Edmund Fitzgerald song--I can't get away from it!
 

Back story first:

I was 8 years old in 1975 when my older brother was killed in a car crash, November 1. During the weeks after was the sinking of the Fitz. Living on Lake Huron, it was big news as they searched and we learned of the tragic results.

A year later Mr. Lightfoot's song was on the radio. The songs still takes me back to those days when my family was in turmoil over my brother as well as the story of the sinking. For many years, I would get creeped out when I heard it.

Only a visit to the Whitefish Bay memorial site helped me get over the stigma. I don;t know why but it helped me understand why I was affected by the story. I've followed the site visits and just about eery news story on the ship over the years. I even have several pictures hanging in our loft of her.



Fast forward to a month ago: I had to buy a car as my job was eliminated as well as my company car.

I bought a Grand Prix from a local dealer. I was on my way home yesterday and hit the CD player by mistake and found the PO had a mix CD with various songs on it. As I'm sampling the tunes the song starts. HOLY CRAP!!! What are the chances of the car I buy has this song on a homemade CD?!!

As well, I was setting my radio/alarm before ved and turned the radio on by mistake. Yep, there's the freakin' song again.:eek:



Oh, and the capper?







Gordon Lightfoot played in Saginaw last Sunday night!!!!!!!

I didn't go but maybe it's best that I didn't.



The mind is a very strange thing.

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is a powerful song..

Memorial to all those lost.

Guess I am an old fart but I like Gordon Lightfoots music

The line where he sings "As the big freighters go it was bigger than most" needs a little more work.

I actually really enjoy that song. I've never listened to it without getting goose bumps. Can't imagine what it feels like to you.

Most people look at things as this to be nothing more than random chance. That is probably right on. But I've always felt that there are great mysteries out there. Things we do not know, that we do not understand because they are part of a greater pattern that our close vision does not allow us to see. We are not alone in this world even when it feels like it. Those who have left watch over us. Obviously they can't drop you a note or send you a gorilla-gram, but maybe maybe your brother figured out a way to send you a message.

I am an eternal optimist, so I hope that this message is to remind you that even when things are difficult, in great turmoil (in this case economic, job loss, etc), that you are loved. That you will make it through this time just as you made it through the other when you were just eight.

As for Gordon Lightfoot? I think you should have gone to see him. Bet it was a great night.

angela

Wayne , where do you live now ? I"m a Bridgeport guy originally. The first porsche I ever really saw in person was on M-46 that I used to pass everyday on my way to working at Saginaw Steering Gear... silver Targa I can still see it in my head.

I love that song. I guess I was about 5 when it sank, but don't remember hearing about it, but the song gives me chills when I hear it. Great song. And another song to add to my "classic rock" itunes library.

He came to my university years ago when everyone still sat in circles and passed reefers around. Lovely guy. Great songs.

Pity he never traded the folk music biz for something edgier.

I also like Gordon Lightfoot. I was under the impression that he vowed to never sing the song live again.

Bill

Perhaps.

But the following verse "Does anyone know where the love of God goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?" more than compensates.

I'm in Detroit on business with some frequency (at least while we still have a domestic auto industry), and almost reflexively think of that song when passing The Mariners Church next to the RennCen.

Lightfoot was not a great writer, but a competent Canadian folkie with moments of brilliance. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was one of those, along with his Canadian Railroad Trilogy, which help offset all the rest of Sundown era, mid '70's dreck that made him rich and famous.







Tim

'dreck' is a bit harsh...

the first time ever i saw your face

if you could read my mind

early morning rain

etc.etc.

not my taste really, but good tunes all the same...

Great song number one played on our jute box in the basement growing up late 70's early 80's in the mid west. Still love to hear it!

funny i heard it yesterday morning on my way to work! first thing i envisioned was the murky water when divers finally found her and started figuring out what exactly happened. hell of a dive for those guys. like really really hairy dive at that depth.

IMHO..................an undersee-booten sank her and osama was the kapitan!

I have some Gordon Lightfoot on my Ipod including The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. It reminds me of long (fun) road trips in the car with my parents while growing up.

Except HE didn't share HIS reefer when I fixed the hifi in HIS house in Rosedale. He just sat in the kitchen & said . . ."Don't tell anybody. He he."

True story btw.

Ian

Great story! :)

Funny I was never a big Lightfoot fan until the last few years when for some reason it just started clicking with me. I wouldn't at all say I'm a big fan now, but whereas I used to hate it, now I enjoy his music. Our band does a pretty wild version of "Carefree Highway".

The whole album the song is on, "Summertime Dream" was one of my favorites when it came out in the 70's. I was living in Germany at the time and living in the barracks in the Army. I could put this album on the turntable, close my eyes, and dream of home.

If You Could Read My Mind. Written by Lightfoot, sung by Johnny Cash, unbelievable.
I had a similiar experience when I was 16. Friend killed. Some REO Speedwagon song. Put me into panic mode for about 6 months.

The Bell http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1237567329.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1237567431.jpg

Play Edmund Fitzgerald as a lottery ticket, convert letters into numbers.

me too...i have had it for long time and it has a deep emotional effect on me. Most other people i know cannot understand until i explain the actual meaning of it...and then they become emotional too.
Godspeed Captain Mcsorley and crew!
BTW, this song is a great one to write a paper on, i used it in a Pyscology course to show how words and music create feelings and attuitudes in people

Despite all the "alternative/indie" stuff I'm into, I like him also! Good is good...

Well, at least I'm not alone in this. Thanks guys.


Angela--I never thought of it the way you put it but that's pretty cool. Maybe Dan is sending me a message. It'd be nice if he could contact my Mom, though.:(

9dreizig--I live in Mount Morris but grew up in Port Huron. We used to watch the ships go up/down the St.Clair river.

Many years ago I had a roomate in school who, for a while, was a radio operator on a Chevron oil tanker. He happened to have some serious third degree burn scars covering half of his face. I'm not sure if he was in some accident at sea or what, I never asked him.

Every night at bedtime I could hear music (very quiet) coming from his room, it was always the same song: "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald".

There are some great lines in this song...that is one of the best

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
of the big lake they called "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.
And 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
and a wave broke over the railing.
And ev'ry 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 freezin' rain
in the face of a hurricane west wind.

When suppertime came the old cook came on deck sayin'.
"Fellas, it's too rough t'feed ya."
At seven P.M. a main hatchway caved in; he said,
"Fellas, it's bin good t'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 'is lights went outta sight
came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does any one 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 'er.
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!"

Such a great song

Well, I had to check out more of Mr Lightfoot's stuff. Based on his "Complete Greatest Hits", I've heard 3 songs well enough for instant recognition. Besides the Edmund Fitzgerald, I also recognize [/i]If You Could Read My Mind[i] and Sundown. Just figured out another, but not quite as familiar, Carefree Highway

Thanks for posting. I'm happy to now have all three.

I'll give the rest a thorough listen and I suspect will grow to like others.

If you don't know the story of the Edmund Fitzgerald...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Edmund_Fitzgerald

Gordon Lightfoot also wrote and performed "Ten Degrees and Getting Colder" which tells a pretty good story.

But my favorite has to be "Cold on the Shoulder" - try the Tony Rice cover - he made it his own.

Where did he play in Saginaw, anyone know? I would have loved to have seen him. I don't think he ever came when I lived there. Although a bit sobering, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald always seemed to be everyones favorite on the beach around a bonfire with a guitar. Spending summers on Lake Huron as a kid I thought everyone knew that song by heart but, since I've moved to Florida, other than people from the Great Lakes its seems like no one hardly remembers it.

Whitefish Point is great place to visit.

How would you like to work in the shipwreck museum and hear that song all day? - everyday!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1237645993.jpg

I thought I was the only one...
 

I know what you mean. The EF was just a ship., like any of the countless ship that have sunk. I am really tired of hearing about it. We hear more about the EF than any other disaster/sinking/crash when more lives were lost. What's the fascination with this ship wreck? I just don't get it...

Art,

I think you missed my point but I respect your opinion.



The song has particular meaning to me as the time that she went down was right after my brother was killed. Growing up on the Great Lakes, the loss of the men on the EF was a cold reminder of the power of the sea.


I talked to my sister last night and she agrees that it is weird and that she believes as well that we are sent messages from our loved ones. She was 1.5 years older than my brother.


I liken listening to the song to facing a fear for me. To others, it's just a song they play in November.

I like to say I learned to play guitar (badly) because of Gordon Lightfoot. I grew up listening to his music and trying to sing and play it. When I got to college, I realized a lot of it was so depressing nobody wanted to listen to much of it.

I was surprised a few weeks ago when I found my son (27) had gotten out "Shadows" and had listened to a side. There are several great cuts on that LP that I try not to butcher too badly from time to time.

I finally got to see Lightfoot perform in Halifax after his illness a couple of years ago. He was supposed to have been there almost two years before that, but nearly died from abdominal bleeding. He walks onto the stage (to a standing ovation) and says, "Sorry I'm late!"

His voice was all but gone, but, as my son said, "He could have quacked like a duck and people would have applauded."

"Here's to the girls from London and the ones from Montreal
We never will forget them, we still fantasize them all
I knew one in St. Louis on a Missouri afternoon
I met one up in Shanghai and another in Rangoon

I just let it ride, ride let it ride
Leave on the evening tide, just let it ride"

G. Lightfoot

You go Gord!

Les

Oh yea, Gordy on the radio on a long trip is just beautiful. He's had some of the most erie music over the last 40 years. I've got many of his albums, yes albums, that still sound great with his low voice. And Art, the great lakes are like a mine field; looks calm and then it goes booooooom. And when it does, you dont want to be anywhere near them.

My dad died when he was only 49, I'll be 49 this year. The popular song which seemed to be always playing on the radio when we went to visit at the hospital was "Shout" by Tears for Fears. It was also one of the few pop songs my father sort of liked.

That song always gets a reaction by family members now, it's an association thing.