Gordon Lightfoot passed away today, one of our real treasures as a song-writer.
My earliest memories of his songs were Sundown, and The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Sundown is one of my favorite songs, ever. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald might be the greatest song ever written in my opinion. Wonderful simple guitar melody, strong story telling with very memorable lines that describe not only the tale of the doomed ship but also philosophical situations. And then, there is the mournful lead guitar that enters the song now and then.
Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters
Or, the entire finale of verse's six and seven...
Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered
In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral
The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early
A quick read from Wikipedia informs us that Gordon Lightfoot has been referred to as Canada's greatest songwriter and his songs have been recorded by some of the world's most renowned musical artists. Lightfoot's biographer Nicholas Jennings said, "His name is synonymous with timeless songs about trains and shipwrecks, rivers and highways, lovers and loneliness."
Although I have listened often to Gordon Lightfoot, it may not have been enough and that is something I can remedy going forward. I plan on it.
At the Mariners Church in Detroit the day after the songwriter died, on May 2nd 2023, at 3:00pm, the bell rang 30 times, 29 times for the crew of the Edmund Fitzgerald plus one more for Gordon Lightfoot.