Lyr Req: Outside Track (Henry Lawson)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track (Henry Lawson)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 09:48 AM

King George III?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track (Henry Lawson)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 08:53 AM

Bob and Sandra-

Nice to hear from you again!

I do find these dialect/slang terms fascinating. Here in Maine we only have the King's English. ;~)

It wasn't easy to locate C. J. Dennis on Oldpoetry because of the multiple-choice challenge presented by searching for poets with initials. Here a direct link to his page where there are over 200 poems listed: Click here!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track (Henry Lawson)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 04:33 AM

Charley - The Rocks Push & the other inner-city Pushes were street gangs & behaved like other gangs. I remember reading somewhere that their pointy toed shoes were one of their weapons.

Here' the whole series - The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke

& here's the DVD of 1919 version of Sentimental Bloke, & it includes a few clips so you can see why it's a classic.

sandra

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track (Henry Lawson)
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 24 Sep 08 - 11:58 PM

G'day Charlie,

It's generally accepted that the Australian Larrikin slang term Push is straight from the German Pusch ... often the manoeuvre, as well as the strong-arm group instituting it, of a takeover in politics ... such as 'Hitler's Beer-hall pusch".
There's a surprising amont of "foreign lingo" in the push slang - such as the 'girlfriend' Sandra described who was the Larrikin's 'cliner' (the German 'kleine' - 'little one')as well as his 'dona' - from the portugese 'donah'.

A lot of German terms arose on the earlier gold fields ... strikingly 'shicer' for a a hole you dug through lots of hard rock ... and didn't find a grain of gold. (German schiesse - what you might as well fill the hole with!

BTW: "... Oldpoetry.com where I unction as a forum moderator ... ". It's nice to see that you keep the process oiled

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track (Henry Lawson)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 24 Sep 08 - 10:37 PM

Rowan-

C.J. certainly has a way with words. I could listen to that all evening with joy, hopefully with access to a full bar! I will check him out on Oldpoetry.com where I unction as a forum moderator.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track (Henry Lawson)
From: Rowan
Date: 24 Sep 08 - 06:50 PM

Charley,
There is a rich lode concerning the colloquial meanings of "The Push" in Oz. While there were Oz military interpretations in WWI they had a backdrop of meanings as used earlier in both Sydney and Melbourne and celebrated in verse by both Lawson and C.J. Dennis.

Lawson is credited with authorship of the apocryphal "The Bastard from the Bush", a poem that has accumulated as many oral versions as Eskimo Nell (whose authorship is similarly obscured but credited to various poets of serious repute). Lawson did publish a very tame (by comparison) version, called "The Captain of the Push", which omits the most famous (probably) curse in Australian verse.

C.J. Dennis captured the lingo of the Melbourne versions of the pushes in his poems;
Er name's Doreen ...Well, spare me bloomin' days!
You could er knocked me down wiv 'arf a brick!
   Yes, me, that kids meself I know their ways,
   An' 'as a name for smoogin' in our click!
I just lines up 'an tips the saucy wink.
But strike! The way she piled on dawg! Yer'd think
   A bloke was givin' back-chat to the Queen....
      'Er name's Doreen.

"The Intro" from The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke by C.J. Dennis is just one example.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track (Henry Lawson)
From: freda underhill
Date: 24 Sep 08 - 09:34 AM

There is a beautiful version of this song, and many other Henry Lawson poems, put to music by Chris Kempster, and recorded on the double CD, the Chris Kempster Project

There are two discs, 30 songs, 20 or so artists and some wonderfully remastered archive material such as Declan Affley singing Henry Lawson's Do You Think That I Do Not Know.

Anyone who loves this song will love the CDs.

freda

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track (Henry Lawson)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 23 Sep 08 - 10:08 PM

Sandra-

Your explanation of "push" certainly clarifies a lot of things. It's a noun and not a verb! But it also most likely means a crowd or group with a lot of energy.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track (Henry Lawson)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Sep 08 - 07:23 PM

A push was a gang, or a group in 19th & earlier 20th century Australia.

Youth culture

Gangs of "young larrikins" hung around causing trouble in the gas-lit streets of Sydney after dark. They belonged to the "Glebe Push" the "Rocks Push" or the "Argyle Cut Push". They are described as having "slouch hats on the back of their heads, greasy curls, no collar or waistcoat, a bright handkerchief around their necks, an overhanging shirt, and tight trousers." They were mostly young unemployed males.

Their girlfriends wore very colourful clothes: favouring colours such as purple, puce, violet, scarlet and emerald green, frequently mixed together. They wore ostrich feathers drapeed over their straw hats. They wore high lace-up boots coming almost to the knee. often embroidered with designs and mottoes. They apparently wore shorter skirts than was fashionable with "respectable" people.

In 1890, only 3.1% of tobacco smoked was cigarettes. In 1904 this had jumped to 11.1%., but only the most "modern" of women smoked.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track (Henry Lawson)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 23 Sep 08 - 10:13 AM

I was musing this morning about what Lawson meant in using the term "outside track" and after reviewing this long and interesting thread came across Bob Bolton's response:

"Lawson uses The Outside Track to mean the working world beyond colonial Australia - contrasted to the home track, the familiar and accepting world of Australia."

There's also the idea that the "outside track" is a remote part of a sheep-herding station, remote from the boss's home, and thus beyond the overview of authority.

I originally thought "outside track" had more to do with horse racing, the "inside track" being the shortest but most competitive one.

Then there's the connection with the "steerage push" in the last verse, and "push" is not a word we're familiar with in the States but seems to have some military slang meaning as well, at least as it was used by Australian troops in World War 1.

I still love this song!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Rowan
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 04:33 PM

Perhaps I didn't clearly make the points I thought I was making; I'm not disagreeing with either McGrath or Charlie. I used the term "sombre" in reference to the "outside track" and the other resonances as a contrast to the usual meaning of "the inside running". To be determined to follow one's own muse/path/drum often requires a cutting/loss/separation/etc of comfortable and/or conforming "connection". Lawson could express this much better than most and certainly better than I.

I'm well aware of the flaws in the argument I summarised; they're so popularly trotted out and thoughtlessly consumed that I didn't think I needed to discount them. As an aside, I had ancestors on both ends of the ball and chain in the first and second fleets to Sydney Town and, even though I worked for a while in "Old Sydney Town" it was only when I went to South Carolina that I found out part of an answer to a question that bothered me. At the risk of thread drift (mea culpa) I'll outline it in case someone can fill in the remaining detail(s).

According to the book on the First Fleet put out in 1988 by Jonathan King, James Shears/Shiers was a bit of a thug and was sentenced to death in 1784 but his sentence was commuted to transportation and he arrived in Sydney Town in 1788. After Jonathan King's book was published, someone circulated a 5 1/4' floppy disc (remember them?) useable on Prodos (the original Apple version) with a digital database of the same info. Searching this showed up additional info. All the characters who'd originally been sentenced to death with later commutation were transported on the same ship. Fair enough!

The really interesting bit was that the original commutation to transportation listed Africa as the destination. Even now not many Australians seem aware of this. It was friends in SC who told me that the likely destination was the Gold Coast, which had a survival rate for convicts of ~2%; some commutation! But it also means that the change of destination from "Africa" to "New Holland" must have been made at a reasonably high level after 1774 but before 1786, when the Fleet was commissioned. The detail of this is the bit I'm missing.

Now, back to the Outside Track!

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 10:05 AM

As McGrath says:

"The power of the song lies in the way that it's not actually just about a bunch of mates heading off on their travels. It's about the way life sooner or later takes things and people we value away, and then it's our turn, because that's how the world goes."

I couldn't agree more. One of the reasons I actually learned this song was as a farewell to one of Roll & Go's members who was bound and determined to leave Maine and seek his fortune ten thousand miles away in Guam.

And anyone who wants to sing this song should, in my opinion, go back to the original words first (do your homework) and decide for himself/herself if they want to sing the song exactly as the poet composed the poem, or whether make some changes or incorporate changes by others with appropriate credit. You know, poets sometimes revise their own poems as well. Singers are hardly unique in this practice.

One of the reasons I sing the first verse is that I think it's essential for introducing the song. I don't sing the last verse because I think it compromises the message that I'd like to get across, ultimate abandonment and anger from the loss of old friends.

It's a great song!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 04:46 AM

America was colonised voluntarily by enthusiasts; Australia was colonised by forced labour.

I'm not at all sure that distinction is true. There were a whole lot of people colonised America who never wanted to go there - blaxck slaves, white slaves and indentured labour, transportees, reluctant refugees with no other escape from famine or terror. Trabnsportation to Australia only came about because it was nio longer possible to use the American colonies for teh same thing.

And there were plenty of people who emigrated to Australia in as hopeful frame of mind as people emigrating to America, after the first few years.

There's a knack some people have of dealing with hard times by relishing them, with a ironic glint in the eye, and I think that's something Australian songs seem to demonstrate. And I've never thought of the Outside Track as a basically sad song, not with that chorus. Tragic, maybe, but not sad.

There's a song dated 1918 by Peader Kearney, who wrote the Soldier's Song, which reminds me of the Outside Track - Down in the Village. It's about the company in a Republican watering hole in Dublin, Phil Shanahan's:

Sad is the theme of my muse and my story
Gone are the days of the snug and its glory;
Dark are the clouds that are hovering o'er me
Down in the village we tarried too long
(chorus)
Heigh Ho! Slán to the revelry,
Shouting and drinking and singing so merrily,
Red nights we never again shall see,
Down in the village we tarried so long

Dick in the corner there grinning and winking
Slater and Donoghue steadily drinking;
We did the talking and they did the thinking
Down in the village we tarried so long.

And there's another five verses.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Rowan
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 02:03 AM

I think it was McGrath who, much earlier in this thread, described the apparent differences between Paterson and Laswon in terms of Paterson being at home with those who rode and Lawson being at home with those who walked. I read through all the postings thinking that nobody had picked up on the resonance between "the steerage push" and "the Outside Track."

Charley Noble's penultimate posting comes closer with his '"steerage" being a reference to cheap nautical passage' but I think the sombreness of the connection with "outside track" has been missed by most.

gnomad asks "What is it about Australia and melancholy songs?" gnomad ought to explore Russian songs to fully plumb the depths of melancholy. But, some have theorised the Australian penchant for blighted hopes by reerence to colonial exploration times and contrasted the Australian experience with American experience. While entertaining I think it flawed.

It goes (more or less) as follows;
America was colonised voluntarily by enthusiasts; Australia was colonised by forced labour.
The further west that American explorers went, the better the appearance of the prospects (leaving aside the Donner party and the Morman's Helen Schneyer sang about); the further west the Australian explorers got the tougher (after Bathurst) became the prospects and the liklihood of finding the fabled inland sea.

It goes on and on in such vein, but, hey! You can't be gloomy all your life!

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 01:27 AM

"And one by one and two by two
They have sailed from the wharf since then"

- and in those lines the singer sums up a long sequence of partings, that ends up leaving him the last to go.

The power of the song lies in the way that it's not actually just about a bunch of mates heading off on their travels. It's about the way life sooner or later takes things and people we value away, and then it's our turn, because that's how the world goes. It's rather like The Mary Ellen Carter in that way - there's a universal story behind the particular events, and that's what moves us.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: lamarca
Date: 08 Jan 07 - 10:23 PM

George and I have been performing Gerry Hallom's setting, putting back in Lawson's original first verse and final chorus, for about 10 years or so. We've kept the words as Lawson wrote them, out of respect for the author - since the words are readily available in any collection of Lawson's poetry, why change them? (Note: over the years, I've managed to find at least 4 copies of "The Collected Verse of Henry Lawson" in various Angus & Robertson editions in used bookstores here in the US).

Bob was kind enough to send me one of the last remaining copies of Chris Kempster's book a few years ago, and Danny Spooner sent me the great double CD of Kempster mentioned above. The book is wonderful - Chris collected multiple tune settings for individual Lawson poems by many different composers, not just his own. I think that part of the CD project is an attempt to raise money to re-issue the book.

When we visited with Bob and Margaret Walters last year, George and I sang our version of "Outside Track", thinking it would be a novelty to hear it with all the verses and the final chorus - we didn't know at the time that Margaret and John had already recorded it that way! Everyone sang along, though. Talk about coals to Newcastle...

We also made a stop in Gundagai at this strange little museum in the storage area above the main street hardware store. There they had on display Henry Lawson's walking stick, a battered leather chair claiming to be his, facsimile copies of several letters, and an old Australian $10 bill with his picture on it. Sad to say, the current $10AU bill has replaced Lawson with Banjo Patterson - over 100 years later, and they're still competing with each other!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Charley Noble
Date: 08 Jan 07 - 05:16 PM

James and Nancy certainly recorded a fine rendition of this song. I believe James's parents did as well.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: gnomad
Date: 08 Jan 07 - 03:12 PM

For a seriously moving perfomance, including the sometimes-dropped final four lines, I suggest James Fagan's recording with Nancy Kerr.

You'll find it on Fellside CD167, "Between The Dark and Light". Also on Fellside compilation "Men folk" FECS1.

What is it about Australia and melancholy songs? As a nation they come across as cheerful and optimistic, yet they seem to produce some of the finest sad songs you can find [IMHO, of course].

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Charley Noble
Date: 08 Jan 07 - 08:35 AM

You both are mathematically challenged! LOL

In the next verse the singer is the only one left, he and his beer.

Of course, in the last verse that we don't sing, and no one else sings that I'm aware of it, the singer apparently goes as well, "steerage" being a reference to cheap nautical passage:

But I'll try my luck for a cheque Out Back, then a last good-bye to the bush;
For my heart's away on the Outside Track, on the track of the steerage push.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Jeri
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 10:24 PM

McGrath, I share your opinion of the 'ten times less by one' line. One man left, affecting each one of the ten who remained.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 09:04 PM

Maybe - but I'd read that as meaning it's diminished them, as the loss of any one of them would do, all ten of them. Still, I think if I was singing it in the States I'd do the same, to avoid the questions and jokes about "Who's this guy Len?" .

Great song. If it's one of your most requested songs, that shows good taste.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 08:52 PM

McGrath-

You may want to re-evaluate your assumption that "all (mates) being equal" in this song as composed by Lawson. The fourth verse runs (emphasis added):

We roared "Lang Syne" as a last farewell,
But my heart seemed out of joint;
I well remember the hush that fell
When the steamer passed the point;
We drifted home through the public bars,
We were ten times less by one
Who had sailed out under the morning stars,
And under the rising sun.

However, you are correct that "Len's a match" is unintelligible to listeners in the States and that we grew weary of introducing the concept.

It is one of our most requested songs.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: freda underhill
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 08:40 PM

Bob, that info re the Bulletin & aussies going OS to make it explains it all! thanks again for sharing your invaluable research & insight! I'll understand & enjoy that song all the more because of it!

fredalina :-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 08:31 PM

G'day Mcgrath (and freda),

Yes, I was aware that Henry wrote this 1896 - and, in a much earlier thread ran through the movement's of the newly wed Lawson's around that time. The lines from the final chorus, quoted 9½ years ago by Alan of Oz:

Last chorus
But I'll try my luck for a cheque Out Back, then a last good-bye to the bush;
For my heart's away on the Outside Track, on the track of the steerage push.

are an accurate prediction of Henry & Bertha's movements over the next few years: after their marriage in April 1896 they tried, first, Western Australian and then New Zealand before returning to Sydney and sailing to England in April 1900. Henry's The Men Who Made Australia, a bitter look at the "upper classes" fawning on British royalty visiting for the celeration of Australia's Federation, as a nation, no longer a "colony', was actually written in London ... and is still worth trotting out as a worthwhile antidote to fawning royalists during significant local celebrations!

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 05:10 PM

it was in a collection that was first published 1918.

But Henry Lawson wrote it in 1896. (See here) Which of course doesn't mean that the Great War wouldn't have given it a new relevance and poignancy, and that would have been a reason to include it in a 1918 collection.

I much prefer Lawson's "Len's a match" to the amended version - "No one could be his match". I suppose that's got the merit of being easier to understand in places where people don't use the expression - but it goes against the sense of them all being equal, and it's just that this is the one who is being seen off today. It sets him up as a hero, rather than as a mate.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: breezy
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 12:06 PM

migration mate

Garnet Roger's version is more generic as it omits the first and last verses.

And it still scans

IMHO

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 10:55 AM

Guess I'll have to give up my pet theory of what the "Outside Track" means. I've been thinking it was a horse race reference: those riders who avoid the competition close to the rail and sweep past on the outside track. Oh, well!

Gerry Hallom was very gracious to Roll & Go when we contacted him for permission to record his song, and he was pleased that we included the first verse which most recordings in the States oddly do not include; we insisted that he accpet full royalities, modest though they were.

The recordings that I am aware of in North America include Gordon Bok, Cindy Kallet, and Garnet Rogers; Jerry Epstein also played a significant role in introducing this song in the States.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 07:55 AM

G'day Freda,

Somewhere ... deep in the muddy depths of the Mudcat ... I remember telling (Charley Noble- ?) that the farewell is from the poet / writer / artist mob at Sydney's rather bohemian Bulletin magazine (then "The Bushman's Bible") to various of their number as they take ship and go off to "Home" ... England ... to gain a reputation - as they can't gain any creditabilty if they stay in Australia.

Lawson wrote this just before he set of with his wife (also by ship) to Western Australia, hoping for a change of fortune. Oddly enough, they were snookered by a new gold rush to the western fields ... taking up all suitable accommodation, raising prices, moving commerce and opportunities in publishing away from Perth. They stood the loss, made their way back to Sydney ... then sailed to England themselves.

Fortunately, in a big new, international world, talented artist, poets, writers, cinematographers and actors can succeed, these days, on the strength of their work in their own environment, not some artificial 'Mecca'. Back then, we really knew what was meant by "The Tyranny of Distance" - living as far from Europe (and America) as anyone could conceive of in a world where ships were the ultimate in travel.

In this instance, Lawson uses "The Outside Track" to mean the working world beyond colonial Australia - contrasted to the (?) "home track", the familiar and accepting world of Australia.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 07:31 AM

There were ten of us there on the moonlit quay,
And one on the for'ard hatch;
No straighter man to his mates than he
Had ever said "Len's a match!"
"'Twill be long, old man, ere our glasses clink,
"'Twill be long ere we grip your hand" -
So we dragged him ashore for a final drink
And the whole wide world seemed grand.


"Len's a match!

ie "LEND US (me) A MATCH"

The narrator is asking for a light for his pipe/cigarette

sandra

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: CET
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 06:29 AM

I see that Roll and Go change the fourth line in the first stanza from "Ever said old Len's a match" to "no one could be his match." I'd be tempted to do the same thing, since I have no idea what "old Len's a match" means. Can someone help?

Edmund

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Hrothgar
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 05:33 AM

I'm fairly sure Gerry put this to music after he returned to England. I can remember his singing around the clubs in Sydney in the '70s, and in those days, as I recall, he was just a very talented Nic Jones clone. I certainly can't recall his singing "The Outside track" then.

The first time I heard it sung was at a National Folk Festival in Canberra in about 1998, when Chris Kempster sang it to s couple of us - giving credt to Gerry.

Subject: Lyr Add: BILLY OF QUEENSLAND (Henry Lawson)
From: freda underhill
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 03:20 AM

I've just found another use of the phrase "The Outside Track" in a Henry Lawson poem published as a project Gutenberg eBook
Skyline Riders and Other Verses (1910)

here the Outside Track sounds like a track on the edge of a farming property (and some Australian farming properties are vast). On these huge properties workers would camp at the end of the day after doing their fencing or other work, because it was just too far back to the farm.

BILLY OF QUEENSLAND

"QUEENSLAND," he heads his letters--that's all:
    The date, and the month, and the year in brief;
He often sends me a cheerful scrawl,
    With an undertone of ancient grief.
The first seems familiar, but might have changed,
    As often the writing of wanderers will;
He seems all over the world to have ranged,
    And he signs himself William, or Billy, or Bill.

He might have been an old mate of mine--
    A shearer, or one of the station hands.
(There were some of 'em died, who drop me a line,
    Signing other names, and in other hands.
There was one who carried his swag with me
    On the western tracks, when the world was young,
And now he is spouting democracy
    In another land with another tongue.)

He cheers me up like an old mate, quite,
    And swears at times like an old mate, too;
(Perhaps he knows that I never write
    Except to say that I'm going to).
He says he is tired of telling lies
    For a Blank he knows for a Gory Scamp--
But--I note the tone where the sunset dies
    On the Outside Track or the cattle camp.

Who are you, Billy? But never mind--
    Come to think of it, I forgot--
There were so many in days behind,
    And all so true that it matters not.
It may be out in the Mulga scrub,
    In the southern seas, or a London street--
(I hope it's close to a bar or pub)--
    But I have a feeling that we shall meet.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: freda underhill
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 02:58 AM

g'day, Bob. This is such a tragic song. Joe I always imagined it was about farewelling mates going off to the Great War. it was in a collection that was first published 1918.
But a re-read of the lyrics shows Lawson hasn't mentioned the war. Whatever the reason for the exodus of young men sailing out of Australia, the song is a plaintive celebration of mateship and times gone by. The song is about a choice, a choice to go away or to stay. as the lyrics say..

"But I'll try my luck for a cheque Out Back,
Then a last good-bye to the bush;
For my heart's away on the Outside track,
On the track of the steerage push."

This says to me that the Outside Track is the track of the steamship, taking young men away (to war or wherever).

The exodus of young people from the bush, whether overseas or to the cities for jobs, is still lamented because there's a history in the bush that is so different from the experiences of people in suburban and urban Australia.

freda

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 02:25 AM

Now, THIS is what Mudcat is supposed to be about. I have to say that the lyrics of this song don't really move me and I'm not quite sure what's meant by "Outside Track" - but the Hallom tune is rich and nostalgic, and the chorus is wonderful for group singing.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 02:18 AM

G'day Freda,

The one I just posted was carefully set from the version printed in Chris's The Songs of Henry Lawson - With Music, Viking O'Neill, Ringwood, Vic., 1989. I also sent, to Joe, a scan of the tune, as printed and a screen grab of my setting - so he could double-check for any error! I must admit that a few subtle points, as I hear it - but not as written - are slightly different, but I may be 'hearing' Margaret Walter's subtle variations ... this is folk music!

I also think Alison's MIDI sounds like it has the "right" notes - but there's some problem with the tempo. Hers sounds a fair bit too slow. (Mine actually sounds a tad fast ... I think my music program has problem with speed ... about + 20%. Maybe it uses mains frequency as a simple regulatot ... but US 60 Hz is 20% faster than local 50 Hz. I tend to set my tempos about 28% faster, to suit my ear - but I probably should set them just 20% faster! Tut Tut - stop playing too fast!)

BTW: I don't know if Gerry wrote the tune while he was out here, back in the 1970s. He was the Institute of Technology, Sydney, administrative wallah I dealt with when I organised the Bush Music Festivals of 1975 and 1977 - but he wasn't asked to be on the concert bill ... because I didn't know that he was an accomplished singer! Chris's annotation has 1982, in the book - so Gerry may have set the tune after he went back to England.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: freda underhill
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 11:39 PM

on just re reading the thread, Bob's version as linked by Joe at Date: 06 Jan 07 - 09:12 PM is the version I recognise as being the version that Gerry Hallom wrote. It's the same tune that Chris Kempster sang (that I posted the link to earlier today) and is also the same tune as performed by Margaret Walters and John Warner on Who Was Here? (MP3 here)

freda

Subject: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Alice
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 10:26 PM

freda, thanks for posting that link!!

Alice

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: freda underhill
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 10:25 PM

The tune to the Outside Track was written by an Englishman, Gerry Hallom. Chris Kempster brought it to Australia and many Australian singers thought Chris wrote the tune, as Chris put so many of Henry Lawson's songs to music.

The song is recorded on The Songs Of Chris Kempster
(there is an MP3 of it at that link) and is attributed to Gerry hallon on the CD.

Chris Kempster had a remarkable influence on the bush and folk music movements in Australia through his enthusiasm for traditional song and for the poetry of Henry Lawson. His tunes for the poems of Henry Lawson are his enduring gift to Australian music, but sadly, there are very few recordings of him performing them. This double CD is a compilation of previously unreleased taped recordings of Chris and others from as early as the 1980s; and his songs presented by other singers on their own commercial releases, and recordings made especially for this project.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 09:12 PM

Bob Bolton send me his MIDI transcription of the Hallom tune. Thanks, Bob.

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Click to play

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Jeri
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 08:56 PM

The one I sent Joe sounds more like the tune to me, but the one Bob's sending will undoubtedly be the most correct, plus it's probably free of conversion weirdities.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 08:23 PM

Joe and Jeri-

Alison's setting is closer to Gerry Hallom's tune to my ears. What Roll & Go does is decontruct Hallom's tune into its composite elements and make them more explicit: "Roddy McCorley", "The Foggy, Foggy Dew", and one other that escapes my brain.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 08:23 PM

G'day Joe,

I was puzzled (alarmed... ?) when I played back that tune ... It obviously fitted the rhythm of the words but wasn't Gerry's tune. (OK ... I completely forgot that I had - a long time ago - annotated Tony McLachlan's setting!)

I've just set down Gerry's tune, as found in Chris Kempster's The Songs of Henry Lawson .. and it does sound pretty well right! I'll e-mail to you the MIDI file ... a GIF of the music program setting, with lyrics emplaced ... and a scan of the appropriate The Songs of Henry Lawson page 127.

Then I'll get back to making music sheets for setting out a booklet of good old "Bush" songs neglected in the last quarter century, post "Folk Boom" - for a workshop at the Illawarra Folk Festival, Bulli, NSW, Australia Day Weekend, 25 - 28 January 2007!

Regards,

Bob

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Click to play

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Alice
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 08:21 PM

Thanks!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Jeri
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 08:12 PM

Joe, the conversion is undoubtedly the problem. MidiText doesn't convert the rests in midis to rests in ABC. I messed with it (fixed the rest and simplified a couple other things), and I'll e-mail it to you. I fixed some tempo conversion problems, and it would be best to fix some other stuff, but if you don't want to wait (it might not matter), it's on the way.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 07:25 PM

Hi, Jeri - the main problem I have with Alison's tune is the whole note in the first measure - that may be a conversion error. I converted Alison's ABC because her direct MIDItxt has other issues, most notably a wavering volume.
Note that I added above that the Bolton tune was identified in another thread as a setting by Tony McLachlan, a Bush Music Club member....
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Jeri
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 07:21 PM

Joe, I'll play with it a bit tomorrow, but Alison's tune sounds just about right to me.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 07:14 PM

The Bolton tune is identified in another thread as a setting by Tony McLachlan, a Bush Music Club member....
I found a MIDItxt from Alison in another thread. It's closer to the tune I know, but not quite right, either:

Click to play (Alison)

If you can do better, e-mail a MIDI to me.
Thanks.
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 07:11 PM

Joe-

This is certainly not the way John Warner and Margaret Walters sing it, nor Gerry Hallom who set the poem to music.

Here's how Roll & Go recorded it based on Hallom's tune: Click and go to MP3 sample

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Jeri
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 07:05 PM

Bob's tune isn't the one I'm familiar with, although I'm not sure who wrote the tune I know, which I first heard on Garnet Rogers' 'Outside Track' album.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 06:55 PM

I've converted Bob Bolton's MIDITXT transcription of "Outside Track," but it sure doesn't sound like the version I know. Is Bob's transcription OK, or did I goof it up. Can anybody send me a MIDI for the other version? Here's Bob's:

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Click to play (Bolton)

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Identified in another thread as a setting by Tony McLachlan, a Bush Music Club member....