"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."
The event described didn't even happen until November 1975.
And, as additional facts about the disaster come to light, Gordon Lightfoot updates the lyrics accordingly.
The additional "facts" revealed about the
Fitzgerald sinking in recent years have shed no new light on the disaster that Gordon Lightfoot hadn't accounted for in his original song. And meaning no disrespect, but with Lightfoot's increasing health problems in recent years, I'd say it's more likely that he doesn't remember all of the original lyrics and ad-libs when he performs in concert. Per the liner notes for the first pressing of
Summertime Dream, the 1976 album that featured the song, Lightfoot got the inspiration for the song after reading about the tragedy in
Newsweek. A few years after the song came out, I read the original
Newsweek article. Kind of like when you've seen
Airplane! and then decide to read
Runway Zero-Eight, the song does reflect everything stated in the article - almost word for word.
Of course,
Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald still remains high on my list for the "Most Unlikely Song to make it to the Top Forty" award.
