50 Years Ago: The SS Edmund Fitzgerald Sinks and Inspires a Gordon Lightfoot Hit

UltimateClassicRock ^ | Nov. 14, 2025 | Allison Rapp

[Governor Dinwiddie]

#15: "Of course, those in favor of unintelligible, bouncy, stupid lyrics think otherwise."

Ah, that would be me.

My all time favorite is that 1962 classic "Mashed Potato Time" by Dee Dee Sharp.

[Fiji Hill]

A maritime disaster in the Great Lakes also inspired this hymn, composed in 1871 by the great American hymnodist Phillip Paul Bliss. The incident in question was likely an accident in or near Cleveland Harbor in 1867 in which a ship ran aground and a sailor was killed.

Let the Lower Lights Be Burning--Ely (England) Cathedral Choir

[Go_Raiders]

“they rang the bell 30 times...”

I’m not crying, you’re crying

[Engraved-on-His-hands]

Yep.

[bwest]

What a stupid comment.

[CtBigPat]

I found out the other day the version of the song you hear on the record was the first time the band played it. They nailed it on the first take.

The story behind Gordon Lightfoot's 'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald'

[virgil]

Went camping one weekend in northern Wisconsin. The first night, a storm blew in off Superior around 1am or so. Wicked. Really noisy, windy. It blew the door off the cabin and made a terrible crash. Yeah, I think hatches can blow off.

[Getready]

Many of those in november.....hence the phrase “witch of november come stealin’.”
Lightfoot, himself a sailor, didn’t want the legacy of unrecoverable men to disappear...all profits from the song has gone to the families....doesn’t sound like self pleasuring to me...
I thought it was just a made up story, when researching something else in a library, I found the news story...great poetry...asks a question men have pondered from the beginning...”does anyone know where the love of God goes....?

[Chgogal]

Bookmark

[hecticskeptic]

The first ringing of the bell 30 times was on May 7, 2023... this was the first Sunday service after Lightfoot died.

[Paal Gulli]

Number four.

How the Witch of November doomed the ‘Edmund Fitzgerald’

11/10/2025 12:43:45 PM PST · by Kid Shelleen · 35 replies
Popular Science ^ | 11/8/2025 | Bill Gourgey

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4351826/posts

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

11/10/2025 1:57:48 AM PST · by OttawaFreeper · 30 replies
YouTube ^ | Feb 9 2017 | Gordon Lightfoot

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4351732/posts

Fifty years after Edmund Fitzgerald claimed 29 lives, Gordon Lightfoot’s musical memorial endures

11/09/2025 9:13:26 AM PST · by Omnivore-Dan · 57 replies
Fox News ^ | 10/09/2025 | Mike Kerrigan

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4351613/posts

[ProtectOurFreedom]

There was a song by Gordon Lightfoot about the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald. Well, I’ll be. I’ll have to listen to that sometime.

[central_va]

You never heard that song? Well the waves turn the minutes to hours?

[central_va]

The song is brilliant.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

I stand corrected.

[Captain Walker]

That song isn't about a ship, it's a self-pleasuring homage by Gordon Lightfoot to himself. Nothing galls me as much as the moans of rich self-pitying hippies.

Then why not write the lyrics about himself?

The proceeds from the song go to the surviving family members of the deceased.

What would you have had the guy do? Not write the song to hide his talent and not have any money to give to the families? (How would someone who wasn't a self-pitying hippie handle this?)

[DouglasKC]

For those of us who grew up in Michigan or near the great lakes we took kind of a strange ownership of this song.

[Flash Bazbeaux]

The thing that struck me about the song was I’d heard it about five or six times, and thought “Oh, a boring old song about a wrecked ship, like the Hesperus, or the Titanic”, and then I found out it had happened the previous year. I learned this from a guy talking about how his friend had received a letter from one of the victims, posted just before the ship left, saying “We’re making the last run of the year. See you soon” or something to that effect.

[Peter ODonnell]

Fellas it’s been good to know ya.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

I have nothing against the guy. This is wonderful that he thought of the families of the sailors.
I do find his music to be a bit of a downer, "Sundown" for example. But I'm pleased that some
folks like it a lot. Good for them.