Today’s featured song is the 1968 soul classic Slip Away. It’s a bit of a cheeky one too because it’s focused on infidelity. The singer asks a girl to cheat with him. Tough to resist those pleas for the one Clarence Carter is singing it to. The backstory below is curious as well:
Bassist Marcus Daniel, Carter’s sideman recalled when in 1967 he had been feeling uneasy about his musical career: “I got down on my knees and asked God to allow me to do better” – as a songwriter and musician – “and stay with the band, and within twenty minutes I sat up in bed with both the melody and the lyrics of ‘Slip Away’ in my mind.”
Asked how a divinely inspired song could be centred on infidelity, Daniel stated – “I wrote about what I knew”:”back then…I was a bad womanizer, which…shames to this day‘. In 1988 Daniel would leave his musical career behind, serving as pastor in Alabama.
In 2009 Clarence Carter had a contrasting recollection of the origen of the song: “My bass player had written some lyrics…and he and I sat down and really put ‘Slip Away’ together.“
The co-writing credits in the end were given to musicians Marcus Daniel, William Armstrong and Wilbur Terrell. It’s said that the latter two didn’t contribute, but they were in bad financial shape and Carter wanted to help.
Slip Away appeared on the 1968 album This Is Clarence Carter. It would eventually serve as the B-side of the April 1968 single release Funky Fever was according to Carter his own suggestion, made in the hopes that Slip Away would prove to be a “flip hit“. But Funky Fever had a bad chart run just pipping just inside the 100 at No 89 on the US Charts. But Slip Away would break out as a flip hit peaking in October at No. 6 on the Billboard and the 44th biggest pop hit of 1968.
Gregg Allman released a version of the song as a single in 1988 which reached No. 17 on the U.S. rock chart.
What would I give just to have you near
Tell me you will try to slip away somehow
Oh, I need you darling, I want to see you right now
Can you slip away, slip away, slip away, yeah
Oh, I need you so
Love, oh love, how sweet it is
When you’re still in, darling, let me tell you something now
How sweet it is
Now I know it’s wrong, the things I ask you to do
But please believe me darling, I don’t mean to hurt you
But could you just slip away without him knowing you’re gone
Then we could meet somewhere, somewhere where we’re both unknown
Can you just, can you slip away, slip away, slip away, yeah
I need you so
Oh, can you slip away, baby
I’d like to see you right now, darling
Can you slip away now, baby
‘Cause I got to, I got to see you
I feel a deep burning inside
References:
1. Slip Away (Clarence Carter song) – Wikipedia
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
Thanks for reminding me of Clarence Carter. I did a post on him seven years ago and, among others, included “Slip Away” – great song! Frankly, Carter hasn’t been on my radar screen thereafter. I guess you could say sadly he slipped away!
I’ll look up your post to hear other music by him. I think I first heard this song on Max’s blog. It’s interesting ‘Slip Away’ comes just after ‘Blow Away’ because the singing of both titles isn’t that dissimilar.