Origins: Outside Track

Subject: Origins: Outside Track
From: GUEST,Robert H
Date: 05 Jul 05 - 04:36 AM

I got this song off the radio many years ago sung, I think, by Gerry Hallam. Apart from myself, I have only heard Stormalong John sing it, but perhaps I should get out more. Does anyone know who wrote it and what the song is about? I suspect that it might be like an onion, with different layers of meaning.

Subject: RE: Origins: Outside Track
From: Stewie
Date: 05 Jul 05 - 04:43 AM

Poem by Henry Lawson. Tune put to it by Gerry Hallom. I think there are plenty of threads in the forum on this.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Origins: Outside Track
From: GUEST,Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 05 Jul 05 - 04:46 AM

The words were written by Henry Lawson, the tune put to it by Gerry Hallom. On the Forum index page if you type outside track in the Filter box and set the Age dropdown to All and press the Refresh button, you'll find several threads about the song.

Mick

Subject: RE: Origins: Outside Track
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 05 Jul 05 - 04:46 AM

(cross-post)

Subject: RE: Origins: Outside Track
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 05 Jul 05 - 04:46 AM

The words were written by Henry Lawson, the tune put to it by Gerry Hallom. On the Forum index page if you type outside track in the Filter box and set the Age dropdown to All and press the Refresh button, you'll find several threads about the song.

Mick

Subject: RE: Origins: Outside Track
From: freda underhill
Date: 05 Jul 05 - 09:19 AM

THE OUTSIDE TRACK
Henry Lawson (1896), tune Gerry Hallom (1982)

Henry Lawson's fellow scribblers for "The Bulletin" were "the careless men" whose mateship was like that of the swagmen on the lonely bush tracks. The group fed apart as they each felt the need to prove themselves in the "mother country."   

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 grasp your hand!.
And we dragged him ashore for a final drink, till 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 heart seemed out of joint;
I well remember the hush that fell when the steamer passed the point.
We drifted home thought 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 barroom wall.

These words were taken from Margaret Walter's website, at
Margaret Walters

Subject: RE: Origins: Outside Track
From: SINSULL
Date: 05 Jul 05 - 11:16 AM

This is Charley Noble's best. I wish he would record it. Great song.

Subject: RE: Origins: Outside Track
From: Charley Noble
Date: 05 Jul 05 - 08:34 PM

Thanks, Sinsull, and we've already recorded it for our forthcoming Roll & Go CD ROLLING DOWN TO SAILORTOWN, available late this fall. Gerry Hallom graciously granted us permission to use his musical arrangement.

Our version is also inspired by Margaret Walters and John Warner's rendition. Freda's notes above are the most complete. Note that their version includes the first verse of the poem which is lacking in the version that was recorded by Garnet Rogers and several other North Americans. It really sets the scene and should not have been dropped. No one sings Lawson's last verse to my knowledge, and I see no need to add it.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Origins: Outside Track
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 06 Jul 05 - 12:38 AM

Charley Noble wrote, "No one sings Lawson's last verse to my knowledge, and I see no need to add it."

James Fagan sings the last verse on one of the albums Nancy Kerr and he recorded.

Subject: RE: Origins: Outside Track
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 06 Jul 05 - 12:45 AM

G'day Charlie,

Well, we are going to continue to differ on that point ...

I guess that the final verse will always appeal to those who know a lot of Lawson and his battle with self-image, hearing difficulties and the drink that was often his only solace ... but it doesn't suit the American temperament!

Regard(les)s,

Bob

Subject: RE: Origins: Outside Track
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 06 Jul 05 - 04:28 AM

G'day again Charlie,

Just a note of coincidence: I was down Below the Salt (well, wading in the BS ...) and, in the "BS: 'Catters Missing In Action" thread I found McGrath (in Harlow ... ?) quoting just that final verse to illustrate a point!

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Origins: Outside Track
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 06 Jul 05 - 08:05 AM

Give me Garnet Rogers cover of this any day...

Subject: RE: Origins: Outside Track
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Jul 05 - 09:37 AM

The longest related thread up above seems to do the best job of covering Robert's question. Suffice to say Lawson's poem "The Outside Track" makes a great song and many well-known singers have recorded versions of it, including Maine's own Gordon Bok.

I do have James Fagan's recording as well, and he does include the alternative last chorus. I enjoyed singing my version of the song to his parents at a song party in Sydney a few years ago.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Origins: Outside Track
From: GUEST,Derrick Pitts
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 06:37 PM

Speaking of The Outside Track, many years ago I had a recording by Gerry Hallam, Travellin Down the Castlereagh. Lost it but am trying to locate the recording and information about Hallam. Can't seem to find either. Any leads?

With much appreciation for a very fine performer,


Derrick Pitts

Subject: RE: Origins: Outside Track
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 07:52 PM

Castlereagh & Run a Minute on eBay, £12.99 & £12.55 (Buy It Now prices)

Ross (two different sellers, neither of them me!)