SUCH POETIC LYRICS! First Time Hearing Gordon Lightfoot - Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald Reaction

Comments · 3K

• RI

  @rickwelch8464 · 2 years ago (edited)

  "Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?" Best line ever imo

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• SA

  @saithe475 · 2 years ago

  The Church in the song is called Mariner’s Church in Detroit which was built in 1849. After Gordon Lightfoot died, the church bells rang 30 times, 29 for each life on the Edmund Fitzgerald and once for Gordon Lightfoot.

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• HO

  @hokiedoo · 2 years ago

  When Gordon passed they rang the bell 30 times for Gordon not 29 😪

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• RO

  @robert49783 · 2 years ago

  I was 10 years old, on November 10, 1975 being raised in Southern Michigan. I remember everything about the storm and its enormous winds, rain, hail and finally snow from the night before and the beautiful sunshine and crisp fall air of the following day when it was announced that the Edmund Fitzgerald was lost with all hands.   I was naturalist even at this age and this song moved me to dream about going to Superior.  I wanted to feel the legend of Superior and all it's power and majesty.    I met my soulmate at age 15 and a few years later after college, we moved very close to Lake Superior.  So many times in the past 30 years, when the wind whips up and a storm starts roaring on the big lake, we make our way to Whitefish Point where simply standing upright can be a struggle and the noise from the wind sounds as if you are standing inside a rocket at takeoff.   We look out into the lake seeing exactly where this ship went down and exactly where it needed to get to reach safety and think  just how close they were.  Two days from now, another "blow" will happen, and again we will make our way to nature's temple and pay our respects to Superior and to the people that call its icy depths home.  And once again, we will turn the page.

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• TR

  @TristanandIsolt · 2 years ago

  The music is so haunting. Gordon created a sound that is like nothing ever heard before.

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• DS

  @dsmdgold · 2 years ago

  "Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes into hours"  is probably the greatest line in all of popular music.

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• TE

  @terminallumbago6465 · 2 years ago (edited)

  Here’s the history behind the song:<br><br>“Gitchee Gumee” is the Objibwe word for “Great Sea” and it is used to refer to Lake Superior, which is known as an inland sea because of its size and conditions. They say it never gives up its dead because bodies at the bottom of the lake don’t float to the top or even decompose because of the low temperature and lack of oxygen down there. <br><br>The S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald was a freighter. According to one of the victims’ nephews (who’s also in the shipping industry), if someone was chosen to be a crew member on the ship, they had a lot of seniority, experience, and a good reputation. This is reflected in the fact that most of the victims were in their 40s, 50s, and 60s and had decades of experience. The captain, Ernest McSorley, had over 40 years of experience alone. He planned to retire after the voyage. <br><br>On November 9, 1975, the ship left Wisconsin with 26-27,000 tons of taconite iron ore pellets. It was an unseasonably warm, sunny day. The ship was headed for Zug Island in Detroit to drop off the iron ore, then on to Cleveland to harbor for the winter (Gordon took a bit of poetic license with this). By the morning of November 10, the weather had shifted on Lake Superior. It was raining with high winds and high waves. It steadily got worse as the day went on. <br><br>The weather knocked out both of the ship’s radars, and the Whitefish Point lighthouse and beacon were not working properly, so the ship was essentially sailing blind. They stuck close to another ship, the Arthur Anderson, who tried to help the Fitzgerald navigate. The two ships planned to sail to Whitefish Bay and shelter from the storm there. <br><br>At some point in the afternoon, the two ships passed a shoal (an area of shallow water that can be dangerous for ships). It is believed that the Fitzgerald ran aground on it (likely not seeing it), suffered structural damage to the bottom of the ship, and began taking on water from the bottom. <br><br>By this time, the weather was also freezing rain, which combined with the wind and high waves made the ship top heavy. The Fitzgerald began listing to one side and water went on deck too, which only got worse as the storm continued. They informed the Arthur Anderson of their predicament and the two ships continued towards Whitefish Bay. <br><br>At about 7:10 pm, the Arthur Anderson radioed the Fitzgerald and asked how they were holding up. Captain McSorley said the Fitzgerald was “holding its own.” Those were the last words heard from the Edmund Fitzgerald. <br><br>Within the next 5-10 minutes, the Arthur Anderson lost the Fitzgerald on radar and couldn’t physically see it either. By this point, the ship had already sank. No one knows for sure what happened, but it happened so fast the Fitzgerald didn’t even have time to send a distress signal. A common theory is that a rogue (much higher than normal) wave came up and took them under, which can happen without warning. Because the ship was weighed down by the water on deck, the iron ore inside of it, and the water from the bottom, it simply did not come back up. The ship and all 29 crewmen were lost. They were only 15 miles away from the safety of Whitefish Bay, which probably would have taken only a couple more hours at the rate they were going.<br><br>The Arthur Anderson safely made it to Whitefish Point, but actually went back out into the storm a few hours later to look for wreckage and survivors. They found nothing. <br><br>The Coast Guard said the crewmen failed to secure the hatches (an unlikely mistake for a crew that experienced at that time of year). In 2010, it was found that human error did not cause the sinking. In live performances, Gordon changed the line to reflect this new development.<br><br>The crewmen are all still down there. In the 1990s, divers went down to the wreckage, brought up the ship’s bell, and placed a replica with the engraved names of the crewmen. The real bell is now in the Whitefish Point museum. The families did not want the crewmen recovered, seeing the wreckage as their final resting place. Every year, memorials are held for the crew members. Ships will also stop and ring their bells 29 times when passing the wreck site. In a lot of the memorials this year, the bell also rang a 30th time for Gordon Lightfoot himself.<br><br>The reason this song is so beloved is because of how factually accurate it is, and Gordon even changed the lyrics over the years to reflect new findings about the wreck. The reason he wrote the song in the first place was because he was upset about the careless news coverage of the sinking (a news article even misspelled the ship’s &nbsp;name). He also donated the money from the song to the families of the crewmen, and anyone who wanted to use the song had to get permission from the families too.

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• PA

  @pat_in_va8605 · 2 years ago

  Each year, they ring the bell 29 times at the Mariner&apos;s Church (what Gordon called the Maritime Sailors Cathedral). The proceeds for this song went to the sailor&apos;s charity. We must remember that in the 70s, there were no social media outlets, no GoFundMe, and nothing like that. &nbsp;If you needed to raise money for a cause or a need, it needed to be in the print media (newspapers/magazines), television, or radio. &nbsp;Through the decades after this song, Mr. Lightfoot stayed connected to the Maritime Church and the lost sailors&apos; families. &nbsp;When he passed, the Maritime Church rang the bells for him.

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• AL

  @alaninohio2 · 2 years ago

  Gordon was traveling and read a story one morning in a motel/hotel and it made a huge impact on him, He inquired approval from each of the 29 families before he released his recording of the tragedy. He donated all his profits of the song through the years that followed to the families, because it touched him so deeply.

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• PI

  @pinehawk9600 · 2 years ago

  Gordon Lightfoot is one of the greatest singer/song writers of all time.. RIP Mr. Lightfoot ✝️❤️‍🔥

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• HI

  @highwayblues638 · 2 years ago

  When Gordon Lightfoot passed away they rang the bells at the Maritime Sailors Cathedral 30 times. 29 times for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald and one time for Gordon. Amazing .

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• JO

  @joycenorthwind6874 · 2 years ago

  When Gordon Lightfoot died, The bell rang 30 times adding him as an honorary member to be remembered because he wrote the song for the lost men. He felt it was too important to be covered so lightly and incorrectly by media at the time and wanted the whole story to come out. All the money he made from that song was donated to the families of those sailors, his goal being all their kids could go to college.

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