cooper, Michael J. Fox, Rami Malek, Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Paltrow and George Clooney: Which actors really sang in their movies?