Words: Henry Lawson; Music: Gerry Hallom
This poem is another from the great Australian bush poet Henry Lawson. Gerry Hallom, a British songmaker, set it to this lovely tune and sang it an Eisteddfod Festival where he and I found ourselves one year. The swagman's wandering life was not conducive to family-making, so if he wanted to marry he'd have to give it up – the bad and the good together.
The port lights glow in the morning mist
That rolls from the water's brim
As over the railing we grasped his fist
'til the dark tides came between
We cheered the captain we cheered the crew
and out mates times out of mind
We cheered the land he was going to
and the land he had left behind
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
long as the years go by
We roared lang syne as a last farewell
but my heart seemed out of joint
I well remember the hush that fell
as the steamer cleared the point
We drifted on home through 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 by two they've sailed
from the wharves since then
I've said goodbye to the best 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
Chorus
The Outside Track is recorded on the album Harbors of Home