Here

Love this song!

I believe I read that Gordon Lightfoot donated all royalties to the families of the crew.

Lightfoot also changed the lyrics slightly once the evidence made it clear that what he portrayed in the song didn't happen. He sung the altered version in concerts but never recorded them.

Lightfoot was asked many years later about his career and what he thought his most significant contribution to music was.

He said it was The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Good 1hr50min documentary covering the full history

Billie Strings' live versions are awesome. On one of them the band led into the song and gradually picked their way there over time. The minute the notable bass line kicked in the crowd went nuts.

How does Billy Strings continue to top every previous performance? He IS the master musician of our time.

Odd time of year and I am not searching 16 pages of this epic thread; although the first 2 are just comedy gold, but I just finished the audible book for The Gales of November by John U Bacon. Easy listen while commuting; this historical fiction does an excellent job of describing the nature of shipping in the Great Lakes, the history of the area, the locks and how much our nation depended upon the shipping in that area. Obviously covers the crew aboard The Fitz, the lore behind the ship and how much its sinking impacted that area. Not quite as good as an Erik Larson book but not too shabby nonetheless.

According to Bacon not a single commercial ship has sunk in the lakes since the upgrades to safety made after the Edmund Fitzgerald went down.

Two Thumbs up.

In the book I just finished listening too it says that the version on Lightfoot's album was not only the first take in the recording studio it was also the first time any of his band had even played the song or had even heard the song; the drummer and other musicians just improvised and took their queues from Lightfoot. They took several more takes but all decided that the first one was the most genuine and real and stuck with it.