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(Miami Herald)   This just in: Gordon Lightfoot can finally stop wincing when he gets to the line about a main hatchway caving in when he sings "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"   (miamiherald.com) divider line
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6982 clicks; posted to Entertainment » on 26 Jun 2014 at 8:20 AM (8 years ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook



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Ambivalence [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2014-06-26 4:15:52 AM  
Pussywillows cattails soft wind and roses.
 
mr_a
2014-06-26 6:38:38 AM  
Amazing that Gordon Lightfoot seems to have higher factual standards than 95% of the news and media outlets.
 
Three Crooked Squirrels [TotalFark]
2014-06-26 7:18:24 AM  
I love the song Sundown.

/That is all
 
FirstNationalBastard
2014-06-26 7:29:59 AM  

mr_a: Amazing that Gordon Lightfoot seems to have higher factual standards than 95% of the news and media outlets.


I still contest the fact that the cook said it was too rough to feed the fellows.
 
OregonVet
2014-06-26 8:13:36 AM  
Love his work. Used to play it on my dad's record player. Years ago I made him a custom CD (back when the technology first became available). He lit up like a kid. Later my wife treated me to front row seats at a concert.
/lawn, off, etc.
 
kling_klang_bed
2014-06-26 8:26:00 AM  
Love his music, especially that song. Definitely one of the more poetic songwriters.
 
BizarreMan [TotalFark]
2014-06-26 8:26:18 AM  
A couple of years ago my wife and I got to see him in concert. Musically it was a good show but his voice is shot.
 
undernova
2014-06-26 8:29:59 AM  
Tony Rice nails(nailed) this one, too.
 
Coco LaFemme [OhFark]
2014-06-26 8:35:54 AM  

Three Crooked Squirrels: I love the song Sundown.

/That is all


Sundown, Carefree Highway, If You Could Read My Mind, and Endless Wire are my top picks.
 
The Muthaship
2014-06-26 8:39:28 AM  
He's playing near my hometown this weekend.

Amazing he's still alive.  He's consumed enough whiskey to sink that f*cker again.
 
dittybopper
2014-06-26 8:44:29 AM  

FirstNationalBastard: mr_a: Amazing that Gordon Lightfoot seems to have higher factual standards than 95% of the news and media outlets.

I still contest the fact that the cook said it was too rough to feed the fellows.


The "Witch of November" is actually a cross-dressing warlock.
 
oxnard_montalvo
2014-06-26 8:48:17 AM  
If you like the Lightfoot songs that made it to the radio, try "Summer Side of Life" from '71. My particular fave.

images.uulyrics.comView Full Size
 
offacue [TotalFark]
2014-06-26 8:49:32 AM  
This is the song that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friend. Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was, and they'll continue singing it forever just because...This is the song that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friend. Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was, and they'll continue singing it forever just because... This is the song that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friend. Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was, and they'll continue singing it forever just because...This is the song that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friend. Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was, and they'll continue singing it forever just because... This is the song that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friend. Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was, and they'll continue singing it forever just because...This is the song that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friend. Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was, and they'll continue singing it forever just because ...
 
dualplains
2014-06-26 8:49:53 AM  

FirstNationalBastard: mr_a: Amazing that Gordon Lightfoot seems to have higher factual standards than 95% of the news and media outlets.

I still contest the fact that the cook said it was too rough to feed the fellows.


I can buy that it was rough, but how does Lightfoot know for sure that it had been good to know them?

/Oooooh, I wish I was back home in Derry!
 
DjangoStonereaver
2014-06-26 8:50:38 AM  
Always brings a lump to my thought, that song does.
 
The Muthaship
2014-06-26 8:51:05 AM  

oxnard_montalvo: If you like the Lightfoot songs that made it to the radio, try "Summer Side of Life" from '71. My particular fave.

[images.uulyrics.com image 301x300]


Cotton Jenny
 
Kwai Lo
2014-06-26 9:03:59 AM  
My dad is a few years younger that Gordon, but used to spend time in the same field parties in the Barrie and Orillia area.  I grew up hearing his music all the time, and have seen him a number of times live.  In May I was able to take my middle child to see him, as she is a big fan as well.  He doesn't have the voice to carry the large places like he did, but it was great to see him again.
 
BunkoSquad
2014-06-26 9:04:55 AM  
Say what you want about this song, it's a great way to clear out a karaoke bar
 
show me
2014-06-26 9:10:22 AM  
Love the song. That is all.
 
CarnySaur [TotalFark]
2014-06-26 9:10:27 AM  
Ah, that was the first dance song at my wedding.
 
cleveoh
2014-06-26 9:10:32 AM  

BunkoSquad: Say what you want about this song, it's a great way to clear out a karaoke bar


Wonder how it is as a lapdance song?

/um, asking for a friend...
 
SpectroBoy [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2014-06-26 9:13:35 AM  

DjangoStonereaver: Always brings a lump to my thought, that song does.


When I was a kid this was the first song ever to give me nightmares. The imagery is so vivid and haunting.
 
vudukungfu [TotalFark]
2014-06-26 9:15:39 AM  
They took a big boat and we'll set it a float said "Boys, we'll cross the big water.
Load her up to the top with them rusty red rocks, and boys, she'll float like an otter".
 
Any Pie Left
2014-06-26 9:16:26 AM  
A former WLS air personality had a fictional on-air character named Jim Shortz. As Jimmy, he sang a parody version of Edmund Fitz that would make you pee yourself from laughter, it was so bad.   Wish I could find it online, but google-fu is weak today/
 
Gulper Eel
2014-06-26 9:16:30 AM  

oxnard_montalvo: If you like the Lightfoot songs that made it to the radio, try "Summer Side of Life" from '71


To be followed in six months by "Song for a Winter's Night".
 
FirstNationalBastard
2014-06-26 9:21:48 AM  

dualplains: FirstNationalBastard: mr_a: Amazing that Gordon Lightfoot seems to have higher factual standards than 95% of the news and media outlets.

I still contest the fact that the cook said it was too rough to feed the fellows.

I can buy that it was rough, but how does Lightfoot know for sure that it had been good to know them?

/Oooooh, I wish I was back home in Derry!


The cook had way too much of a say in what went on on that boat.
 
Hack Patooey
2014-06-26 9:23:21 AM  

Czechzican: For some reason the line that always gets me is

"Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours? "

It's haunting.


Anyone who has been in deep water, when the sea and sky is angry, can relate.  Being under sail doubly so.
 
FarkingReading
2014-06-26 9:24:31 AM  
This is my favorite song to include the term "Gitche Gumee."

I should note that there were several close seconds.
 
cgraves67
2014-06-26 9:26:04 AM  
I couldn't read the interview without hearing ",eh?" at the end of each sentence.
 
Boojum2k
2014-06-26 9:32:45 AM  
Love the song, all of my friends know the lyrics too, gets sung a lot on road trips.
 
yakmans_dad
2014-06-26 9:40:21 AM  
I first heard the bit about Superior never giving up her dead when I was a boy. It was in a book of boy's literature that my grandparents had kept in my father's old bedroom. How old was it? The series predated The Hardy Boys books.  The line about Lake Superior was mysterious and gloomy and it stuck with me long after any other accurate memory of the books had faded.

So when eBay showed up, some of the first items I looked for were copies of the author's works. And there they were! (Apparently it only took  a week for at least one of everything that ever existed to show up on eBay.) I was amazed that my first bid lost. But I outflanked bidders for my next and prepared to enjoy ... oh jeezy-creezy those books were terrible for an adult to read. 4 of the most wasted dollars ever. Would that Lake Surperior never gave up her crap books.

I haven't mentioned the authors name because at the time I bought the books his daughter was still alive and had either dewy-eyed love of her father's stuff or canny PR men simulating it. I'll presume the love was real.
 
Burn_The_Plows
2014-06-26 9:45:47 AM  

Any Pie Left: A former WLS air personality had a fictional on-air character named Jim Shortz. As Jimmy, he sang a parody version of Edmund Fitz that would make you pee yourself from laughter, it was so bad.   Wish I could find it online, but google-fu is weak today/


Last I heard (5 or 6 years ago) Kevin Matthews is doing a morning zoo show in Grand Rapids. He was still doing the same bit about having a race to see who could swallow and pass a penny first, as he was in the early 90's.

BizarreMan: A couple of years ago my wife and I got to see him in concert. Musically it was a good show but his voice is shot.


I agree. There's a bootleg circulating of a show of his from 1965, I highly recommend it.
 
TimSTP
2014-06-26 9:53:46 AM  
"I can't think of any Gordon Lightfoot song I don't like. Everytime I hear a song of his, it's like I wish it would last forever. " - Bob Dylan
 
Yanks_RSJ
2014-06-26 9:56:11 AM  
I thought Gordon Lightfoot was the boat.
 
Pants full of macaroni!! [BareFark]
2014-06-26 9:57:29 AM  
I like long songs to begin with, but it's the rhythm that hooks me on this one.  I know it's not technically a sea chantey, but it feels like one, and the lyrics go perfectly with it.
 
spman
2014-06-26 9:59:38 AM  
A few weeks ago I posted in another thread that the song I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) by the Proclaimers would be high on the list of the worst songs ever recorded. This song would be listed even higher.
 
onzmadi
2014-06-26 10:03:22 AM  
I did this song always have. The care and respect that Gordon shows is really just the icing on the cake.
If it wasn't for this song a few thousand people, mostly great lakes history buffs, would know about the Edmund Fitzgerald. Because of this song millions do.
What better tribute could you think of for those 28 men.
 
Crewmannumber6
2014-06-26 10:06:57 AM  
I thought the next time I saw a story about Gordon Lightfoot it would be announcing his death.
 
The Muthaship
2014-06-26 10:07:15 AM  

onzmadi: I did this song always have. The care and respect that Gordon shows is really just the icing on the cake.
If it wasn't for this song a few thousand people, mostly great lakes history buffs, would know about the Edmund Fitzgerald. Because of this song millions do.
What better tribute could you think of for those 28 men.


Wasn't it 29?
 
ristst
2014-06-26 10:09:30 AM  
One of our "patio/deck gig songs"....we've played it for many years, but only on very laid-back gigs.

I do all seven verses, even the "lost" verse (I call it that) - Well Lake Huron rolls & Superior sings...

The lines that get me are:

"The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay if they'd put 15 more miles behind them"
and
"All that remains, are the faces and the names, of the wives and the sons and the daughters"
 
dryknife
2014-06-26 10:09:34 AM  
I always called him Gordon Leadfoot.

I don't know why.
 
ristst
2014-06-26 10:10:50 AM  

The Muthaship: Wasn't it 29?


"The church bell chimed 'til it rang 29 times, for each man of the Edmund Fitzgerald"
 
The Muthaship
2014-06-26 10:12:25 AM  

ristst: One of our "patio/deck gig songs"....we've played it for many years, but only on very laid-back gigs.

I do all seven verses, even the "lost" verse (I call it that) - Well Lake Huron rolls & Superior sings...

The lines that get me are:

"The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay if they'd put 15 more miles behind them"
and
"All that remains, are the faces and the names, of the wives and the sons and the daughters"


That's really something.

It's cool that you get both your favorite lines wrong!

/just effing witcha'
 
addy2
2014-06-26 10:15:47 AM  
Seven Island Suite is my personal favorite but I'll listen to anything by him. I feel fortunate to have seen him in concert in the 70's.
 
Reaperman
2014-06-26 10:18:42 AM  
upload.wikimedia.orgView Full Size


There are some (not all) great covers on this CD. It is worth listening to.
 
NotoriousW.O.P
2014-06-26 10:25:16 AM  
Went to the new Great Lakes Museum in Toledo a month or so ago. They actually had a life raft and a couple life jackets from the Fitz there. Apparently, they came up after the sinking or something. It was spooky.
 
DjangoStonereaver
2014-06-26 10:31:41 AM  

spman: A few weeks ago I posted in another thread that the song I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) by the Proclaimers would be high on the list of the worst songs ever recorded. This song would be listed even higher.


1.bp.blogspot.comView Full Size
 
ristst
2014-06-26 10:44:37 AM  

The Muthaship: ristst: One of our "patio/deck gig songs"....we've played it for many years, but only on very laid-back gigs.

I do all seven verses, even the "lost" verse (I call it that) - Well Lake Huron rolls & Superior sings...

The lines that get me are:

"The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay if they'd put 15 more miles behind them"
and
"All that remains, are the faces and the names, of the wives and the sons and the daughters"

That's really something.

It's cool that you get both your favorite lines wrong!

/just effing witcha'


is/are  (1st one matches all the sites I checked)

+1  (ya got me...!)

/odd how no one pays any attention to anything I post other than the grammar nazis
//I keed
///but really, I posted a reply today in one thread and 8 posts later someone posted exactly the same thing.
////they got 30 replies....I got nothin' but slashies

just me crying moar (without moar slashies)
 
scumbucket
2014-06-26 10:44:42 AM  
If we're talking about Great Lakes folk songs, would it be a threadjack to mention Stan Rogers?  When I first heard his music, I was almost personally offended that I hadn't even heard his name mentioned before.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ4ddAgykfk   White Squall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WZidBcfC7w  Lock Keeper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS3X1GlwnBs The Nancy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5nNie0Enss   The Last Watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQRzIJcPMNs Day to Day
 
The Muthaship
2014-06-26 10:47:12 AM  

ristst: "The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay if they'd put 15 more miles behind them"


"Them" should be "her", but I was really just kidding around.  I ain't no Nazi.  I wish I had the ability to play and sing the song!

/I've had guitars my whole life
//still can't play worth a f*ck
 
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