Edmund Fitzgeral Song Analysis

Matthew Boucouvalas

PROF. Wilen

English 100-15

2 November 2011

Song analysis of “The Wreck of the Edmunds Fitzgerald” By: Gordon Lightfoot

As a kid one of my favorite places to visit was my grandparents’ lake house on Lake Little Ossipee in Waterboro. I knew exactly what visiting this place entailed and it was one of the most anticipated things to do for me and my older brother nick. There was plenty of good reasons why this was such a fun event for us. To us the visit meant two things mainly freedom to roam the woods and be care free but the other more important reason was the fact my uncles and their friends had a band and would often entertain the party. Being care free and having the attention span of a grasshopper as it goes with most young boys me and my brother could of giving a care less about lyrical content all we knew was the music was a whole other “thing” entirely to us. Though we may not have understood the meanings to any of the songs we sure got the “vibe” from it, and there was always one song in particular that seemed to stop everyone in their tracks and my brother and me were no different. That song was The Wreck of the Edmunds Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot.

Now that I’m older and understand the events this song is depicting, it has taken on a whole new meaning. The song is about a freighter that sank taking its whole crew with her on the way down in the frigid waters of Lake Superior in the year 1975. The SS Edmunds Fitzgerald was at the time it still is the biggest boat to have ever graced the waters of the Great Lakes. The boat was a celebrity in itself in the region and too many was larger than life almost literally.

In the first part he sings “The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down of the big lake they called 'Gitche Gumee'. Then it gets more interesting when he sings the next two lines The Lake, it is said, never gives up her dead when the skies of November turn gloomy. To me as a listener I couldn’t be more intrigued as...