New test: I updated all dists with quicklisp which reinstalled cl-ppcre and slime. I started a fresh emacs and Slime (9/2013) and ran the following test1.lisp (using asdf:load-system instead of require).

;; (require "cl-ppcre")
(asdf:load-system "cl-ppcre")
(describe 'cl-ppcre:regex-apropos)

After compiling the fresh cl-ppcre code it ran and gave me the following:

; compiling file "/home/jcunningham/slime/test1.lisp" (written 30 OCT 2013 01:10:24 PM):

; /home/jcunningham/slime/test1.fasl written
; compilation finished in 0:00:00.003
CL-PPCRE:REGEX-APROPOS
  [symbol]

REGEX-APROPOS names a compiled function:
  Lambda-list: (REGEX &OPTIONAL PACKAGES &KEY (CASE-INSENSITIVE T))
  Derived type: (FUNCTION (T &OPTIONAL T &KEY (:CASE-INSENSITIVE T))
                 (VALUES &OPTIONAL))
  Documentation:
    Similar to the standard function APROPOS but returns a list of all
    symbols which match the regular expression REGEX.  If CASE-INSENSITIVE
    is true and REGEX isn't already a scanner, a case-insensitive scanner
    is used.
  Source file: /home/jcunningham/slime/test1.lisp


Now it's switched its "source" for cl-ppcre to the test file.

--Jeff