RIP Gordon Lightfoot
I used to joke that having “The Wreck On the Edmund Fitzgerald” on the jukebox was a requirement for any bar in Wisconsin.
And indeed, the further north you go, the harder pressed you might be to find one without it. Few songs and events have caught & kept people’s attention like the way these have. Both hit deep for a place where so many spend their lives on the water.
As a kid, I liked “Sundown.” “Carefree Highway” was usually on in my mom’s car, so I kept my enjoyment a secret. God forbid, right? I wouldn’t be ready for “If You Could Read My Mind” until I was an adult.
But “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald?” That was a whole ‘nother story.
It’s always left me vaguely unsettled- and that’s just the music. It’s a song that only sounds at home in the fall. It’s too solemn to play any other time. The story, of course, is its own animal.
The Fitzgerald’s sister ships still ply the Great Lakes today. Seeing them in person, it’s hard to grasp how one could disappear. But they can- and one did.
Mother Nature always wins.
This is a story that Lightfoot could have only sung- his voice as wide and deep as the lake he’s singing about. Can you imagine James Taylor trying this? I think not.
Living two time zones away, I never really got why this song moved people the way it did. Now that I live near the lakes, I do.
Wherever this finds you, raise a glass to the crew of that ill-fated ship, the people they left behind, and to Lightfoot- may he be on a carefree highway.
Thanks for being here,
Kevin—
I love(d) Gordon Lightfoot. In addition to the songs you mention... In the Early Morning Rain is powerful, and Canadian Railroad Trilogy is an inspired portrait of his native land.
“The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” is a brilliantly written song. But growing up, it was not one of my faves because I didn’t care for the instrumentation/production, which I found to be a distraction. But now I’ve come to like and appreciate Lightfoot’s version of his song.
I don’t know about James Taylor, but last year the Punch Brothers recorded a distinct acoustic version that I love. Find it on Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/track/3WUVzOFltfSz7AU648MGq4?si=oyW8An_yRru2MoVYkeQWiA or on YouTube.
I think Lightfoot’s instrumentation is well matched for the image of a giant steel ship on a stormy Great Lake. Punch Brothers’ arrangement more strongly conveys a haunting feeling of souls lost.