Slip Slidin' Away - Paul Simon (cover-live by Bill Sharkey)

Slip Slidin' Away (Paul Simon, 1977). Live performance by Bill Sharkey, Home Studio, Hawaii Kai, HI. 2025-09-14. "Keeping the Oldies Alive"

"Slip Slidin' Away, written by Paul Simon, was Simon's seventh solo top 40 hit rising to the no. 5 position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1977 and remained on the chart for 20 weeks (Whitburn, 2013). Simon has said that it took him 20 minutes to write the song, which is not typical. He said it "Usually it takes me a couple of months to get a song" (songfacts, 2025). "The song is repetitive, with the chorus at the beginning and then showing up again four more times. Speaking with SongTalk, Simon explained that this was a flaw in the song. 'The last verse is a powerful one, but the chorus, it keeps coming back to the chorus,' he said. 'You know what that chorus is going to say. I always felt it should be shorter, but I didn't know which verses to take out. Either the last verse or the father/child verse. But they all seemed like they had to be in there, so I left it. But I always felt that the record and the song stayed on a plateau. It didn't build.'" (songfacts, 2025).

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Lyrics:

Hoo-ooh-ooh-ooh-hoo, hoo-ooh-ooh-ooh-hoo

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 hometown
He wore his passion for his woman like a thorny crown
He said, "Delores I live in fear
My love for you 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

"And 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

And God only knows, God makes His plan
The information's unavailable to the mortal man
We're workin' 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

A-mm-hm-mm-hm
I wanna love, a-love, a-love, a-love, a-love, a-love, a-la-la-love
I wanna love, a-love, a-love, a-love, a-love, a-love, a-la-la-love
I wanna love, a-love, a-love, a-love, a-love, a-love, a-la-la-love
I wanna love and love and love and love and la-la-love
I wanna love, love, love, love, love, love, la-la-la-mm-hmm