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| Headline | Slip Slidin Away |
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| Author | Comment |
Sweetypye
Dec-05-2005, 16:15 GMT
IP:
United Kingdom
 | Does anyone know the story behind the song Slip Slidin Away? It´s one of my favourite Paul Simon songs and im intrigued!!
Thanx. |
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Ans
Dec-05-2005, 16:29 GMT
IP:
Netherlands
 | At thedreamerofmusic.com there is a section where Paul explains his work, also this song. |
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Klausi
Dec-06-2005, 07:34 GMT
IP:
Germany
 | I don`t know why but it is also one of my favourite songs, if not the favorite. Seems many people feel the same, it is one of Simon`s three million-sellers.
Written in one hour! There are many different versions of it, the strong beat version on the extended "Still crazy-album", the acoustic version with the Oak-Ridge-Boys in the "Everybody say yeah"-1988 TV-gospel-show, two versions with AG, highlights in these otherwise mixed shows.
One of his few really pessimistic songs with no way of hope or escape. |
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Raumo
Dec-06-2005, 08:33 GMT
IP:
Israel
 | thank you Ans for that link. I really enjoyed reading about all those songs. :)
For some reason I don´t find it to be a pessimistic song...I´m not sure why, I´ll have to think about it some more... |
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Rosemary in time
Dec-06-2005, 13:49 GMT
IP:
United Kingdom
| I´m glad other people like this song but I must say that I think it characterises some of Paul Simon´s worst faults. I find it self pitying and trite. It flaunts its self-satisfied educated sensibility in phrases like "He wore his passion for his woman like a thorny crown" and it drags God in at the end to make it look important. But it´s just a song which asks us to admire it for being sad and serious about nothing at all. It came out during the punk revolution in England. Think of the passion in the Sex Pistols, the Undertones, the Jam. Then read this bit of dreary defeatist self-pity:
She said a good day ain?t got no rain
She said a bad day is when I lie in the bed
And I think of things that might have been
A good day ain´t got no rain?? Really, Paul, do grow up!!
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Guido
Dec-06-2005, 17:10 GMT
IP:
Italy
 | "She said a good day ain?t got no rain"
Couldn´t it mean that, sometimes, it doesn´t take that much to be happy? A bit of sun...
:-) |
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tnthub
Dec-06-2005, 23:08 GMT
IP:
USA - United Staates America
 | Perhaps a reference to Rainy Days and Mondays Always Get Me Down. The implication is that a day qwithout metaphorical rain is a happy day and if someone is having a happy day (Was A Sunny Day), even a little rain will not spoil the sunshine. |
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Mwami
Dec-07-2005, 02:18 GMT
IP:
Canada
 | I don´t agree with Rosemary´s opinion (but I appreciate it for being an opinion, rather than a pre-judgement, of which I have noticed a few on this site).
The song does not express self-pity but pity for others, for us all as a species.
I recently realized the brilliance of how "I know a father who had a son/He wanted to tell him all the reasons for the sings he done" could actually refer to the God of the last stanza ("God makes his plan/The information´s unavailable to the mortal man"). If "mortal man" is like God-the-father´s son, then the reason God´s plan is hidden from the mortal man is that God is just like the father who leaves without being able to explain things to his son.
Also, not being able to get out of bed is an accurate description of depression.
Songs can express anger and passion; they can also expression depression and defeat. All emotion is appropriate material; the execution is all. |
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Mwami
Dec-07-2005, 02:19 GMT
IP:
Canada
| Whoops, "things he done" not "sings he done"! |
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Scaaty
Dec-07-2005, 21:31 GMT
IP:
Ireland
 | When this song was written there was still a myth that a woman´s ambition started and ended with becomming a wife and this would enough be suffiecient. As women were becomming more educated many found that marriage became a trap as they had to give up their careers. That verse about a woman becomming a wife would have struck a chord with many young women at that time. This would have been one of my first favourite PS songs |
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Nik
Dec-08-2005, 09:00 GMT
IP:
Australia
 | that´s a clever theory mwami! |
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Klausi
Dec-09-2005, 09:50 GMT
IP:
Germany
| Somehow I agree to both Rosemary in time and Mwami.
The song is rather simple, the lyrics are simple and full of self-pity but also honesty, the song is very long, the arrangement of the song emphazises its simplicity.
But why is it so touching? You won`t find many similar songs in the Top-ten, if any. In Simons (and S&G`s) concerts it is very appreciated.
The key line is "The nearer your destination the more you are Slip Sliding Away".
This is true for shy people, desperately wanting to be near to their lovers but too nervous when talking to them. (Woody Allen`s "Play it again, Sam" is a good movie about this).
It is true for the losers and depressed, but in the last verse, also for many, who don`t know about it. They believe they are gliding down the highway.
Simon always liked those people, wrote about them, but he himself is a fighter and a winner.
He proved that as a famous singer/songwriter, but, more impressive or reliable, as strange folk-singer in England with steady and growing success on a smaller level. |
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Mwami
Dec-09-2005, 14:33 GMT
IP:
Canada
| Ah, I think "the nearer your destination" refers to all of us. For example, for many people here, one particular destination is Paul Simon´s new album. Say an official release date is announced, in March perhaps. Then many will say "I can´t wait until March; hurry up, time." But the closer you get to March, the closer you get to the date of your death. So, the nearer your destination, the more you are (your life is) Slip Sliding Away.
Depressing? Yes. True? Yes.
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Mwami
Dec-09-2005, 19:51 GMT
IP:
Canada
| By the way, Scaaty, your point is completely right, I think. |
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Sweetypye
Dec-12-2005, 23:49 GMT
IP:
United Kingdom
| Good point Klausi. But is it not also possible that the line ´The near your destination the more your Slip Sliding Away´ could refer to all of us, shy or not?
We spend our lives making and achieving goals (Our goals being our destination). The older we get, the more we achieve, until we have achieved all we can and subsequently, slip away? |
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