On this date in 1975, 95 people died when the Edmund Fitzgerald sunk to the bottom of Lake Superior.
My parents gave me an LP of this song when I was around five or six, and I remember sitting in my room and listening to it, cross-legged on the floor, creating mental images to accompany the song's narrative. Aside from the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was the first real national disaster to capture my imagination in a serious way.
I can't believe you're posting this! Coming from Detroit, this is a story that everyone from my area knows well. I have my own mini-tribute upcoming, and I'm not surprised to see you and I are on a somewhat parallel train-of-thought (though Im gonna be a close to a week off-target date). That song is so great at conjuring the images of that event. The legendary Gordon Lightfoot!
ReplyDeleteIt's a great song, and a sad story. It really got into me when I was a little kid, probably because the song was so evocative.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to seeing what you write about this! I'm sure it will be worth reading.