Subject: The Outside Track From: Winters Wages Date: 18 Jul 99 - 11:28 PM Im, trying to find information on a song called the Outside tyrack sung by Garnett Rodgers..It goes "Well they marry and go as the world rolls by, they marry vanish and die, but their spirits shall live on the outside track as long as the world goes by" It is not in the data base....at least as I can see....Any info would be great...WW |
Subject: RE: The Outside Track From: bbc Date: 18 Jul 99 - 11:48 PM The song is on Garnet Rogers' recording of the same name. The liner notes say it is "a poem by Henry Lawson, set to music by Gerry Hallom. Gerry recorded this one himself, on a fine album called 'A Run a Minute.'" Hope that's a start. Nice song! bbc |
Subject: RE: The Outside Track From: Frank of Toledo Date: 18 Jul 99 - 11:49 PM A truly wonderful version can be heard on Timberhead CD "Harbors of Home", with Gordon Bok . Ed Trickett and Ann Mayo Muir. The song was written by Henry Lawson, words and Gerry Hallom music..... This is a poem from the great Australian bush poet Henry Lawson. Gerry Hallom, a British songmaker, set it to music and sang it at the Eisteddfod Festival, where Gordon Bok heard it and eventually recorded it. The story of a swagman's wandering life is told and shown that the life was not conducive to family-making, so if the swagman wanted to marry, he would have to give up his life style, the bad and the good together. |
Subject: RE: The Outside Track From: alison Date: 19 Jul 99 - 01:57 AM Hi Here you go... slainte alison |
Subject: RE: The Outside Track From: Bob Bolton Date: 19 Jul 99 - 02:54 AM G'day all, I have a terrible suspicion that Gerry may have read in aspects that Henry Lawson was not writing. The poem was written on the occasion of the departure of a fellow poet for the greener fields (spelt 'money') and culture of England ... "home" to so many colonial Australians and, unfortunately, often the only place they could aspire to making a living from their poetry. Regards, Bob Bolton |
Subject: RE: The Outside Track From: Winters Wages Date: 19 Jul 99 - 12:07 PM Thanks all. Alison, bbc, everyone...this has been a hard one to find. I have a recording by Garnet Rogers doing the piece...It has very moving words to me. Slainte WW |
Subject: RE: The Outside Track From: Winters Wages Date: 19 Jul 99 - 08:52 PM Alison..If you still copy...something is wrong with mi MIDI...all I get is CGI error...Also I did not get the guitar chords..Would you happen to have those?? Also the words to the tune.....Thanks a lot...Slainte Lloyd (WW) |
Subject: RE: The Outside Track From: alison Date: 20 Jul 99 - 04:18 AM Hi, I have sent you a GIF of the dots and chords, don't know why the MIDI doesn't work. I don't have the words.. but I know someone who does..... I'll leave Alan of Oz a message.... slainte alison |
Subject: RE: The Outside Track From: Alan of Australia Date: 20 Jul 99 - 07:45 AM G'day, I seem to have been volunteered by the person who has my Lawson book!!! However I do have a file so I suppose that's why. Cut&paste follows:-
THE OUTSIDE TRACK
Words: Henry Lawson
(First verse usually omitted
The (D)port-lights (Em)glowed in the (D)morning mist
For they (D)marry and go as the world rolls back,
We roared Lang Syne as a last farewell
And one by one, and two by two,
But I'll try my luck for a cheque Out Back,
Cheers, |
Subject: RE: The Outside Track From: Winters Wages Date: 20 Jul 99 - 11:08 AM Alison, Alan, you guys a great...Thank you so very much..It is a wonderful piece...Must be the Irish in me that makes me get so misty eyed on this song. I have problems performing some of these..if you know what I mean. Alison..I did get your mail with the song. I will download it when I get home..right now I am just into work on another system without plug-ins etc. Thanks so much guys..Slainte Lloyd (Winters Wages) |
Subject: RE: The Outside Track From: Bob Bolton Date: 20 Jul 99 - 06:54 PM G'day Al, Alison et al, For the benefit of Winters Wages, I should mention that Gerry's version of the song (same as sung by Gordon Bok) leaves out the first stanza. Alan's posting has the full 1896 version of the Henry Lawson poem. I was surprised that Gordon's liner notes (In his CD Harbors of Home) don't pick up on the ships and sailing theme - so close to his heart. Ships (and marriage)were were definitely on Henry Lawson's mind at the time of this poem. He had married Bertha Bredt earlier that year in Sydney and they sailed off to make a new life in Perth, in Western Australia ... over 5,000 kilometres (~ 3,100 miles)by sea, most of it in the teeth of the Roaring Forties. When they got there, they found a boom town, fueled by recent gold discoveries in Kalgoorlie, and prices skyrocketing. After some months living in a makeshift hessian hut, they gave up and sailed back to Melbourne, then on back to Sydney (probably by train). The poem looks at one more of Lawson's poet friends leaving Australia to find fortune in England and ends on the though that, if he came make one good cheque in Australia, he can afford to do the same. Of course things didn't work out quite that well. Regards, Bob Bolton |
Subject: RE: The Outside Track From: alison Date: 20 Jul 99 - 08:39 PM Subtle Alan, (or maybe not).... you WILL get your book back....... slainte alison |
Subject: RE: The Outside Track From: Winters Wages Date: 20 Jul 99 - 09:54 PM I love the history...I like to give a brief story before I do a song. I do these types of songs down at the Maritime Park here in San Francisco...I wonder...I cannot find any copyright info on it...Because it is a poem...I wonder who set the melody to it. I am doing a recording now and one of my songs was Donegal Danny...after a lot of research I found it was copyright..I did get clearance to do it (I feel good about that) I have a song also on the album that I wrote...so now...looks like I have to do what others have done. thanks again guys..I love Australia..have a friend down there in Sydney (over looking that famous bay.."It ain't leaving ol England we cares about..." You know what I mean.....Take care God bless Lloyd WW (not to be confused with WW in Wyo smile) 73's |
Subject: RE: The Outside Track From: alison Date: 24 Feb 00 - 12:23 AM Refresh.... for some reason the present thread won't load far enough to put in a response.... slainte alison |
Subject: RE: The Outside Track From: Willie-O Date: 24 Feb 00 - 06:28 AM Thanks Alison--I apparently crashed the thread when I pasted a whole html document including header into it. No idea why this would happen except for once in my life I was using Internet Explorer... Willie-O |
Subject: RE: The Outside Track From: Willie-O Date: 24 Feb 00 - 07:05 AM FWIW here's the first verse of the poem, usually not sung, as Alan says. I think it gives credence to the idea that the departing fellow--who has the unromantic name of Len as it turns out--is a poet not a bushwhacker. (Thread will not crash)aye W-O
There were ten of us there on the moonlit quay, |
Subject: RE: The Outside Track From: Clinton Hammond2 Date: 24 Feb 00 - 01:19 PM So I typed up lyrics and chords in that other crshed thread for nothing!?! Sheesh... Gotta like the poem though! {~` |
Subject: RE: The Outside Track From: Bob Bolton Date: 25 Feb 00 - 07:24 AM G'day WillieO,
The lines:
are Lawson transcribing of a typical Australian clipped phrase - correctly: The occasion was that of one of Lawson's fellow poets sailing to England to win fame and fortune ... and his name was not 'Len"! Regard(les)s, Bob Bolton |
Subject: RE: The Outside Track From: GUEST,lamarca Date: 27 Feb 00 - 12:46 PM Thanks, Bob! I've been singing this with the first verse put back in (Gerry Hallom left it out, and I've always wondered why), but was also under the delusion that the departing friend's name was Len...knowing this will help immensely! BTW, been off the 'Cat for awhile. I got your message, so thanks in advance for the Lawson book... |
Subject: RE: The Outside Track From: Willie-O Date: 27 Feb 00 - 01:57 PM I learned a lot more from this thread than I expected to...not all of it about Lawson and The Outside Track. Yeah, sorry Clinton--I noticed your postings were listed below mine--I guess we had the thread loaded at the same time, then I inadvertently locked it up, but you could still post to it if you already had it. Ain't technology a marvel... even Joe couldn't fix that one, but he told me Max did. W-O
|
Subject: RE: The Outside Track From: Bob Bolton Date: 27 Feb 00 - 09:49 PM G'day lamarca, Yes, I think Lawson was using 'dialect' to create an impression of the person - a fellow poet, one of the "bohemians of the Bulletin", the casual speech that of a friend among friends and the request "to borrow a match" and indication of their close friendship ... and their perennial lack of money! Norman Lindsay, Australian artist and author, wrote a novelised account of this life as The Bohemians of the Bulletin and it an hilarious read - but the hard life of young writers and artists come through clearly. I hope the Lawson book makes a quick trip - it is 11 days on its way. I have just sold the Bush Music Club's last copy ... to another, more local Mudcatter. Regards, Bob Bolton |
Subject: Origins: The Outside Track (song) From: GUEST,David Coffin Date: 31 Dec 09 - 04:29 PM I would appreciate any information about the song. I can't get it out of my head so I'd better learn it. I've heard different melodies and seen different words. Thanks. |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: Jeri Date: 31 Dec 09 - 04:43 PM David, I moved your question into an older thread. I hope it helps. There are a bunch of links at the top that may have some interesting information. I love this song, and I'd love to hear you sing it. |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: GUEST,David Coffin Date: 31 Dec 09 - 09:18 PM It took me a minute to figure out how I ended up here but this is helpful. Thanks Jeri. |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: Charley Noble Date: 01 Jan 10 - 12:20 PM When I was working up this song I deconstructed what Gerry Hallom, © 1982, had put together as a tune, making more explicit the parts that sounded to me like the traditional tunes for Roddy McCorley (verse) and The Foggy Foggy Dew (chorus). I also sing the first verse but left out the last verse, which I think kind of spoils the song. Here's a link to how I sing it on SAILORTOWN DAYS, 2009: Click here for lyrics and MP3! Cheerily, Charley Noble |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: stallion Date: 01 Jan 10 - 01:21 PM Thanks for the thread, I thought I would look my old mate Gerry up but he is not in the phone book, does anyone know if he is still living in York? I will have to search 'im out. |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: Charley Noble Date: 01 Jan 10 - 03:03 PM Pete- I just sent you a PM with my most recent contact info for Hallom. Charley Noble |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: GUEST Date: 01 Jan 10 - 03:26 PM Wongawilli put it on their most recent CD, Australia Street. It's also on their Myspace. Lovely song! |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: bfdk Date: 02 Jan 10 - 05:12 AM 'Guest' above was me, and I didn't even notice I wasn't logged in. No idea why I'd been logged out. New Year joke? :-) |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: Charley Noble Date: 27 Feb 10 - 04:46 PM Does anyone know what book this poem was first published in, around 1896? I can't seem to nail it down. I've done my usual web searches and have turned up nothing definitive. Charley Noble |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: GUEST,Gerry Date: 27 Feb 10 - 05:09 PM Lawson's first book of verse, In the Days When the World Was Wide, was published in 1896. The next books didn't come until 1900, so I'm guessing it was in that first book. |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: Charley Noble Date: 27 Feb 10 - 10:09 PM Gerry- In the Days When the World Was Wide was also my first guess but that book's available on-line and the only reference to "outside track" is in the unrelated poem "Outback." Charley Noble |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: GUEST,Gerry Date: 28 Feb 10 - 03:00 AM All my sources say the poem was published in 1896, but maybe one was wrong and the rest copied from each other. Or maybe it was published in The Bulletin in 1896, and didn't make it into a book until some years later. |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: Charley Noble Date: 28 Feb 10 - 10:15 AM Gerry- Yes, I've been copying and recopying that 1896 date for years myself. I've got a PM in with Bob Bolton. Maybe he can clear up this small mystery. None of my poetry books by Lawson include the poem in question either. Charley Noble |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: GUEST,Gerry Date: 28 Feb 10 - 07:36 PM The poem first appeared in a Sydney periodical called Truth on 27 December 1896. It was reprinted in the book, Verses Popular and Humorous, in 1900. This according to Collected Verse, edited by Colin Roderick, 1967. |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: Charley Noble Date: 28 Feb 10 - 09:54 PM Gerry- Excellent! Now everything correlates. I also found the citation to: Verses Popular and Humorous, by Henry Lawson, published by Angus and Robertson, Sydney, Australia, © 1900 But I didn't find an earlier one publication. Thanks for clearing that up. Charley Noble |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: GUEST,Onny Date: 06 Mar 10 - 07:11 AM I have an audio cassette of Archie Fisher singing this lovely song on one of the occasions when Danny Kyle 'held the fort' while Archie was on tour somewhere. Over the years the tape has stretched and it's now unplayable :-( There's another Henry Lawson book - The Best of Henry Lawson - worth tracking down. The ISBN is 0 908048 35 1 Onny |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: Charley Noble Date: 06 Mar 10 - 08:52 AM Here's my discography of who has recorded "The Outside Track," at least the ones I've been able to track down so far: A Run a Minute, Gerry Hallom, © 1983 The Outside Track, by Garnet Rogers, © 1985 Who Was Here, by Margaret Walters and John Warner, © 1997 Harbors of Home, by Gordon Bok, Ed Trickett & Ann Mayo Muir, © 1998 Between the Dark and Light, Nancy Kerr & James Fagan, © 2002 Rolling Down to Sailortown, by Roll & Go, © 2006 Sailortown Days, by Charles Ipcar, © 2009 I'm sure that there are other recordings as well and I'd appreciate title, artist, and date. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: GUEST,Gerry Date: 06 Mar 10 - 05:23 PM There's a recording by Chris Kempster on the (posthumous) CD The Songs Of Chris Kempster, CKP041, 2006 - the recording was made in the ABC studios in 1993. |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: Charley Noble Date: 06 Mar 10 - 08:46 PM Gerry- Thanks. Chris Kempster's name has surfaced a number of times and I'm sorry he no longer walks this earth. Charley Noble |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 06 Mar 10 - 11:11 PM Bob's review of "The Songs of Chris Kempster" |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: Charley Noble Date: 07 Mar 10 - 10:34 AM I finally found my copy of POETICAL WORKS OF HENRY LAWSON, published by Angus & Robertson. Sydney, Australia, © 1967, pp. 127-128. But I'd still be interested in the page reference for the original publication in VERSES POPULAR AND HUMOROUS. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: GUEST,Gerry Date: 07 Mar 10 - 05:17 PM When I type Verses Popular and Humorous into ye olde searche engine, first thing that comes up is a site at Sydney University library - but, alas, the pdf available there has no page numbers. It's the third poem in, starting on the 4th page of poetry. The second site that comes up is from the Gutenberg project - and that doesn't have any page numbers either. Then the National Library of Australia pretends to have it online, but that's just a link back to Sydney University. Then there's the oldpoetry site - but I can see Charley has been there, and he has probably been to all the other sites, too, and could have saved us some time by telling us so. It looks like there's hard copy at the National Library, but it's too far to walk. |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: Charley Noble Date: 07 Mar 10 - 06:13 PM Gerry- I'm a moderator at the Oldpoetry Website (and, boy, do we have some wild and crazy posts to moderate there!). I hadn't checked the on-line poetry books available at Canbarre or Sydney and I do appreciate your initiative. "Page 4" seems like reasonable information until we come up with something better. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 08 Mar 10 - 02:42 PM "The Outside Track" is in the edition of "In the Days When the World was Wide" which I have, in between "Second Class Wait Here" and "The Storm that is to Come". That's the "Collected Poetical Works" version originally published back in 1925. (My edition is quite a bit later!) Great song. And in the way a lot of the best songs are, it's at the same time very specific to a particular situation (a mate heading off to a distant country) and applicable to a whole lot of different situations - as the chorus goes, "they marry and vanish and die". |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 08 Mar 10 - 05:14 PM Back in the olden days, the only way for a colonial Australian to get recognition was to go "Home" (ie. to the land of the forebears) to the United Kingdom. The concept of Home (always capitalized) lingered well into the 20th century. When I met my father's cousins in the mid 80s they asked me if I'd been Home (I said I'd never been to Britain!) They were born in the 20s & only the granddaughters of Irish & Scottish women, but Home was still Home. There's a very famous illustration from a mid-19th century publication (Flower from Home or similar title) showing women & strong men weeping over a flowering pot plant that had survived the 12,000 mile trip. Australia was a little pond, & very inferior to Britain to many Australians - the Cultural Cringe was another long-lived concept. Over the same period many other Australians, often of Irish origin, held different opinions. Lawson wasn't an Anglophile, but was lamenting the fact that writers could only get success if they left Australia. It's a powerful poem & great song. sandra |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: stallion Date: 27 Jun 12 - 01:01 PM I think this answers my question Charley, thank you for pointing this out to me, why do i feel like I have had my bottom smacked? |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: Charley Noble Date: 27 Jun 12 - 01:32 PM Peter- Not to worry. Any good song needs to be swirled around, now and again. I never could sing "Len's a match" as in the first verse. Yes, I know what it means now but I'd rather not stop and explain it every time I sing the song. Instead, I sing "No one could ever match." I wasn't captured by this song until I heard Margaret Walters and John Warner sing it, with four verses, at a house party in Sydney, Australia. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: stallion Date: 27 Jun 12 - 06:26 PM yup your line scans better with me too, we made some minor tweaks - "And I can't help but think that the times we had were the best times of them all" |
Subject: RE: Origin: The Outside Track (H Lawson/G Hallom) From: Bob Bolton Date: 27 Jun 12 - 08:08 PM G'day stallion, Interestingly, as a Sydney-sider, I find your preferred text awkward - and missing the elements of regret and resignation in: " ... Were the best times after all... and I'm much happier with the published Lawson text: , And I can't but think that the times we had Were the best times after all, As I turn aside with a lonely glass And drink to the bar-room wall. Ah well ... the perils of a "world language ... "! Regard(les)s, Bob |
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