And I found this an odd statement, re: Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald:

'"As he's singing it, you're getting the strong sense that not only is one ship going down, but a whole way of life is disappearing," says Everett Green.'

What's this 'whole way of life' that's 'disappearing'? AFAIK, the big lake ships are as busy as ever, and they still require crews ... ?

And this - '"The freights crossing the prairie, with that great lonely moaning-whistle sound, have been obliterated by jet travel and the shrinking of spaces and the invasion of the hinterland that formerly was one of Canada's strengths" - is pretty much nonsense, and has little if anything to do with Early Morning Rain.

I suppose there was an element of nostalgia in much of Lightfoot's work - but that could be said of almost any writer of capital-F Folksongs.