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about

Drinking, and its associated activities, have always been a favourite source of subject matter for both popular and traditional song. Donneil Kennedy's The Works Outing, learned by Alistair from a recording by Geordie Mclntyre, relives a hazily-recollected, but monumentally boozy social club outing to the seaside. I'm not too sure of the seating capacity of an Alexander's bus, but between the Guiness and the "heavy", it seems to me that everyone on the trip must have put away at least twenty pints during the course of the day! The tune is a variant of The Soor Milk Cairt.

Glossary:
Bridies- Meat pies; Alexander's - one of the largest Scottish bus companies; Tattie crisps - potato chips

lyrics

Chorus:

There were sixty crates of Guiness and a barrel of heavy beer,
A box of mutton brides that would turn your stomach queer,
We hired an Alexander's bus and went upon a spree,
The day the social club it had a day beside the sea.

Well the bus had barely started when big Willie fell off his seat.
He drank ten pints of heavy, and he wouldn't stop to eat,
He cried, "The Kaiser's got me, 'cos I'm wounded in the rear!"
We hadn't the heart to tell him he was sitting in his beer.
And when the poker game got under way, there nearly was a brawl,
For the stakes were raised to tuppence and the weak went to the wall.
Big lan he got off his chair to drain a pint of keg;
He was sair put oot to find that he had lost his wooden leg.

Well, the bus arrived in bags of time, with fifteen pints to spare.
And some went paddling in the sea and some went off in pairs;
And Annie Brown and George McPhee went off among the rocks;
Whatever it was she said she lost, it wasn't just her socks.
And when the hour got round to opening time the season lost its charms,
For we happened to be parked in the back o' the Blacksmith's Arms.
We had wor supper in the pub, a pie and a pint of stout,
And bags and bags o' tattie crisps; a feast without a doubt.

Oh there were games o' darts and dancing, there were jokes and sangs enough,
And some of us that stayed the pace were feeling rather rough.
Just then the driver shouted "Time!" and big Willie shouted, "No!"
And he hit the driver such a clout, his nose began to glow.
"Hey, I'm old enough to be your dad; I'll have ye on the floor!"
"Oh haud yer tongue," said Charlie, "Man, he's only fifty-four."
He hit big Willie wi his stick and a fight got underway;
Now wasn't that the perfect way to end a perfect day?

credits

from This Side Of The Ocean, released December 28, 2021
Alistair - Lead vocals • David - Harmonica, chorus • Grit - Guitar, chorus • Ian - Concertina, chorus • Jim - Whistle, chorus • Laurence - Fiddle, chorus • Tam - Mandolin, chorus

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Laurence Stevenson image

Laurence Stevenson Brighton, Ontario

Having been born in Scotland and moved to Canada in my high school years, my life has followed parallel (but musically related) paths.
A career in radio, firstly as a radio news tech then a sound effects guy to creator of the CBC Radio Experimental Audio Room and finally as an international award winning radio producer for the popular show, Outfront, has been tracked alongside a life as a fiddler. ... more

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