Lyr Req: Outside Track (Henry Lawson)

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?