Posted on 11/14/2025 4:47:56 PM PST by nickcarraway
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That being said, if you want to clear out a party fast, put on that depressing song. Works every time!
The lake, it is said ...
,,, in August 1992 I was staying with friends in Grosse Pointe . During my stay the anchor from the Edmund Fitzgerald had been recovered and had just been placed on a grassed area on Belle Isle. I always loved Lightfoot’s song and was really happy to get a photo of myself next to the anchor. My friends also took me to the cathedral [mentioned in the song] near the tunnel that goes under the Detroit River. The anchor made the front page of the Detroit Free Press - or maybe another daily. It was a long time ago.
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.
I cant stand the song, I wish it never sunk.
Yeah not a fan of him either.
I remember laughing at “Lake Gitchy goo me” as a kid.
I was on a USN Ballistic Missile Submarine in the Mediterranean. We got word much later the ship was missing. Underway, under water gives you time to think, until Ivan comes by. God Bless the families of those men on the ship and RIP to all who go down to the sea in ships. Godspeed.
Hahahahaha. Spot on!
👍
Super storms are something that have happened from time to time. The Armistice Day storm in 1940 was similar. On that day, friends of my father had been duck hunting on an island on Lake Winnebago in east central Wisconsin. Temps were near 70 and dropped 50 degrees rapidly. At the same time, winds picked up and were so strong (gusts of more than 60 mph), his friends could not row against the wind back to shore. They were forced to stay on the island overnight. Poorly prepared, they survived by overturning their boat and huddling under it overnight. In 1975, brother-in-law was duck hunting on a lake (Winneconne) near Oshkosh, Wi. Temperatures that day, November 9, reached close to 70. He said the hunting was terrible at first, then ducks began flying in from every direction as the temperature dropped quickly and the winds picked up. Late in the day, he got scared, not properly dressed, waves were getting bad and he worried he couldn’t make it back to the boat launch. By the time he picked up his decoys and rowed back to shore, he claimed the temperature had dropped 40-50 degrees and shell ice was beginning to form. He thought he would die on the lake. Winds on Lake Superior early morning November 10 reached 70mph and waves were near 20 feet. When storms like this hit in 1940, nobody predicted it and even in 1975, the forecasters were unable to predict the ferocity of the winds and the rapid temperature drop.
I too wish it never sank.
Listening is not mandatory.
The winds November were the equivalent of a category 2 hurricane. Captain McSorley was right when he said it was the worst storm in his life.
It is a great song.
Of course, those in favor of unintelligible, bouncy, stupid lyrics think otherwise.
Not newsworthy?
It was, to date, the largest ship to ever sink in those waters, claiming the lives of 29 crew members whose bodies were never recovered.
What’s your threshold?
They had gone 22 years without a shipwreck on the Great Lakes and people believed such an event couldn't happen with modern technologies such as radios, weather forecasting and radar.
The sinking was a haunting reminder that they hadn't put that deadly history in the past. Gordon Lightfoot's song and the public response arguably forced the industry and politicians to not allow such a tragedy to be repeated.
As for one historian's claim that the number of ships is 25,000; that's not likely. Records of ship and cargo lost point to roughly 6,000. And of those 6,000 shipwrecks, many of those ran aground versus being lost in storms.
,,, I'd say that about the number of Michelle Obama threads on this site.
I am a big fan of Lightfoot, and that is my second favorite of his songs, the first being “Canadian Railroad Trilogy”.
The families of the crew, not to mention Great Lakes shipping buffs, have a great appreciation for the song. At the memorial service on the November 10 after Lightfoot died, they rang the bell 30 times.
I would say that the SS Eastland which sank in Chicago in
1915 and killed 824 passengers and crew would be my threshold.
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