maleficent

'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald'

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DETROIT, Michigan (AP) -- It's an evocative song that defies description: Haunting yet comforting, wistful yet powerful, mythic yet real.

"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" was among Gordon Lightfoot's greatest hits, an unlikely Top 40 smash about the deaths of 29 men aboard an ore carrier that plunged to the floor of Lake Superior during a nasty storm on November 10, 1975, 30 years ago Thursday.

"In large measure, his song is the reason we remember the Edmund Fitzgerald," said maritime historian Frederick Stonehouse. "That single ballad has made such a powerful contribution to the legend of the Great Lakes."

Three decades after the tragedy, the Fitzgerald remains the most famous of the 6,000 ships that disappeared on the Great Lakes.

Lightfoot's initial knowledge of the sinking came from an article in Newsweek. The singer/songwriter, after reading the piece, was inspired to write one of the signature songs of his lengthy career.

Clocking in at 6 1/2 minutes, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" appeared on the 1976 album "Summertime Dream" and eventually reached No. 2 on the pop charts. It spent 21 straight weeks on the charts, and still lingers like the memory of the doomed craft.

The song remains a part of Lightfoot's set list; he played it last summer at Detroit's Fox Theater, where the crowd included Ruth Hudson, the mother of a deckhand from the Fitzgerald.

Hudson, who met backstage with Lightfoot, has become friendly with the singer over the years. The North Ridgefield, Ohio, resident said the song is therapeutic to the families of the crew.

"It's kept the men and the memorial to the men alive," said Hudson. "I think it's been good for the families. They have felt comfort in it. I have talked to just about all of them, and I haven't talked to anyone who didn't like the song."

Lightfoot declined to be interviewed for this story. But he told The Associated Press in 2000 that "Wreck" was "a song you can't walk away from."

"You can't walk away from the people (victims), either," he said. "The song has a sound and total feel all of its own."

'The good ship and crew was in peril'
The structure of the song is simple: 14 verses, each four lines long. Its 450-plus words are carefully chosen, delivered over a haunting melody.

The song tells the story of the Fitzgerald's fatal voyage, which began November 9 in Superior, Wisconsin, where it was loaded with 26,116 tons of iron ore for a trip to Detroit.

A day later it was being pounded by 90 mph wind gusts and 30-foot waves.

Ernest McSorley, the ship's captain, radioed a trailing freighter, the Arthur M. Anderson, and said that the Fitzgerald had sustained topside damage and was listing. At 7:10 p.m., he announced, "We are holding our own."

But the ship soon disappeared from radar without issuing an SOS. After a few days, a vessel with sonar was able to locate the Fitzgerald only 15 miles from the safe haven of Whitefish Bay.

Lightfoot's song does more than recite the facts. It transports the listener on board the Fitzgerald that fateful night:

"The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait/When the gales of November came slashing/When afternoon came it was freezing rain/In the face of a hurricane west wind."

And then the crescendo:

"The captain wired in he had water coming in/And the good ship and crew was in peril/And later that night when his lights went out of sight/Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."

Several memorial events are planned to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the sinking, including a ceremony at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point and a service at the Mariners' Church of Detroit.

Undoubtedly, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" will be heard and discussed.

"Any bit of literature, prose or poetry that magnifies the loss of loved ones is so dramatic," said Bishop Richard W. Ingalls of the Mariners' Church. "Gordon Lightfoot's song definitely has given it a life that seems not to end."
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Song Lyrics
Weird - I was just listening to the Gordon Lightfoot song, and saw the story on CNN that today is the 30th anniversary...

Do yourself a favor listen to the song

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Anxst

I've been to see the Edmond Fitzgerald's ship's bell a few times, being a Great Lakes wreck diver. It's at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Whitefish Point. She's too far down to go visit (the wreck lies in a little over 500 feet of water) for most divers, but she deserves to be remembered nonetheless. I'm with Mal, give the song a listen today!

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God of Thunder

That song gives me the chills whenever I hear it. I visited Lake Superior several years ago and was told by the tour guide that on it's WARMEST day, Lake Superior could get to 48°F. And that's during the summer.

Walking outside today the wind was pretty bad, and I'm in lower Michigan. I can't imagine how bad it is near Whitefish Point today.

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I reject your reality, and substitute my own

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Fly

just downloaded that great tune.......thanks for the reminder mal.

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BASTARD

SterlingStudios

Lucifer

I used to like the song, but I don't listen to it anymore. Superstitious, I guess. I work on the Great Lakes Freighters and I've been through all the lakes in November, December and January and for me, it's too real and too easy to imagine what it was like.

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I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
- Job 30:29

1123, 6536, 5321

Booray

Thanks for posting about this. A former coworker mentioned recently that it was the 30th Anniversary.

I found this site a minute ago and figured it might be of interest to some people here:
http://www.ssefo.com/

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Persuaded, paraded, inebriated, and down
Still aware of everything life carries on without

PastorTim

Great song.

Most ballads in general are good. Story telling in song seems to be a lost art in some respects.

"American Pie" comes to mind now too.

Good thoughts. Thanks for sparking them.

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And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. ~ Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour

pan6467

The thing I remember about this song is my high school English teacher.

We came to class one day and he told us that his girlfriend at the time had had a brother on the Edmund, when it was lost.

Here it was 10 years later and he still remembered the girlfriend and the song, to me at that time I didn't think was possible. Little did I know how vivid memories are, especially concerning women.

Then he played this song, and it is a decent song, and had us write on it.

Every time I hear or think of the song or the ship, I am reminded of that day in class.

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I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

barenakedladies

gordon lightfoot is an amazing artist... i especially like "carefree highway" as well.

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