When the gales come, it can be terrifying to watch. That's a very haunting song. I never understood the power of the lakes until long after the song was out. I was an ocean brat until I got married and moved to the Midwest. I remember the first time I stepped on to the shores of Lake Michigan, turning and saying, "That's NOT a lake."
It was nothing I'd ever seen before, an inland sea, you couldn't see the other side. It was huge.