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The Untold Story Behind Lightfoot's "Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald"
Almost everybody knows the classic "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," the legendary 6 minute-plus song from Canada's Gordon Lightfoot. It may be the most unusual tune to ever reach Billboard's Top 10, with no hook, no chorus and a very long running time.
An author named James Bacon has written a book on the sinking of the ship, but also devotes two chapters to the making of the Lightfoot song, which - if anything - is even more interesting than the wreck itself.
According to a great excerpt published in Rolling Stone, Lightfoot was never completely satisfied with the song and tried to record it multiple times. But it was never quite there. With time running out on his recording studio time, his engineer urged him to give that "shipwreck song" a try.
With his backing musicians there, he reluctantly agreed but didn't like any of the takes. But here's where it gets really unusual - his back-up band had never heard the song before and were told to ad lib their parts as it went on and on. They did several takes but the perfectionist Lightfoot didn't care for any of them and each take was worse than the last.
"On Friday they played it again three or four times, [drummer Barry] Keane says, “but we never got it as good. The first time we played it the day before, there was that creative tension. Gord was putting his heart and soul into it. You can hear it. The other guys felt the same tension, because we’d never heard the song, and nobody wanted to screw it up. And that tension led to some good stuff. We weren’t thinking. We all just played what we felt...
When they played back the various takes, they reached a surprising consensus: The first take on Thursday was their best. “That’s it,” they said. “That’s the one.”
It's a very long read with a very long RS intro, but it's a fascinating look at how a Canadian classic was born.
How Gordon Lightfoot Wrote One Of Music's Most Unusual Hit Singles
- Doug Thompson
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Re: The Untold Story Behind Lightfoot's "Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald"
Like most of Gordon Lightfoot's songs and albums, "The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald" was recorded at Eastern Sound at 48 Yorkville Avenue in Toronto. That site is now The Four Seasons hotel. Worked there as a freelance producer and then client for almost 20 years. Used to see and talk with Gord at the coffee machine in the hallway many times. So many stories. Some can't be told.
Last edited by Doug Thompson (October 1, 2025 11:28 pm)
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Re: The Untold Story Behind Lightfoot's "Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald"
Gordon Lightfoot updated the lyrics to his song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" in 2010 to reflect new evidence suggesting waves, not crew error, sank the ship. He changed the line "At seven PM, a main hatchway caved in" to "At seven PM, it grew dark, it was then" and also changed "musty old hall" to "rustic old hall" in reference to the Mariners' Church. Lightfoot opted to only perform the revised lyrics live, rather than rerecording the song, to avoid altering the original copyrighted version.
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Re: The Untold Story Behind Lightfoot's "Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald"
RadioActive wrote:
Almost everybody knows the classic "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," the legendary 6 minute-plus song from Canada's Gordon Lightfoot. It may be the most unusual tune to ever reach Billboard's Top 10, with no hook, no chorus and a very long running time.
An author named James Bacon has written a book on the sinking of the ship, but also devotes two chapters to the making of the Lightfoot song, which - if anything - is even more interesting than the wreck itself.
According to a great excerpt published in Rolling Stone, Lightfoot was never completely satisfied with the song and tried to record it multiple times. But it was never quite there. With time running out on his recording studio time, his engineer urged him to give that "shipwreck song" a try.
With his backing musicians there, he reluctantly agreed but didn't like any of the takes. But here's where it gets really unusual - his back-up band had never heard the song before and were told to ad lib their parts as it went on and on. They did several takes but the perfectionist Lightfoot didn't care for any of them and each take was worse than the last.
"On Friday they played it again three or four times, [drummer Barry] Keane says, “but we never got it as good. The first time we played it the day before, there was that creative tension. Gord was putting his heart and soul into it. You can hear it. The other guys felt the same tension, because we’d never heard the song, and nobody wanted to screw it up. And that tension led to some good stuff. We weren’t thinking. We all just played what we felt...
When they played back the various takes, they reached a surprising consensus: The first take on Thursday was their best. “That’s it,” they said. “That’s the one.”
It's a very long read with a very long RS intro, but it's a fascinating look at how a Canadian classic was born.
How Gordon Lightfoot Wrote One Of Music's Most Unusual Hit Singles
All that and more is in Nick Jenning's authorized 2017 Lightfoot bio. It's well researched even down to the homes he had in midtown, Rosedale and of course Bridal Path (one his wife wanted, not him) and a apartment near Maple Leaf Gardens that he rented with Cathy Evelyn Smith where Dylan used to visit.. See Nick's website. Nick does a brilliant job diving into the weeds with many of his songs, mostly from personal interviews with the man himself. The book is an audio book as well, available from Toronto Public Library online.
Last edited by SpinningWheel (October 2, 2025 12:02 pm)