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.
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.
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.
It is a great song.
Of course, those in favor of unintelligible, bouncy, stupid lyrics think otherwise.
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.
Let the Lower Lights Be Burning--Ely (England) Cathedral Choir
The story behind Gordon Lightfoot's 'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald'
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.
Bookmark
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
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.
For those of us who grew up in Michigan or near the great lakes we took kind of a strange ownership of this song.
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.
Failure to maintain bouyancy