The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
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"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is a song written and performed by Gordon Lightfoot in commemoration of the sinking of the bulk carrier SS Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. It was inspired by the Newsweek article on the event, "The Cruelest Month", which appeared in the issue of November 24, 1975[1]. The song originally appeared on Lightfoot's 1976 album, Summertime Dream, and was later released as a single. The single reached #2 on the Billboard pop charts in November 1976, making it Lightfoot's second most successful (in terms of chart position) single, with "Sundown" reaching number one in 1974.
Artistic license taken
The song contains a few historical errors. The song mentions that Fitzgerald was fully loaded and headed for Cleveland; she was in fact headed for Detroit, but was to dock in Cleveland for the rest of the winter. Lightfoot may be excused on account of artistic licence; the verse needed a trochaic foot at this point (CLEVE-land), rather than an iambic foot (De-TROIT). However, in other popular songs, "Detroit Rock City" by Kiss, for instance, Detroit has more than once been pronounced trochaically (DE-troit), which would have worked in "Wreck..."
The song refers to the Fitzgerald consistently as a ship; historical and current Great Lakes parlance refers to all Lake vessels, from the smallest dinghy to thousand-foot freighters, as "boats."
The "Maritime Sailors Cathedral" in the song is actually called "The Mariners' Church of Detroit".
Lightfoot says the ship sailed into "the face of a hurricane west wind". The storm was, in fact, no stronger than a gale, with winds below 60 miles an hour.
The song refers to the "old cook." The cook who was supposed to be on board for the boat's fateful voyage was actually a young man, Richard Bishop, but Bishop was laid up with stomach ulcers. Therefore Robert Rafferty was enlisted to replace him. Rafferty was the "old cook" the song refers to. Bishop is considered by some as the sole survivor of the wreck.
Capt. Ernest McSorley stated over the radio, until the ship sank, that they were "holding our own." What the cook or any other crew member did or didn't say will never be known. Calling for help unless the ship was actually known to be sinking was considered verboten in the very machismo-driven Great Lakes shipping culture of the time [citation needed]. Furthermore, even if the boat had in fact called for help, it is doubtful under the actual conditions of the gale whether neighboring vessels would have been able to render any real assistance.
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Cultural references
Covers
- The tune and rhyming structure were borrowed in 1984 by Christy Moore for his song, "I Wish I Were Back Home in Derry", which is itself an adaptation of Bobby Sands' poem, "The Voyage".
- The song was covered by Tony Rice on his album Church Street Blues.
- The song was covered twice by The Dandy Warhols, on their albums Come On Feel The Dandy Warhols and The Black Album. The version on Come On Feel is very similar in style to the original, whereas the version on The Black Album (simply titled "The Wreck") is much more harsh.
- It was covered as an 8:45 epic by the Rheostatics on 1991 on their album Melville.
- Michael Angelo (not to be confused with Michael Angelo Batio) covered it in a 7:15 long acoustic version recorded live at The Depot, in Minneapolis. It was released on the album Michael Angelo Live: The Crossings of Mackinaw. "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is the second song on the CD.
Parodies
- Paul Gross intended to use the song for the Due South episode Mountie on the Bounty; Lightfoot granted permission on the condition the families of the sailors agree. Reluctant to cause the families additional pain, Gross and Jay Semko instead wrote "32 Down on the Robert Mackenzie" for the episode.[2]
- The producers of The Simpsons originally wanted Homer to sing "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" in the episode "Radio Bart" as opposed to the song "Convoy", which was used in the final version. In the DVD Commentary for the episode, Matt Groening said the reason the song was not used was because Lightfoot had made it so that in order to clear the song, they would have to get okays from the families of all 29 victims who died on the ship.
- The musical political satire group The Capitol Steps recorded a parody called "The Wreck of the Walter Fritz Mondale" following the 1984 election. The song appeared on their first album.
- Camille West wrote a parody of the song, The Nervous Wreck of Edna Fitzgerald, which appears on Four Bitchin' Babes's album Gabby Road.
- The Gorgo episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 features a scene where a ship survives a terrible storm (against all reason). Crow references the song with his lyric "They got into port and everyone was okay/ They went out to lunch and felt better."
- Stephen Lynch makes fun of the song after a heckler shouted Free Bird, and he sang a small bit of the song. He then went on to ask if anyone else had any other long songs they wanted him to sing, singing "And the boat sank and everybody fucking died." He also sang part of Don't Stop Believing.
In the media
- Comedian Richard Jeni referenced the song in his standup monologues, insisting that the sad lyrics are useful for getting party guests who have overstayed their welcome to go home.
- In the movie High Fidelity, the character Dick (Todd Louiso) puts the song in the number five spot of the list "Top 5 songs about death. A Laura's Dad tribute list".
- In the Seinfeld episode The Andrea Doria, Jerry and Elaine discuss the song. Elaine believes that Edmund Fitzgerald wrote the song and that Gordon Lightfoot was the ship that sunk. Jerry sarcastically responds that perhaps "it was driven by the Cat Stevens" (another folk singer of the 1970s).
- Minnesota short and angry Tommy T.D. Mischke had an interview with an expert on the tragedy, but opted to sing his questions to the tune of the song. This was done without any warning to the person interviewed, who nonetheless answered back in a straightforward manner. Details of his interview made national media, including The Atlantic Monthly.
- On the commentary for the third season DVDs of The Simpsons on the episode entitled "Radio Bart", the show's producers claim that the tune used to advertise the prank microphone, "Convoy" was meant to be "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," but that due to the fact that Gordon Lightfoot willed the rights and royalties of the song to the survivors of the accident in question, its use presented a logistical impossibility of gathering permission from so many sources.