I was deeply saddened to hear of the death of legendary singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot yesterday. The man who wrote timeless classics like Sundown, Carefree Highway, If You Could Read My Mind, and countless others holds a special place in my heart.
Bob Dylan said Gordon Lightfoot was his favorite songwriter. Whoa.
But The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald is Lightfoot's masterpiece to me.
The song, about the violent end of the ship in a November storm, haunts me with its vivid details of the sinking, and the majestic melody.
It came out in 1976, when I was in high school. I always thought it was about a shipwreck in the late 19th century. It has that feel to it.
So imagine my shock when I discovered the Fitzgerald sank in November 1975!
I never heard about it - anywhere: the national news, magazines, you name it. This was pre-Internet, of course. Today it would be all over the news within minutes. But I still didn't hear about it even after the song came out. Don't ask me. I'm as flummoxed as you probably are.
My shock was even more profound when a friend dropped a big bomb on me about the song: he has a "family connection" to it.
My friend is from Wisconsin. His grandfather had a friend who was supposed to be the cook on what became the ship's final voyage. The friend got sick suddenly, and couldn't go. So a replacement went instead. He went down with the ship.
I get chills now hearing the lyric where the cook is saying goodbye to the crew. That could have been my friend's grandfather's friend.
Gordon Lightfoot's skilled songwriting makes the song sound like it’s about something that happened in a completely different time...when in fact, the wreck happened less than a year before the song came out.
If you've never heard this masterpiece, listen closely. If you know the song, maybe my friend's story will add to the poignance of it.
Thank you, Gordon.
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