Lost Hits Of The '70s: The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald
Follow CBSDFW.COM: Facebook | Twitter
(CBSDFW.COM) – Coming back from a road trip last week, my wife and I listened mainly to two Sirius XM channels: 70's on 7 and The Bridge (Channel 32). Throughout the week, I bet we heard the song, "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald", performed and written by Canadian folk singer Gordon Lightfoot, at least 25 times or more.
The song is based on a true event that occurred on November 10, 1975 when this American Great Lakes freighter sank in Lake Superior after being caught in a strong storm. There were 29 men aboard the ship, including Captain Ernest McSorley, all of whom lost their lives. The Fitzgerald was designed to carry iron ore, mainly from Duluth MN to Detroit, Toledo, and other ports on the Great Lakes. The ship had its maiden voyage on September 24, 1958.
This was one of Lightfoot's most successful songs on the Billboard Top 40 in 1976, hitting #2 and was on the charts for 13 weeks, yet it is rarely played on over the air "greatest hits" radio stations today (KLUV/Dallas, KRTH/Los Angeles, WCBS-FM/New York are examples of "greatest hits" stations and are owned by CBS Radio). The song's running time is about 6:20, longer than most songs played today on these stations. It goes like this:
"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"
Click to hear the entire song.
(©2016 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)