Posted on 11/10/2014 6:15:41 AM PST by Cincinatus
Does any one know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
Yes! It was an odd, dark song for pop radio of the 1970's. I was a young kid too, and would immediately change the dial on my neon-blue AM radio looking instead for ABBA or Stevie Wonder!
Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
I came across the Mackinac Bridge around 1400 on 11/10/74. A few hours later the bridge was closed because the wind was making it swing too much for safe passage. When I got to Deetroit about 2000 the storm had followed me. It raged all night long and the next morning there were reports that a large ore carrier had gone missing on Lake Superior.
May God have mercy on the souls of all mariners who have been lost in such storms.
Oops. 11/10/1975! Not enough caffeine yet.
Even after all these years, those words still bring tears to my eyes.
I was a student at Michigan Tech in those days, and witnessed the passage of the Edmund Fitzgerald through the Portage River (separating Houghton from Hancock) while I was there.
And then the Gordon Lightfoot sank. Andrea Doria wrote a song about it.
GORDON LIGHTFOOT
“The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald”
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early
The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
Then later that night when the ship’s bell rang
Could it be the north wind they’d been feelin’?
The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
When the wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too
‘Twas the witch of November come stealin’
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashin’
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind
When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck
Sayin’ “Fellas, it’s too rough to feed ya”
At seven PM a main hatchway caved in
He said, “Fellas, it’s been good to know ya”
The captain wired in he had water comin’ 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
Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they’d have made Whitefish Bay
If they’d put fifteen more miles behind her
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters
Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man’s dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below, Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered
In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral
The church bell chimed ‘til it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early
What song are you talking about?
Thank you. I detest that song and I have since I was a kid when it was on the radio all the time.
The song was on last night and the only words in my head were Tim Hawkins’!
We had an 8 track on the boat I worked on and it played over and over and... Well I still love that song because I am a mariner. I didn’t appreciate the song in my youth, but since I make my living over the water I can relate to this song.
At seven PM the main hatchway gave in.
He said 'fellas it's been good to know ya!'
During a friend’s bachelor party someone slipped that song into the boom box while the entertainment was entertaining us. It didn’t go over well.
There was a good museum display in Duluth back in the 80s.
For those who don't know what we're talking about (kudos for getting the reference), here's Tim Hawkins' condensed rewrite of the Gordon Lightfoot song:
The story lives on
how the boat, she went down
and the people all died
bummer
You’re right, it’s a steel guitar at 2:26 and 4:08. Haven’t heard the song in 35 years. Okay, no more posting without coffee.
An old neighbor of ours, passed away in the early 90’s, was a retired tug captain on the Great Lakes and told us he was probably the last person to see them alive........................
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