Also didn’t know Gordon Lightfoot passed away. R.I.P. Gordon.
A golden oldie.
Turns out half a century isn’t really all that long a time after all.
I’ve been to the Maritime Museum in Duluth, MN. The lift bridge under which the EF left the harbor and headed out into Lake Superior is nearby, and the museum features a large diorama of the EF on the lake floor.
This is not a place where the song is just words, it really means something there.
I was hitchiking south out of the Upper Peninsula on November 8 1975 back home to Deetroit. The winds were starting to get oretty bad when I crossed the Mackinac Bridge. The bridge was closed to traffic two hours later. I reached Deetroit about 2000 hrs and the wind was really ripping even there. The next morning I woke up to the news of the disaster.
“Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?”
His music is staid, lackluster.
The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Whitefish Point, Michigan is pretty neat. Among other things, they have the actual bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The Modern Hiawatha”
He killed the noble Mudjokivis.
Of the skin he made him mittens,
Made them with the fur side inside,
Made them with the skin side outside.
He, to get the warm side inside,
Put the inside skin side outside;
He, to get the cold side outside,
Put the warm side fur side inside.
That ’s why he put the fur side inside,
Why he put the skin side outside,
Why he turned them inside outside.
Love that song
"We're holding our own" was last EF transmission, then nothing and down she went.
maybe some Canadian singer-songwriter will pen a tune about the slaughter of the ostriches
A deeply touching song that always brings tears to my eyes.
As an aside, it was not really a ship, it was a barge with the superstructure added for looks and functionality.
Yes, it probably did break in half.
LOVE the song! Also love Billy Joel’s Downeaster Alexa
Downeaster Alexa:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVlDSzbrH5M
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuzTkGyxkYI
Making History: Gordon Lightfoot & The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osAvIsgwIV0
The year Gordon Lightfoot died, We rang the bell 29 times for the men on the Edmund Fitzgerald, once for all other great sailors lost on the Great Lakes, and once for Gordon Lightfoot.
I could never find Somillan, Wisconsin on a map ...
The pride of the American side.
This is a good documentary on the EF sinking, covering more of the human side.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KpkceTklu0
This one covers more technical details and theories on the cause of the sinking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2f0tZBSByI
Gordo wrote so many good songs. Ya don’t hear this one on the radio much, if at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mATZznY7H_Q
There’s something about the cadence of a sea chanty that makes you almost feel the waves.