Replies

Ours goes to eleven.

TOPFIVE.COM'S LITTLE FIVERS -- MUSIC
http://www.topfive.com/html/minilists.shtml

March 20, 2002

NOTE FROM JEFF:

Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund
Fitzgerald" is a good, but interminably long and
depressing, folk song about a commercial ship that
sank in Lake Superior during a horrible storm in
1975, killing all 29 crew members.

(The storm, not the song.)

Lightfoot's original is interesting (you can find
the lyrics at http://makeashorterlink.com/?J57E12D8),
but I've always wondered how other lyricists would
have tackled the (unfortunately true) story.

The Top 7 Verses from "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"
as Written by Other Lyricists

7> Elton John:
Goodbye, Gitchee Gumee's rose...
And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a freighter in the wind
Never knowing where to turn to
When that main hatchway caved in...

6> Paul Simon:
Well, I'm accustomed to a smooth ride
I'm a sailor, but I like to fight
Ain't gonna be eatin' that gruel no more
And just like ships that pass in the night
Some people say, "The miles, the miles, the miles"
But I say, "Gotta make the last fifteen miles"
"Gotta make the last fifteen miles."

5> Willie Nelson:
I'm crazy
Crazy for sailing on this ship
Freezing
Freezing and turning so blue
I know we're sinking straight down to the bottom
We'll end up all covered with slime and fish poo.

4> Anthrax:
[Eight-bar intro]
IT SANK!
IT SANK!
IT SANK!
[Coda]

3> Lou Reed:
Workin' for The Man, they were loadin' up the oa-ah
Steamin' out for Cleveland, as an economic whoa-ah
The wind blew up, they sank 'n drowned, almost by-the-book
Man, this rusted freighter ain't no place to be a cook.

2> Arlo Guthrie:
So I had to go sit in a musty old hall in Detroit, over on
the Group W bench in the Maritime Sailor's Cathedral. Group
W's the place where they put you if you may not be moral
enough to pray for the men on the Edmund Fitzgerald after
committing your special crime... The Sergeant came over and
said, "Kids... thisherebellisgonnaring29timesonceforeachmanon
theEdmundFitzgerald" and he talked for forty-five minutes...

and the Number 1 Verse from "The Wreck of the
Edmund Fitzgerald" as Written by Other Lyricists...

1> Sex Pistols:
God Save the Ship
This will be our last trip
Took too much orrre-on
An epic Lightfoot song!
God Save the Ship
I can't swim, man
It's gale force winds out
And Cleveland's dreaming!
It's been a lousy day
We can't make Whitefish Bay
With fifteen miles to gooooo
We're screeeewed!
Noooo shore leave
Noooo shore leave
Noooo shore leave for yoooouuuu!!

[ Copyright 2002 by Chris White ]
[ http://www.topfive.com ]

The Weekly Top5 Music CD You've Never Heard of but We Recommend:

TRILOK GURTU: "USFRET"

If you'd been born in India and your first instrument was the
tabla, you might have a very different take on jazz percussion.
Gurtu's 1987 debut album (after playing with the band Oregon for a
while) is brilliant and fluid.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005LN51/tfc16-20

Selected from 18 submissions from 7 contributors.
Today's Top 5 List authors are:

Andy Grosser, Boston, MA -- 1, 3, 6 (1st #1! Hat trick!)
Joseph Prisco, Ithaca, NY -- 2
Jonathan P. Bernick, Conway, SC -- 4, 7, RU list name
Fran Fruit, Winnetka, IL -- 5
Mark H. Anbinder, Ithaca, NY -- Topic
Lil Owens, Lorain OH -- Banner Tag
Jeffrey Anbinder, New York, NY -- Maestro

Verses from "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"
as Written by Other Lyricists
RUNNERS UP list -- Fully Loaded for Cleveland

George Clinton:
Make my funk the E-Funk
The captain wired home
Make my funk the E-Funk
He said his ship is all funked up
I want the bomb, I want the E-Funk
And when the lights went outta sight (Right On!)
We done wrecked the E-Funk
We got too far down that night.
(Joseph Prisco, Ithaca, NY)

Green Day:
Do you have the time to listen to the chimes
About twenty nine guys who all died.
The weather that day was, problematic, fool.
Nasty to the bone, no doubt about it.
Sometimes it just gets rough at sea.
Sometimes the tides play tricks, you see.
It all kept adding up.
The ship was cracking up.
Was it possible to avoid?
All the stones?
(Matt Kall, Cleveland Heights, OH)

Billy Joel:
Well, it's nine o'clock on a Saturday
The icy cold waves rushin' in
There's a puking sailor next to me
Wishin' for a bottle of gin.
(Fran Fruit, Winnetka, IL)

Joe Walsh:
Spent November Gitche Gumee way,
Couldn't get much wetter.
Concluded terms with a couple steel firms
Didn't get no better.
(Jonathan P. Bernick, Conway, SC)

Marty Robbins:
Out on the deck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
An icy cold wave knocked me flat on my ass
I wish I was back there in Rose's Cantina
Where the only cold liquid is beer in my glass.
(Fran Fruit, Winnetka, IL)

Runner Up list name
(Jonathan P. Bernick, Conway, SC)

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