Lyr Req: Outside Track (Henry Lawson)

Subject: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Jun 97 - 01:53 AM

Alan of Australia mentioned this song in another thread. Can somebody post the lyrics? It sounds interesting.

I checked the Australian folksong database, but didn't find it there. Here's the URL, in case anyone is interested:

http://www.chepd.mq.edu.au/boomerang/songnet/songnet.html

Priscilla Herdman has an interesting album called "The Water Lily," a collection of Lawson poems she set to music, with a tune or two from others.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 06 Jun 97 - 02:09 AM

Joe,

I have the words in a file somewhere and will paste them in this thread when I find the file. If not in the next few minutes it will be a couple of days - going to a folk festival this weekend.

Cheers,

Alan

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Alan of Oz
Date: 06 Jun 97 - 02:11 AM

P.S. have the Priscilla Herdman album and it's great.

Cheers,

Alan

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: THE OUTSIDE TRACK (Lawson/Hallom)
From: Alan of Oz
Date: 06 Jun 97 - 02:39 AM

Here we go (mild panic when I thought I'd lost the file):-

THE OUTSIDE TRACK
Henry Lawson
Gerry Hallom

The D port-lights Em glowed in the G morning mist that G rolled from the waters D green; A7
And D over the Em railing we D grasped his fist as the dark tide came be- A tween.
We G cheered the captain and D cheered the crew and our mate times out of A7 mind;
We D cheered the Em land he was D going G to and the D land he had A7 left be- D hind. G D

Chorus
For they D marry and go as the world rolls back, they marry and vanish and A7 die;
But their D spirit shall Em live on the D outside G track, as D long as the A7 years go D by. G D

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.

And one by one, and two by two, they have sailed from the wharf since then;
I have said good-bye to the last I knew, the last of the careless men.
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.

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.
For they marry and go as the world rolls back, they marry and vanish and die;
But their spirit shall live on the outside track, as long as the years go by.


Chords embedded in the text - an idea of my good friend Alison.

Cheers,

Alan

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Jun 97 - 04:26 AM

Thanks, Alan. Yes, it is a good piece of work.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: LaMarca
Date: 06 Jun 97 - 03:06 PM

Alan et al,
There's a first stanza that Gerry Hallom left off of his setting of the poem, that I've added back when I sing it:

There were ten of us there on the moonlit quay,
And one on the for'wd hatch.
No straighter mate to his mates than he
Ever said, "Old Len's a match!
'Twill be long, old man, e're our glasses clink,
'Twill be long e're we grasp your hand,"
So we dragged him ashore for a final drink
And the whole wide world looked grand...

This was from "The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Lawson", Angus and Roberts Publishing.

Hallom also omitted the last stanza. I have two of his LPs on Fellside Records; they're great collections of both traditional Aussie songs and his settings/recitations of some of the poems by Lawson, Patterson, Thatcher and others. Rumor has it he did a third album, but it never made it to our part of the US.

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From:
Date: 07 Jul 98 - 08:55 AM

Garnet Rogers does this on his "Outside Track" CD

Bob Schwarer

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Charley Noble
Date: 05 Jan 02 - 11:49 AM

Two of the fine Australian singers, Margaret Walters and John Warner, I met on my recent visit to Oz (5-String Banjo in Oz) do a fine rendition of this song on their CD WHO WAS THERE?, Feathers & Wedge © 1997; their version includes the first verse. Margaret occasionally lurks on Mudcat. Bok, Tricket & Muir also did a rendition similar to Gerry Hallom which leaves out the first verse on their HARBORS OF HOME CD. Hallom provided the fine tune.

Could someone post the original Lawson words so we can better appreciate the "folk-processing" which has been taking place?

Subject: Lyr Add: OUTSIDE TRACK (Henry Lawson)
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Jan 02 - 09:23 PM

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.

For they marry and go as the world rolls back,
They marry and vanish and die;
But their spirit shall live on the Outside Track
As long as the years go by.

The port-lights glowed in the morning mist
That rolled from the waters green;
And over the railing we grasped his fist
As the dark tide came between.
We cheered the captain and cheered the crew,
And our mate, times out of mind;
We cheered the land he was going to
And the land he had left behind.

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

And one by one, and two by two,
They have sailed from the wharf since then;
I have said good-bye to the last I knew,
The last of the careless men.
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.

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.

"Poetical Works of Henry Lawson," Angus and Robertson Publishers. First published 1918. ISBN 0 207 94373 7

For more information on musical settings of Lawson's work, the definitive work is Chris Kempster's "Songs of Henry Lawson." It is out of print, so you'll have to be lucky. Can't give publishing references - some bastard knocked off my copy.





Lawson was lamenting the gradual passing of the circle of drinking and writing mates he had, centred on the "Bulletin" magazine - which, by the way, is also but a shell of its former self.

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: breezy
Date: 06 Jan 02 - 10:18 AM

Garnett's version is 'back-of -the-neck' stuff.I think of my mate who's now Stateside.

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Jan 02 - 12:28 PM

Well, we're making some progress but now we have TWO versions of line 4 of the first verse, apparently from the same published source. I don't have the book in front of me. Am I supposed to flip a coin or write my own variant?

Ever said, "Old Len's a match!"

OR:

Had ever said, "Len''s a match!"

I believe these two variations have different meanings. Margaret is quite firm that "Len''s a match" is what's there and that the meaning is in her words:

the laconic "len' 's a match" [to light a cigarette/pipe] suggests an intimacy born of tough times shared together.

Any more thoughtful feedback?

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: lamarca
Date: 06 Jan 02 - 03:10 PM

I posted the first "version" from (faulty) memory, Charlie - Margaret is correct on both the words and the meaning.

I was lucky enough to get a copy of Kempster's collection of Lawson settings from 'Catter Bob Bolton - a volume well worth looking for on the used book nets. Thanks, Bob! It would be great if someone would do the same for settings of Banjo Paterson poems...

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 06 Jan 02 - 03:59 PM

"Back-of-the-neck" stuff???? Wazzat mean???

I use Outside track as #2 song in my Emmigration/Immigration medley... Opens with "Fields Of Athen Rye"... then "The Outside Track"... and closes with "When The Boys Come Rollin' Home"...

It's 8-10 minutes of music, and a bit of a haul, but it's a KILLER way to end the 2nd set!

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Jan 02 - 04:59 PM

Mystery solved. Thanks, Lamarca!

Now that final verse that no one sings:

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.

Does this mean that he's going out again to try to earn some money, and then follow his mates back to England when he can, rather than drinking to the bar-room wall?

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Jan 02 - 07:54 PM

Correction of my above: James Fagan does sing the last verse according to Margaret Walters.

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 06 Jan 02 - 09:16 PM

G'day all & sundry,

lamarca: I have not seen any count of tunes, but I doubt that there are anywhere near as many musical settings of Paterson's poems as there are of Lawson's. Paterson's a re good stirring poetry, but often in forms that don't drop as easily into ballad metre.

When Chris Kempster did the Lawson book, he had to leave out about half of the settings submitted ... now he has as many again! (We have been discussing just how some of these can be published.)Unfortunately, the book was not a great commercial success, so there is little hope of a 'mainstream' publisher reprinting, let alone doing an expanded, second edition.

BTW: There is some rumour of an un-accounted-for crate of copies of the first edition. Whether they still exist ... and, on which continent they are ... remains a mystery, but I would like to find the answer(s).

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: GUEST,Ernest
Date: 07 Jan 02 - 01:59 AM

Hello everyone,

a great version of this song was recorded by the band Midnight Court on their album "Ring the bell...run like hell", which contains not only the lyrics, but the notation and chords just as well. The website of the recording company should be something like magnetic-music.com. (I don`t work for that company, but I do like the band.).

Yours

Ernest

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: GUEST,hrothgar
Date: 07 Jan 02 - 03:17 AM

Bob Bolton is right - Lawson is made to be set to music, and Paterson is made to be recited.

With notable exceptions in both cases, of course!

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 07 Jan 02 - 07:56 AM

G'day hrothgar,

You're pretty right in that ... there are some Paterson poems that have worked well as ballads ... Clancy of the Overflow has had a few settings - some made it onto the top 40 charts! Artesian Waters has a couple of good tunes ... one shuffled back into 'ballad' form and the other meticulously crafted to fit Paterson's poetical form ... and both work well. But, by and large Paterson is great reciting, not great ballads.

Lawson, on the other hand, thought of his poems as songs ... and often referred to them as such. He didn't actually sing ... having a hearing defect that would have made such a course most unwise ... but oldtimers have said they heard Lawson sung more often in the bush than recited. I tink modern tune writers/setters are just following in the established folk tradition (I've even written the odd tune for a Lawson lyric, myself). But then, I'll recite Henry's Scots of the Riverina as a verse introducion to Wee Eric's No Man's Land ... and practically have myself weeping ... if not the audience!

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Jan 02 - 08:15 AM

Thanks to all above for their help.

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 07 Jan 02 - 02:10 PM

I'll ask again...

"Back-of-the-neck" stuff???? Wazzat mean???

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: breezy
Date: 07 Jan 02 - 02:55 PM

Bet it kills the audience too
How to spell Athenry. An American tourist , whilst in Eire really did ask directions for, ''That place called 'At Henry,'''.
I mean Outside Track, as performed by Garnet has so much emotion, and if you can empathise you'ld understand.If you don't then you're missing the intrinsicity of the song.Go back and start again.
The piece can be a stand-out number if delivered well and should remain isolated from others of similar sentiment .To include it as a medley is an insult to the author's artistry as well as his talent as a writer of merit.
Well how about that then guys and galls!!.
Gareth has sent me a donation to Mudcat in Trouble, thank you Gareth.

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Jan 02 - 06:54 PM

I keep losing track of where I've posted these links, but both Lawson and Paterson can be found online:look in these lists....you can download and print your own copy, or just read at your leisure....The home page is

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/

L list

P list

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 07 Jan 02 - 08:20 PM

Hey breezy... no need to be snarky... I just hadn't heard that turn of phrase before... "Back-of-the-neck-stuff".. interesting phrase...

Also...

"To include it as a medley is an insult to the author's artistry as well as his talent as a writer of merit."

Yer entitled to your opinion, but don't state it like it's a fact, or has grand merit o.k... I've only ever heard Garnet do Outside Track in medleys, like he does on his live album, Summer Lightning...

I also have had PLENTY of audiences who really like my medley, so you'll forgive me if your arrogant and condescending opinion pales in comparison...

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Charley Noble
Date: 08 Jan 02 - 08:04 AM

You want to step outside and say that? Sigh, more Mudcat spatting.

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 08 Jan 02 - 03:14 PM

tough!

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: breezy
Date: 08 Jan 02 - 03:24 PM

Well it works for Garnet but then he dont do it with At Henry!.
How many of us have got Summer lightening? Its the song about planting that hits home.
Peace on earth.
Can you come to the club on Fri 18th Jan at The Silver Cup , Harpenden, Herts?

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Francy
Date: 08 Jan 02 - 03:45 PM

Why ruin a perfectly good and interesting thread with petty bickering? Henry Lawson is a magnificent poet and yes, his poems work well with music....I've never met him, and problably never will; considering the fact that he's dead; but I'm feel quite comfortable with the feeling that he would like to have his poems sung and also put into medleys.....Let's just enjoy the knowledge and music we can share with each other....Be cool and enjoy...Frank of Toledo

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 08 Jan 02 - 05:07 PM

"Why ruin a perfectly good and interesting thread with petty bickering?"

Don't look at me... I'm not the one who played the "arrogant and condescending" card...

"Be cool and enjoy..."

Abso-frigg'n-lootly!

;-)

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Jan 02 - 10:10 AM

Now I want to know more about Henry Lawson. Does anyone have the title of a favorite biography they would be willing to share?

One of my West Coast friends was mentioning that Utah Phillips had just completed an Austraian tour in which he sang some Lawson ballads. Any comment from you folks in Oz?

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Charley Noble
Date: 17 May 03 - 06:01 PM

Refresh for "Q"!

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 17 May 03 - 07:59 PM

Thanks for the refresh. It had Bill D's link to online Lawson and Patterson material. Served two purposes- I hadn't updated my Acrobat, and found that I got a black screen with the Setis PDF files. Now the veil is lifted and I can read Lawson's "Verses popular and humorous," and others.

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 17 May 03 - 08:21 PM

G'day Charley Noble,

I think I must have missed your 09 Jan 02 posting ... I may well have been away somewhere and not picked up on the traced thread when I came back. I see no answer ... Did you you locate a good biography of Henry Lawson?

I had a quick scan of my shelves - and I mostly have the standard verse and prose collections. Somewhere, I think I had a very light biog - but it appeared to be aimed at school-age kids.

Anyway, if you didn't find a good one, I'll enquire what is in the market - possibly quote a few Author/Title/ISBNs that could help with a library search.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Charley Noble
Date: 18 May 03 - 12:20 PM

Bob-

I did find what I thought was a satisfactory biography of this intriguing man but I've since lent it out and it's still circulating on the outside track...

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Charley Noble
Date: 18 May 03 - 12:30 PM

Ah, found the title of the biography in my e-mail file of book orders: The Real Henry Lawson.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 18 May 03 - 01:14 PM

"The Real Henry Lawson." Author Colin Roderick, 1982. Quarto, 208pp. Found 8 copies at Abebooks.com, all in Aus.-NZ, $8-25 US depending on condition and the greed of the bookseller. Also by same author but more expensive- "Henry Lawson, Poet and Short Story Writer" but only 74 pp.
One that looks interesting is "In Search of Henry Lawson," by Manning Clark. "Compelling and often tragic." Anyone familiar with this one?

Looking for one to buy, but hard to select. There are others- seems like he was a popular subject.

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Charley Noble
Date: 18 May 03 - 02:07 PM

Yep, that's the one, Q, by Colin Roderick. I did just find my copy in the book shelf where I should have looked first instead of in the various piles around the house. It's in my opinion a good even-handed treatment of a complex life, and not too pricey.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 18 May 03 - 11:31 PM

G'day Charley,

The "standard verse ... collections" I mentioned included the magnificent 3-volume Collected Verse of Henry Lawson by Colin Roderick ... every single item of verse ... all the dates ... notes on the various versions, commentaries - the odd argument, &c. Roderick is the foremost individual chronicler of Lawson and has done a great lot of research. (I should probably seek out a copy of The Real Henry Lawson ... nobody said the internet actually saved you money!)

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Hrothgar
Date: 19 May 03 - 06:45 AM

Don't read his biography. It's too bloody depressing.

Just enjoy his work - and sometimes when I'm reading his poetry i come across something like "One-Humdred-and-Three" and I find that bloody depressing as well.

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Charley Noble
Date: 19 May 03 - 08:00 AM

True, there are parts of Lawson's biography that are depressing, primarily his last years, and if you're concerned about that risk then skip it.

However, after reading some of Lawson's poetry I really felt a need to know something more about the man and the life he lived, the experience that his poetry grew out of, for better or worse.

And now Bob has reminded me that I don't have "the magnificent 3-volume Collected Verse of Henry Lawson by Colin Roderick." That's really depressing, and more so with regard to my bank account. Maybe it's in paperback...

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 19 May 03 - 09:43 AM

G'day again Charley,

Actually ... I now see that the correct title is Henry Lawson - Collected Verse. My copies are:

~ Volume One: 1885-1900 (the great one!, Angus & Robertson, Australia, 1967, reprinted 1981. ISBN 0 207 14379 X

~ Volume Two: 1901-1909, Angus & Robertson, Australia, 1968, reprinted 1981. ISBN 0 207 14387 O

~ Volume Three: 1910-1922, Angus & Robertson, Australia, 1969. National Library of Australia Registry Number AU68-2745.

The first two volumes I picked up around the end of the reprint period ... but the third was finally sourced from Berlelouw's Rare Book Barn (the third one back ...) down at Bowral. Berkelouw's do have a book search engine at their web site (www.berkelouw.com.au ...?) - but that do take the "rare book" description seriously!

Some years back I did an interview with one of Henry Lawson's nieces (one of Peter James Lawson's daughters) .. and a few of her brothers and sisters. There should be a rambling tape recording ... somewhere ... from which I produced a small interview article in Mulgas Wire ... about 1980 ... along with a rather dubious song written and published by Peter and Charles - Henry's brothers! (A Little Town Called Budgee Budgee ...?)

Regard(les)s,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Charley Noble
Date: 19 May 03 - 07:17 PM

Colin Roderick writes:

"I have written his story with sorrow for his suffering and pleasure in his triumph...If there is anything to be learnt from the record of Lawson's life it is the old truth which every generation discovers that:

Men may rise on stepping-stones
Of their dead selves to higher things."

I think Roderick does a fine job of telling the story of the "real" Henry Lawson.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: OUTSIDE TRACK (Henry Lawson)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 08:07 PM

I'm not sure how much I've strayed from Gerry Hallom's tune. I have to admit becoming fascinated with finding fragments of "Roddy McCalley" and "Foggy Dew" embedded in his arrangement and I may have added a few other elements in what I've been doing. I've also done some relatively minor "folk processing" of the verses which look like this:

Words by Henry Lawson, 1896; original tune by Gerry Hallom © 1982
Primarily from the singing of Margaret Walters and John Warner,
Who Was Here?, Feathers & Wedge © 1997
Words and tune modified by Charlie Ipcar, 2002
Key: F (C/5)

The Outside Track

G----------D----------Em------------D--------G
There were ten of us there on that moon-lit quay
-----D-----------A--D--G
And one on the for'ard hatch;
----D---------Em---------D------------G
No straighter man to his mates than he,
----D---------G---D-A
No one could be his match;
-------------D----G—D--------------------G--D
"'Twill be long, old man, 'fore our glass-es clink,
----------------------------------------A
'twill be long 'fore we grasp your hand!"
----------D--------------Em----------D----G
Then we dragged him ashore for a final drink,
---------D------------A---------------G
Till the whole wide world seemed grand.

Chorus:
G--------D-----G----D------------------G----D
For they marry and go, as the world rolls back,
---------------------------------A
They marry and vanish and die;
-----------D-----------Em---------D-------G
But their spirit shall live on the outside track,
---D------------A-------G
As long as the years go by.

The port-lights glowed in the morning mist
That rolled from the waters so green;
And over the railing we grasped his fist
As the dark tide came between;
We cheered the captain, we cheered the crew,
And our own mate, times out of mind;
We cheered the land he was going to,
And the land he'd left behind. (CHO)

We roared Lang Syne as a last farewell,
But me heart seemed out of joint;
I well remember the hush that fell
As the steamer cleared the point;
We drifted home through the public bars,
We were ten times less by one,
Who'd sailed out under the morning stars,
Into the rising sun. (CHO)

And one by one, and two by two,
They've sailed from the quay since then;
I've said good-bye to the last I knew,
The last of the careless men;
And I can't but think that the times we had
Were the best times after all,
As I turn aside, raise my glass,
And drink to this bar-room wall. (CHO)

An MP3 sample of how I'm doing this can be accessed from my personal website: Charley Noble Personal Website

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 07:00 AM

Hi Charley Noble,

I've got a 4 page bio of Lawson's time in NZ, but will have to hand-type, so it could take some days.

Methinks 'Outside Track' was written at the same time as Lawson's prose 'Last of the Push' (title from memory - can't find 'While the Billy Boils' vII). Will was farewelling the last of his mates heading from Oz to NZ, looking for jobs such as shearing, during the 1890s Depression.

Again, from memory, there were about 4-5 yarns that mention the incident.

Anyway, Lawson ended up following them to Kiwiland for a while.

HELP BOB! You must have 'While the Billy Boils' on the shelf?

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 09:42 AM

G'day Sam (Sorry for misnomer in my earlier PM!),

The Outside Track was 1896 - The newly-married Lawsons had just returned from an unsuccessful attempt to settle in Western Australia .. and make something of a life there ... the new gold-rush had pushed up housing prices and they were forced to live in a tent.

I believe Lawson wrote this after seeing off yet another Australian writer going off "to make a name for himself in "the Old Country" ... England" - and Henry was off on the same quest shortly after ... this is what he refers to in saying:

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

(He had made a quick trip to Enzed earlier in 1896.)

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: GUEST,croc
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 03:51 PM

A B Patterson was better than Lawson

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 04:02 PM

Patterson was better at writing the things he wrote, and Lawson was better at writing the things he wrote.

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 04:10 PM

Better at what, croc? Why compare - is there a prize to be given? Can we not enjoy both?

Or did you simply mean that you like A B Patterson better than Henry Lawson? In which case - just listen to A B Patterson, and your world will be a happier one.

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 04:31 PM

*Snap*, Kevin

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Helen
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 05:27 PM

Paterson, not Patterson, also known as Banjo Paterson. I'm not sure whether that means he played the banjo. I never thought about that until now because we are at Mudcat and everything comes back to music here one way or another.

(Uh-oh, not another thing for me to look up on the 'Net! I've got enough of them already.)

Lawson can get a bit sentimental sometimes. I prefer Paterson but I can appreciate both.

Helen

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 05:40 PM

I think that "Banjo" refers to a racehorse he owned - I don't think there's any indication he ever played the instrument.

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 06:38 PM

G'day Helen & McGrath,

I think The Banjo was a racehorse owned by his family ... he adopted 'Banjo' as a nom de plume quite early in his writing career - well before he could afford to own a racehorse ... although, he definitely was of the 'horsey, fast set' of his day! ... And country station (~ = "ranch" [US] or "estate" [UK]) types all were much into horseracing on local town racecourses and at 'picnic meetings'.

A lot of Paterson's humorous poetry has racing as its background and he loved it ... and knew it well. Lawson's is the poetry of the Australian 'battler' ... carrying a swag on the rough roads, amking a living as best he can - and that doesn't appeal to those with upwardly-mobile pretensions.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: SINSULL
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 05:59 PM

Banjo Paterson - Waltzing Mathilda, right?

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 06:57 PM

G'day SINSULL,

Yes - inter alia! Paterson was a poet and author of a number of prose stories and books ... as well as a solicitor, journalist and war correspondent (Boer War & WW I), 'Remount Officer' (contractor supplying horses to troops in WW I). Very few of his poems went directly into the tradition as songs: Waltzing Matilda and The Bushman's Song (aka Travelling Down the Castlereagh or The Old Jig-Jog are probably the only collected examples.

In the "folk revival", a number of artists have set other poems - particularly Graham Jenkins ... best known for his setting of Clancy's Gone With Cattle and Cathy Sullivan, best known for her setting of The Song of Artesian Water. Graham Jenkins produced quite a decent book, full of settings of Paterson's poems ... but many have not had great impact.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 07:00 PM

Oops!

I think that the well-known setting of Clancy's Gone With Cattle is the "Wallis & Matilda" version! ... but Graham Jenkins certainly set a lot of Paterson's verse gto tunes.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 07:03 PM

Damn!

I also think the title I am overstating should be just Clancy ... I'm getting confused with Lawson's Andy's Gone with Cattle.

... The morning coffee's caffeine obviously has not had enough time to seep into my brain cells!

Regard(les)s,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Hrothgar
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 05:47 AM

Couple of loose ends ...

It has been said (can't remember by whom) that Paterson is the poet for the man who rides, and Lawson is the poet for the man who walks. That's not too far off the mark.

I've said this before - generally, Paterson's stuff is better recited (with obvious notable exceptions), and Lawson's is better set to music.

And there is only one Graham Jenkin - it's not Jenkins. An interesting man in his own right - see "Two Years on Bardunyah Station"; Pitjantjara Publishers, Adelaide, 1967. No ISBN shown.

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Charley Noble
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 06:02 PM

I'm still looking forward to singing "Outside Track" when I get back to Sydney in late November. Takes great courage to sing it back to the folks I learned it from, but I really fell in love with the song, and it's now part of Roll & Go's regular concert set and will probably be recorded on our next CD.

I think I mentioned up above, or maybe on a related thread, that I found the biography THE REAL HENRY LAWSON a satisfying overview of his complex life. It's good to know more about where the songs/poems come from, even if the story doesn't have an especially happy ending.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Helen
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 07:18 PM

Charley,

Do you have a copy of the book called The Songs of Henry Lawson (compiled by Chris Kempster; published by Viking O'Neil, 1989). I don't know if/how you would find a copy. Lovely book with lots of his poems set to music, with different people's music to the same poem in some cases. Lots of song fodder there.

One of my favourites is Do You Think That I Do Not Know.

Helen

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 01 Aug 03 - 08:05 AM

G'day Charley / Sandra,

Unfortunately, Viking O'Neill only printed a run of 2000 of The Songs of Henry Lawson and that made it too expensive at Aus$30 (nearly US$40, in the late '80s) - and there was no reprint.

I sold the last copy from the Bush Music Club stock, some years back, and I have never seen a secondhand copy (but I might be passing Da Capo tomorrow, and I'll just check there).

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Charley Noble
Date: 01 Aug 03 - 08:47 AM

Helen-

Maybe you could post the words to "Do You Think That I Do Not Know" in a separate thread?

Oh, I forgot to include a link to my personal website where I have a MP3 sample file of how I play and sing "Outside Track":Charley Noble Website

I believe what I'm singing is close to how I hear Margaret and John sing it, but I may have improvised some.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 01 Aug 03 - 08:59 AM

G'day Helen,

Sorry ... I meant to respond to you ... not Sandra. If you have the words to Do You Think I Do Not Know then post them - as Charley says, to a separate "Lyr Add" thread. I have them here, in anumber of books - Poetical Works of Henry Lawson, i>A Campfire Yarn, oderick and Kempster - but I don't (currently) have an OCR program on this computer/scanner arrangement.

If you haven't come up with the words ... once I have set up OCR - I might post myself!

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 01 Aug 03 - 01:26 PM

I've posted separately, but I'll put it here too:

Henry Lawson's "Do You Think That I Do Not Know" is in the DT here, and refers to the tune by Slim Dusty (as recorded by Martin Wyndham-Read, also by Priscilla Herdman). I can't get the midi to work, though.

This site has the tune by Chris Kempster.

~ Becky in Tucson
just back from a week at Pinewoods with Danny Spooner...

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Charley Noble
Date: 01 Aug 03 - 01:59 PM

Another Lawson poem which seems to fit well with "Outside Track" is "In the Days When the World was Wide." It's a long poem, and I'm not sure if it's been set to music. I could post it in another thread if it's not already in the DT.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Aug 03 - 05:18 PM

Anybody want to send me the tune/dots/melody for "Outside Track"?
Thanks.
-Joe Offer-
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Helen
Date: 24 Jan 04 - 07:21 PM

Joe,

Did you get the dots for The Outside Track yet?

I just opened this thread in a search for a thread on Henry Lawson's song, Do You Think That I Do Not Know, because of the Obit thread on Chris Kempster, who edited the Songs of Henry Lawson book and set many of the songs to music.

If you haven't got the dots I'll look it up in my copy of the book and scan it and send it to you.

Helen

Subject: Tune Add: OUTSIDE TRACK (Henry Lawson)
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 25 Jan 04 - 06:35 AM

G'day Joe and Helen,

I'm sure I would have posted the MIDItext version ... which is in my files ...:

ABC format:

X:1
T:
M:4/4
Q:1/4=128
K:C
E7D|C5/4C3/2C5/4C2EF|G2G2G3G|A5/4A3/2A5/4F2A2|
G6E2|F3ED2EF|E2F2G2G2|A5/4A3/2A5/4B3A|G6ED|
C2C2C2EF|G2G2G2GG|F2E2F2G2|A6AA|A2AAB2BB|
c2c2d2Bc|d3cB2A2|G6GG|G2F2E2GG|G2F2E2G2|A3AF5/4G3/2A5/4|
G6GG|A5/4A3/2A5/4B2B2|c2c2G2E2|F2GFE2D2|C6ED|
C19/4||

(Joe, if you already have it - just ignore me.

I'm just a bit shattered by the too early death, yesterday, of Chris Kempster - master collator (and author) of tunes to Lawson's poems.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

---

Click to play

(setting by Tony McLachlan, a Bush Music Club member)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 25 Jan 04 - 07:08 AM

The link to the Miditext S/W shows as not available.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 25 Jan 04 - 07:46 PM

G'day Foolestroupe,

Yes ... I am still using an old download of the MIDI to text string app that Alan (Foster) of Oz developed as a compact, text-based, music exchange program for Mudcat. I must ask Alan if he has a more recent version available (ie - one that has a current link!). I don't seem to have his home e-mail, post the disastrous total crash of my ()~) brand new hard disk, late last year - and I don't have his 'phone number ... perhaps I can get details from Alison, who performs with him in Beat Around the Bush Band.

The app should work anyway ... if you PM a suitable e-mail addie for yourself, I'll send you the 1998 versions of the two apps: MID2TXT and TXT2MID ... they're only (~) 1 KB each! (Come to think of it, the current versions may be downloadable from some link inside the Mudcat's FAQ, or some such handy spot ... I haven't looked.

Incidentally, the electronic file of my "sheet music" version of The Outside Track combining my setting into a music program of Gerry Hallom's tune with the Lawson words also was lost with my great crash (it all happened before I had backed up the whole disk!). I can probably find a good print and send you a fairly tidy 1-bit TIF of that ... or the appropriate page (127) in Chris Kempster's The Songs of Henry Lawson - that's in 'D' as well, but I reset it for my Monday Night Workshop group with the tune at the top - more 'conventional' sheet music layout, whereas Chris's book always has the poem words first, then the various collected or composed tunes following.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Outside Track - Henry Lawson
From: GUEST,Pip
Date: 31 Dec 05 - 02:22 AM

Lots of Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson info here including Lawson's months in Harpenden in 1900. Four-page chronology.

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:

---

Click to play (Bolton)

---

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

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: 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: 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: 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 - 07:25 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 - 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: Alice
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 08:21 PM

Thanks!

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

---

Click to play

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: 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: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 09:12 PM

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

---

Click to play

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: 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 - 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 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: 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: 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: 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 - 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 10:08 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 09:48 AM

King George III?