‘Slip Slidin’ Away’: The song Paul Simon didn’t think was good enough to release
For Paul Simon, it’s often the art of things left unsaid that warrants effortless creative flow. Even as he slowly, painfully, and unavoidably lost his best friend to the brutal hands of the business and other unsolicited duties, Simon leaned into his despair, bound by its opportunistic qualities and how the suffering made him feel creatively boundless.
Simon’s reality is that uncertainties—and there are many in his life—help to create the building blocks of a slippery slope that can seemingly materialise out of nowhere. The endless drives to the homes of long-deceased legends lamenting the memories of those he once deemed closest to his soul, Simon has had a lot of time to think, which almost always leads the mind to dark and dingy places.
For better or worse, this means that Simon almost always has a story to tell. Whether his joy or sorrow acts as a muse or benefactor, the mood that erupts from being somewhere in between estrangement and connectivity almost always allows his words to flow as easily as an overflowing cup, even if the composition itself isn’t aware of its desired destination.
‘Slip Slidin’ Away’ came together in just half an hour, but that isn’t the only thing that made the track free-flowing. Simon might have felt the pressure of churning out one more collection before finally severing ties to any of his previous engagements, but this particular song depicted an artist familiar with the ebb and flow of those unspoken words and how they can both help and hinder lyrical and melodic cohesion.
In his view, however, it wasn’t a very strong track, mainly because it didn’t really go anywhere once it started. The melody was endearing; Simon was sure of that, but the way it builds and guides makes it seem like it is headed somewhere specific, but it isn’t. This is undeniably one of the song’s strong suits, as Simon’s vocals and the arrangements seem inviting enough to yield their own power. Simon, of course, wasn’t so sure of this at first.
“The last verse is a powerful one, but the chorus, it keeps coming back to the chorus,” he explained in a 1990 interview with Song Talk when trying to establish what, exactly, made it fall short in his mind. “You know what that chorus is going to say,” he continued. “I always felt it should be shorter, but I didn’t know which verses to take out. I always felt that the record and the song stayed on a plateau. It didn’t build.”
Unbeknownst to Simon and despite his reservations, the song became a hit, its upbeat rhythmic edge and gorgeous melody appearing both contemplative and melancholic, the perfect match for Simon’s ongoing disillusionment with those around him. For some reason, Simon was a musical monolith during this time, one who could create half-baked tracks without much effort and watch them become timeless anthems.
But ‘Slip Slidin’ Away’ offers an especially intriguing narrative, largely because of Simon’s ongoing struggle to navigate complex, hard-to-define emotions. The song explores how uncertainty can serve as fertile ground for boundless creativity, and, in a distinctly Simon-esque, unconventional manner, it also reflects his overall philosophy at that point in his life — highlighting how moments of deep despair can be surprisingly productive. As he sings, “You know the nearer your destination, the more you’re slip slidin’ away.”
