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Lyr/Chords Req: The Outside Track (Henry Lawson)

23 Feb 00 - 11:54 AM (#183416)
Subject: The Outside Track
From: GUEST,alisonhipwell@hotmail.com

Does anyone have the words and chords to the song The Outside Track. It is taken from an Australian Poem. The only part I know is part of the chorus which is something like: They marry and go and they never look back They marry and ..... and die and we'll meet again on the Outside Track. I heard this asong at a folk club, sung by Bram Taylor in 1986. It ois a lovely song and I would be very grateful if someone can help. Thanks Alison

23 Feb 00 - 01:57 PM (#183536)
Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: THE OUTSIDE TRACK (Henry Lawson)
From: Clinton Hammond2

This is one of the many songs I learned from Garnet Rogers.. The liner nots say it's a poem by Henry Lawson, set to music by Gerry Hallom...

I'm pretty sure I used to do it in D on my DADGAD...

This is from memory so forgive me my blunders...

The Outside Track

D---------G--------------------D
The port lights glowed in the morning mist
------G--------------------D---------A
That flowed on the waters green
----D---------G----------D------G---D---
And over the railing we grasped his fist
D----------------------A-------- As the dark tide came between
G---------------A-----------------------D
We cheered the captain, we cheared the crew
--------D--------------------A---
And out mates, times out of mind
---D-----------G------------D-----G---
We cheered the land he was going to
---------D-----------A---G--A--D--
And the land he had left behind

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

We roared "lang Syne" as a last farewell,
My heart seemed ouit of joint
I well remember the hush that fell
As the steamer passed the point
We drifted home throught the public bars
We were 10 times less by one
Who sailed out under the morning stars
And under the rising sun

Chorus

And one by one, and two by two
They've sailed from the warf since then
I've said goodbye 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 I drink to the bar-room wall

I hope that helps and that you get as much pleasure out of this song as I know that I have...

Take Ye Care Eh!

{~`

23 Feb 00 - 02:05 PM (#183549)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Outside Track
From: Clinton Hammond2

Man this HTML crap is a pain in the ass!!!

Formatted text isn't really that hard to do in a form is it?? Plenty of other MB's have it... Wouldn't this be the perfect place for it???

23 Feb 00 - 02:10 PM (#183557)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Outside Track
From: GUEST,Willie-O

Enh, what happened there--it dropped the text and left the commentary. (maybe an html thing) trying again

Clinton beat me to the punch, mostly, but here's more verses!

Not in the DT! Here's the complete text of the poem , I think. Most singers do not include the first verse and final chorus, which were not sung by Garnet Rogers on his recording (album also called The Outside Track) which most of us learned it from. Garnet made the interesting observation once that Lawson's poems were generally regarded as cliched sentimental doggerel when they appeared--and they are!--but that they make great songs. (He's converted several more of them).

The Outside Track by Henry Lawson

 There were ten of us there on the moonlit quay,
 And one on the forward hatch.
 No straighter mate to his mates than he
 Ever said, "Old 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 looked grand
 Chorus:

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

 The port lights glowed in the morning mist
 As it rolled on the waters 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 mate, times out of mind.
 We cheered the land he was going to
 And the land he had left behind.
 Chorus

 We roared "Lang Syne" in a last farewell
 But my heart felt out of joint.
 I well remember the hush that fell.
 As the steamer 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.
 Chorus

 Then one by one, and two by two
 They've sailed from the wharf since then.
 I've said goodbye 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 my lonely glass
 And drink to the barroom wall.
 Chorus

 Final Chorus:

      So I'll try my luck
      For a check Outback
      And a last farewell to the bush
      For my heart's away on the Outside Track
      At the back of the steerage push.

25 Feb 00 - 02:45 AM (#184563)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Outside Track
From: GUEST,Alisonhipwell@hotmail.com

Many thanks to those who found me tyhe words to the Outside Track it will bring me a lot of pleasure singing this one. Alison

25 Feb 00 - 03:52 AM (#184570)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Outside Track
From: Clinton Hammond2

And may I add, thanks to the HTML fairy who came and fixed the thread!!

I'll leave a bowl of milk outside fer ya!

{~`

17 Jun 20 - 08:15 AM (#4059685)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Outside Track (Henry Lawson)
From: GUEST,Gerry

Guest Willie-O posted lyrics upthread on 23 Feb 2000. The words Henry Lawson wrote differ in a few places from those lyrics. In the first stanza, instead of

No straighter mate to his mates than he ever said, "Old Len's a match!

it should be

No straighter mate to his mates than he had ever said "Len's a match!"

where "Len's" is a contraction of "Lend us". In the last line of that stanza, "looked" should be "seemed". Second line of the chorus, "And" should be "As". Fourth line of chorus, "spirits" should be "spirit".

Second line of second stanza should be "That rolled from the waters green". Fifth line, second "we" should be "and".

Third stanza, first line, "in" should be "as". Second line, "felt" should be "seemed". Fourth line, "As" should be "When".

Fourth stanza, first line, "When" should be "And". Line seven, "my" should be "a".

Final chorus, first line, "So" should be "But". Third line should be "Then a last good-bye to the bush". Last line, "At the back" should be "On the track".

Most of these are quite minor and make very little difference to the meaning, but I think the first and the last corrections are more serious. My authority is Poetical Works, a collection of Lawson's poetry published in 1925, and also the second edition of The Songs of Henry Lawson, compiled by Chris Kempster, published in 2008.

17 Jun 20 - 08:55 AM (#4059692)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Outside Track (Henry Lawson)
From: Sandra in Sydney

I remember another thread where US singers didn't understand the borrowing of matches!

but the I've sung some good mondegreens myself

18 Jun 20 - 03:15 AM (#4059804)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Outside Track (Henry Lawson)
From: GUEST,threelegsoman

The Outside Track (Including lyrics and chords)

22 Jun 20 - 09:55 AM (#4060740)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Outside Track (Henry Lawson)
From: Bruce D

Gerry, I'll back up most of the corrections, but they come from editing/re-writes for drifferent publications (Truth in 1896, Post in 1900 and the V.P.H. in 1900).

My source is "Roderick's" Henry Lawson Collected Verse Volume One (1895-1900.

23 Jun 20 - 03:57 AM (#4060884)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Outside Track (Henry Lawson)
From: GUEST,Gerry

Bruce D, I really ought to get the Roderick volumes one of these days. I reckon that for many of Lawson's poems, there's the way Lawson sent it off to the publisher, the way the publisher actually published it, the way later publishers published it in collections of Lawson's work, and the way(s) people sing it, and they may all be different, and who's to say what's authentic or correct? But I still try to avoid readings that are clearly wrong.

23 Jun 20 - 05:31 AM (#4060900)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Outside Track (Henry Lawson)
From: Richard Mellish

Wise words, Gerry!

23 Jun 20 - 07:00 AM (#4060923)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Outside Track (Henry Lawson)
From: Bruce D

You might have trouble getting a set of Roderick's volumes these days, there were nine from memory of which three dealt with Lawson's Prose and it took me a couple of years to get all three volumes of Prose in the 80's.

Critics of Roderick work used to joke that his 10th book would be one of Lawson's laundry tickets and railway tickets.

Bruce D

23 Jun 20 - 09:16 AM (#4060945)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Outside Track (Henry Lawson)
From: GUEST,Gerry

Bruce D, I see a used copy of Volume One on eBay for $56 (probably $56 US, call it $80 AUS). OK, maybe I'll rely on a library to have it. Hmm, trove says it's at Charles Sturt and State Library of Western Australia. This may be harder than I thought....