Monday, September 12, 2011

Slip Slidin' Away

[Note to Readers: These next several posts, before we head on into the Hearts and Bones album, will be dedicated to some of Simon's material which was written before this point, but did not appear on any of the regular albums up to this point. So expect to discover some lost treasures .]

In keeping with the chronological idea of this blog, this song should have been discussed before One-Trick Pony. It was intended for Still Crazy and now appears (albeit in demo form) on the CD reissue of that disc.

It was first released on Greatest Hits, Etc., and was the lead-off track on that compilation, which was issued in 1977, two years after Still Crazy and three years before Pony.

So, if this blog ever turns into a book, the order will be: "Silent Eyes" (the last track of Still Crazy), then "Slip Slidin' Away" and "Stranded in a Limosine"... and then "Late in the Evening" (the first track of Pony).

That bit of housekeeping taken care of, on with the show...

This song is an expansion of John Lennon's dictum, "Life is what happens when we're making other plans," or the expression "Man plans and God laughs" (which is found in Yiddish, but I can't believe exclusively.)

It has a nihilistic theme that presages the Kansas song "Dust in the Wind"... and an episodic structure that prefigures Springsteen's "Glory Days" (further, both songs first present a man, then a woman, then a father [in a lesser-known concert version of the Springsteen song], then a philosophical conclusion).

The song begins, in fact, with this famous chorus: "Slip slidin’ away/ You know the nearer your destination/ The more you’re slip slidin’ away." Often, Simon is not so declarative of the message of his song.

First, we meet a man who is a martyr when it comes to love. The first clue to this Christ imagery is the word "passion," which at first we think just means "lustful affection." But then comes the image of the "crown of thorns" Jesus was forced to wear during the Crucifixion, which causes us to reinterpret the idea of "passion" to also mean something more like a "Passion Play."

In his protestation, he explains that his love for her is so intense, he is in danger of losing his sense of self: "My love for you’s so overpowering/ I’m afraid that I will disappear." So, the "nearer" he gets to her, the more his self "slips away." Imagine an ice cube in love with a lit candle-- the closer it gets, the smaller it becomes, until it is no longer ice at all, let alone a cube.

The second verse is about a woman who lives in regret. She has already lost herself. She's not a woman who "got married," she "became a wife." As if that meant she was no longer a "woman" unto herself, but now defined by her relationship to a man. A good day, to her, is not even one that is "sunny," but simply one that "ain’t got no rain,” which is a pretty low standard for nice weather. Meanwhile, when it does rain and she is stuck in the house (because she can't buy a raincoat or umbrella?), she simply wallows in regret: "I lie in bed/ And think of things that might have been.”

In her case, she is not in process of "slidin' away"; it may be fair to say she has already slid. She is not beyond hope, however, as she is aware of her situation, and may someday grow tired of it and reassert her own identity.

Now, the man and woman in the first two verses speak. The third verse presents a father who intends to, but does not: "He came a long way/ Just to explain/ He kissed his boy as he lay sleeping/ Then he turned around and headed home again."

His silence is immense. The child does not even know that his father was there. We can only imagine that the "boy" in question is relatively young to receive that appellation, and is not married in any case. Is he a child or teen, still living with his post-divorce mother? Probably. The other possibility is that the son lives alone, in which case, he is in college or is working and living in an apartment. But how did he fall asleep and leave the apartment door unlocked for his father to enter? Did his roommate let his dad in?

The first scenario seems more likely-- a wayward father (maybe like the one in Springsteen's "Hungry Heart") returns, wants to explain himself, then considers the possibility that the son has gotten over him and that his return will only prove disruptive. Who is he doing this unburdening for, anyway? If it's for himself, maybe he should leave well enough alone. Certainly, waking a child up with, "Hi, remember me, your dad? Anyway, here's why I left. OK, then... back to sleep, now," is not something any therapist would recommend.

He has reached his "destination," only to realize that the distance between himself and his son is not measured in miles (or kilometers); he is right there, yet as far away as ever.

The last verse is the "...and God laughs" part. The key word here is "gliding." Not "driving"; we are at least self-aware enough to know we are not in control. But we do believe we are savvy enough to ride the road like an albatross does the air currents or a surfer does the waves-- able to change with the curves and even use them to increase our forward momentum... to "glide."

Even this level of control, Simon explains, is an illusion: "God makes his plan/ The information’s unavailable/ To the mortal man" (think of God's response to Job: "Were you there when I made the universe?"). We think we are headed toward our "destination," say, in our career or financial plan. But no, even as we reach our retirement or monetary goals, overcoming the curves in the road, we are missing the point.

We spend our time planning when we have no control over God's plan for us. We have no control over natural disasters or elections or wars or Wall Street or diseases or accidents or most other things. We can be "gliding down the highway" in entirely the wrong direction, but it matters not, as we will ended up where we were Intended to be regardless.

This song is about providence and predetermination. It is about fortune and fate... even fatalism. It's beautiful, yet a very sad and resigned shrug about mortality and the futility of human action. Everyone in the song tries for a goal and not only misses it but loses him- or herself in the process of aiming for it altogether. People lose themselves in the pursuit of love, stability, or money; even the father who went off to find himself now only sees what he lost in doing so.

This post began with a suggestion of which songs this one influenced, but writers as early as King Solomon concluded: "...all is vanity, and striving after wind."

IMPACT:
Amazingly, for such a somber number-- and one without a proper album to support it at that-- the song went to #5 in the US. It remains a radio mainstay, even if it is still only available on compilations (and, of course, online).

Along with "Fifty ways to leave your lover," "Mrs. Robinson," "Bridge over troubled water," and "Still crazy after all these years," the phrase "Slip slidin' away" has become part of the American linguistic landscape.

Next Song: Slow Man

24 comments:

  1. I am very glad I found this blog, thank you!

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  2. Thank you! Compliments are always welcome.

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    1. It’s seems to me it just represents some people who have goals they dream of accomplishing but when faced with what the responsibility of reaching that goal could entail they shy away from it

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    2. Anon-- That observation is in the song. But it's about half of the message. It's not just that people are too lazy or tired to achieve their goals, but that life itself can get in the way of these goals, and it's not their fault or failing at all.

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  3. Thank you so much this makes the song easier to understand !

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  4. ...fashiongirl: Glad you found this useful. That's what I was going for.

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  5. this is marvelous analysis. Very profound and esoteric indeed.

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  6. I think Simon is again expressing his emotions regarding his decision to split up S&G in search of recognition as a solo act, but his journey or destination/success was less than he anticipated....and this song is his battle to try and confess to his friend and partner the 'why'.

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  7. Bonnie-- I see what you're getting at, but the idea of "life is what happens when you're making other plans," as Lennon put it, is present in Simon's work all along. Look at "Bleeker Street," "Fakin' It," and "Richard Cory," "Somewhere They Can't Find Me," all about someone who had one idea in mind for how life would go, only to get severely sideswiped by reality.

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  8. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  9. Lea-- Your welcome. Glad you enjoyed it.

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  10. Excellent analysis. Such is life, brethren. As for the vanity of frantically striving for things, it wasn't King Solomon who came to that realisation. It was an obscure Hellenistic king of Judea, called Qohelet who probably was one of the very first ones singing about those slip slidin's away forces which carry us somewhere else like a maelstrom.

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  11. Writer: Thank you. "Kohelet" is often considered to be a pen-name of King Solomon.

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  12. No matter how much y'all content on this song or any song, and no matter how much you think you understand the meaning of the core of the philosophical or psychological meaning, impact, or purpose of this song or any discussion of this song, the more you are just slip slidin' away. Having said that, I want to say. Sometimes we can try to understand our existence and the purpose of it. I ask you, if one really grasps the futility of life, what good can come from that? What is the point in knowing something or having a very clear awareness of something if the something can never be usurped or fixed or altered or overcome. This song is a drag. It drags at your heart until you can't do anything but look back and wallow in the sadness of being a human being in the universe. I guess what I am saying is that music should lift the human spirit. Like the bumper sticker that says "spoiler alert, everyone dies", I say, yes, we all die, but right now we are alive, so live, live, live.

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    1. Good point. Perhaps implicit in pointing out that whenever we try we simply slip further behind is the idea that instead of trying we should simply live in and enjoy the present moment. Everyone in the song is worrying about the past or future rather than the present.

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    2. Cinde-- I don't get a strong "YOLO/carpe diem" vibe from this song. It's more like Ecclesiastes, "All is vanity" or the Kansas lyric "All we are is dust in the wind."
      Not every artwork that identifies a situation proposes a solution for it...

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  13. Unknown-- I don't think the song is unable to be understood, and neither do you, since you just explained it.
    To answer your question, "What is the point of knowing something it can never be altered?" that's... most things.
    Is this song sad? OK, yeah. If you don't like sad songs, don't listen to them.

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  14. The Paul Simon Project is a collection of videos sung by various Irish musicians over the last two years (and ongoing once all the Corona Virus has settled down and we can leave our houses again). Thanks to Another Paul for allowing me post links to songs as appropriate here. Hope you enjoy. Feel free to share..

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2LYa0vVXqs

    Adam Fleming sings Slip Slidin' Away

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  15. Thank you. I needed this right now, and it was appreciated.

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  16. Jack-- You are very welcome. Glad to be here for you.

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  17. Bringing us up to the present (March 2024), I just watched Stephen Colbert's interview with Paul Simon where SSA was discussed. Worthy of a look and pertinent to this discussion.

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  18. Anon-- Excellent suggestion. I would also recommend the documentary this appearance promotes, I Restless Dreams, about 7 Psalms, and the Malcolm Gladwell interview.
    Too often, artists die before they get the kind of attention Simon is getting now, in his 80s. It's really gratifying to see it happen while he is here to see it.

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