Pink Floyd - One Slip Lyrics Meaning

This song is about how quickly, easily and unthinkingly we make choices that will determine our entire lives. More speicifcally, it's about how carelessly and irrationally we choose the people we marry.

The songs begins with a whirlwind romance. The man meets a woman, they have a great time dancing together, they spend a night together making passionate love... and after that, they just sort of gradually drift into marriage.

Do they love each other? They're not sure. Do they belong together? They're not sure. They didn't make a conscious, rational, intelligent decision- they just followed their hormones and their instincts, and before they knew it, they were a couple. And after a while, even though the relationship wasn't a particularly happy one, well... it was comfortable, and they didn't want to be single forever,so they wound up together for a lifetime.

They didn't know the night they met that this relationship would last for years. if they HAD known, they might have thought twice about getting together. But they DIDN'T think, and now they're paying the price.