The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is a 1976 hit song written, composed and performed by the Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot to memorialize the sinking of the bulk carrier SS Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. Lightfoot considered this song to be his finest work.
Appearing originally on his 1976 album Summertime Dream, Lightfoot re-recorded the song in 1988 for the compilation album Gord's Gold, Vol. 2.
Lyrics
The song chronicles the final voyage of the Edmund Fitzgerald as it succumbed to a massive late-season storm and sank in Lake Superior with the loss of all 29 crewmen. Lightfoot drew inspiration from news reports he gathered in the immediate aftermath, particularly "The Cruelest Month", published in Newsweek magazine's November 24, 1975 issue. Lightfoot's passion for recreational sailing on the Great Lakes informs his ballad's verses throughout.
Recorded before the ship's wreckage could be examined, the song contains some artistic conjectures, omissions and paraphrases. In later interviews, Lightfoot recounted how he had agonized over possible inaccuracies while trying to pen the lyrics until his lead guitarist Terry Clements convinced him to do what Clements' favourite author Mark Twain would have advised: just tell a story. Deviations from the facts of the tragedy include:
According to the song, Edmund Fitzgerald was bound "fully loaded for Cleveland." In fact, the ship was heading for Zug Island near Detroit, where it was set to discharge its cargo of taconite iron ore pellets before heading on to its home port of Cleveland for the winter.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was not "coming back from some mill in Wisconsin." Lake freighters that carry bulk iron ore are loaded at ore docks, not mills.
Capt. Ernest McSorley had stated in his last radio transmission before the ship sank that he and the crew were "holding our own," not that they had "water coming in," although he did communicate several hours earlier that the ship was taking on water.
The song mentions possible causes of sinking, and while there is still debate about the cause, exploration of the wreckage found the bow and stern relatively close to each other on the lakebed floor, ruling out that it "might have split up." However this exploration took place a significant amount of time after the writing of the song.
Lightfoot refers to the Mariners' Church of Detroit as "The Maritime Sailors' Cathedral."
In a later live recording, Lightfoot recounts that a parishioner of the church informed him that the church is not "musty." From that time on, instead of singing "In a musty old hall..." he sang "In a rustic old hall..."
In March 2010, Lightfoot changed a line during live performances to reflect new findings that there had been no crew error involved in the sinking. The line originally read, "At 7 p.m. a main hatchway caved in; he said..."; Lightfoot began singing it as "At 7 p.m. it grew dark, it was then he said...." Lightfoot learned about the new research when contacted for permission to use his song for a History Channel documentary that aired on March 31, 2010. Lightfoot stated that he had no intention of changing the original copyrighted lyrics; instead, from then on, he simply sang the new words during live performances.
Production
The song was recorded in December 1975 at Eastern Sound, a recording studio composed of two Victorian houses at 48 Yorkville Avenue in a then-hippie district of downtown Toronto. The famous studio, which also recorded Rush, Cat Stevens, Bruce Springsteen and Jimi Hendrix, was later torn down and replaced by a parking lot.
Pee Wee Charles and Terry Clements came up with "the haunting guitar and steel riffs" on a "second take" during the evening session.
Lightfoot cleared the studio and killed all the lights save the one illuminating his parchment of scribbled words when recording his vocal part.
The song was the first commercial digital multitrack recording on the 3M 32-track digital recorder — a prototype technology at the time.
Chart success
Lightfoot's single version hit number 1 in his native Canada (in the RPM national singles survey) on November 20, 1976, barely a year after the disaster. In the United States, it reached number 1 in Cashbox and number 2 for two weeks in the Billboard Hot 100 (behind Rod Stewart's "Tonight's the Night"), making it Lightfoot's second-most successful single, behind only "Sundown". Overseas it was at best a minor hit, peaking at number 40 in the UK Singles Chart.
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Personnel
Gordon Lightfoot – 12-string acoustic guitar, vocals
Terry Clements – electric guitar
Pee Wee Charles - pedal steel guitar
Rick Haynes – electric bass
Barry Keane – drums
Gene Martynec - Moog synthesizer
In popular culture
During the 1984 United States presidential election, the comedian troupe Capitol Steps performed a parody of the song changing the ship's name to Walter 'Fritz' Mondale.
In the Seinfeld episode "The Andrea Doria", character Elaine Benes mentions the song but gets the names mixed up, believing that the singer's name was "Edmund Fitzgerald" and the name of the ship was the "Gordon Lightfoot." This causes Jerry to joke to Elaine that maybe the Gordon Lightfoot "was rammed by the Cat Stevens."
In an episode of The Drew Carey Show, "Drew Carey's Back-to-School Rock 'n' Roll Comedy Hour", character Mimi Bobeck tells the band Smash Mouth not to steal her idea of doing a speed-metal version of the song.
In his autobiography Coal Black Mornings, Brett Anderson recounts delivering the song during his teenage years busking in Haywards Heath, Sussex.
See also
Canadian rock
Music of Canada
References
Further reading
Alan Rauch. “’Fellas, it’s Been Good to Know You’: Gordon Lightfoot’s Edmund Fitzgerald,” The Newsletter of the Charlotte Folk Society, Vol. 28 (06), June 2023, p. 4.
External links
Lyrics from gordonlightfoot.com
Column by Mark Steyn—"Of Rain and Wrecks"—Song of the Week #338
1976 singles
1976 songs
1970s ballads
Cashbox number-one singles
Gordon Lightfoot songs
Maritime music
Reprise Records singles
Rock ballads
RPM Top Singles number-one singles
Song recordings produced by Lenny Waronker
Songs based on American history
Songs based on Canadian history
Songs written by Gordon Lightfoot
Vehicle wreck ballads