Posted on 11/09/2005 1:31:07 PM PST by Millee
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 Nov. 10, 1975.
``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{ 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 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 Nov. 9 in Superior, Wis., 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.'
JERRY: (Correcting her) Edmund Fitzgerald.
ELIANE: I love Edmund Fitzgerald's voice.
JERRY: No, Gordon Lightfoot was the singer. Edmund Fitzgerald was the ship.
GEORGE: (Talking about his would-be apartment) You could fit 15 people in that bathroom..
ELAINE: I think Gordon Lightfoot was the boat.
JERRY: (Sarcastic) Yeah, and it was rammed by the Cat Stevens.
Could still happen!
:) We love our lakes, we just don't want to meet them up close and personal.
LOL
It also started raining in that game and I could have sworn that it was snow until it got down in the stadium.
But by then I had a "few" adult beverages so I wasn't exactly paying close attention :)
Almost 720 feet I believe.
I swam in Superior in September and it was plenty cold then.
And my humble entry (the Wretch that is Patrick Fitzgerald):
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1511666/posts
I would believe it.
I can't imagine any of the lakes been especially warm :)
Lake Erie in my mind is a river not a lake.
The water does not stay in Erie long enough to be a true lake.
The water in Lake Erie turns over 3 to 4 times a year.
Lake Erie is a slow moving very wide river.
An old friend of mine had a cousin on board.
Rest in Peace.
Saving for later reading. Thank you.
A lot of info on the "Fitz".
My mom was once attacked by Gordon Lightfoot back in 1971. He had to be restrained by three security guys.
thanks for passing that along
LOL. They showed that episode YESTERDAY.
Interesting stuff. I used to know a guy named Dick Race who owned a research vessel. He claimed to have been in on the search for the Fitz. In doing some research on the net I found out he died. His favorite quote was, " ARGH, it went democratic" when he discovered something had gone wrong.
Do you think it plowed into the bottom, on a wave trough?
I prefer Lightfoot's other shipwreck song- "Ballad of the Yarmouth Castle". More fun to play ;)
For those of you who think musicians are not prophetic check out the lyrics to an early 60's Lightfoot tune called "Pride of Man". Spooky.
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