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