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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)
- cash
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Re: The Untold Story Behind Lightfoot's "Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald"
Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of the sinking. This is a great book. I couldn't put it down. I grew up in a small town in Atlantic Canada where quite a few men worked "on the boats". These meant either the ferry boats run back then by CN or the lake boats. The lake boat men were gone from March to November/December. The book does a great job of describing the culture and dangers of working these boats. I don't remember the sinking being a big deal back in 1975 but I am sure my father who was a merchant marine/navy man in ww2 must have had conversation with these men.
What caused the sinking. Still not sure. The Fitz (nickname) was loaded with 26116 tons of taconite which was great at absorbing water. More than likely the hatches gave way and the ship just filled up with water. Another theory is that the ship hit bottom at Sixth Fathom Shoal and took on water. The captain by taking the safer northern route went to close to Caribou Island and hit bottom. The captain never sent out a distress signal and his last words were "We are holding our own". Well, they weren't and there is much to criticize about the captain. There was another ship one hour behind the Fitz (the Anderson) which made it safely to Whitefish Bay.
Last contact with the Fitz -7:10 pm on Nov 10. The Anderson was one hour behind and made it to Whitefish Bay at 9pm. So, the Fitz had one hour to make it to safety. So close and yet so far.
The song: Lightfoot was working on the melody before the sinking. It was suppose to be a song the Great Lakes. Then he read a Newsweek article about the Fitz and took a lot of the song from that article. He was encouraged by the band members to finish it and was worried about inaccuracies (he changed the lyrics twice over the years). The first take of the song was the one that went on to be a hit. It reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. ( beat out by Rod Stewart's Tonight's The Night). The families weren't happy about the song originally but Lightfoot became friends with many of them and the song has been embraced and more than likely will be played at tomorrow's ceremony. A bell will ring tomorrow 31 times - 29 for the men lost, one for all the men lost on the Great Lakes (over 30,000) and one for Lightfoot (this was added last year). Nice touch.
The book is also very sad. It's loaded with stories of the crewmen and the families they left behind. The young man with the pregnant the girlfriend waiting for him. The older man with seven kids and a bunch of grandkids (he used to save all his change during the season and give it out when he got home). Then there are the men who were suppose to be on the ship but weren't for one reason ir another. Survivor's guilt.
Some tidbits
Edmund Fitzgerald was CEO of the insurance company who commissioned the ship. He never spoke of the sinking. He died in 2013
People used to take pleasure trips on the Fitz. It had a great VIP room and a first rate galley with a great cook.
The Fitz could pick up tv near the coast and also FM radio
The site was declared a gravesite in 1999 to stop souvenir hunters.
People to this day who remember that Nov 10, 1975 storm say it was the worst they have ever seen.
No commercial ship has gone down in the Great Lakes since the Fitz fifty years ago.
Most of the people who heard about the Fitz going down on Monday Nov 10, 1975 were watching Monday Night Football. It was reference point for family, Coast Guard members and former crewmen (Chiefs vs Cowboys were playing).
Last edited by cash (November 10, 2025 12:40 am)
- Easily Amused
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Re: The Untold Story Behind Lightfoot's "Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald"
A couple of years after the sinking, Lightfoot and his backing musicians played Kleinhans in Buffalo. The songs were a mixture of new and old, but the atmosphere was electric when they played this song. I have been to only two concerts in my life, both Lightfoot.
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This is pretty eerie. Communications between the U.S. Coast Guard and the nearby ship The Arthur Anderson, as they communicate about what happened to the Edmund Fitzgerald on the day it went down.
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