TonyK, "The Wreck..." has the same melody as the Irish song "Back Home in Derry". I'm not sure which song came first.
StevenG, the songs you mention are ones I think of as around the end of GL's "early period", before I started getting bored with his stuff. I agree with you entirely on those songs, and much of what he wrote previously.
Not that it matters, but I remember the Country Hoedown TV show when they announced that a young backup singer was leaving the show to go out on his own, and they gave him a solo spot. Yes, it was GL. I also remember "The TuTones", Gordon Lightfoot and Terry Whelan. Wish I'd bought their LP, it'd be a collector's item now. Lastly, my aunt, a music teacher in Orillia, prided herself that she gave Gordon his first music lessons. So much for name-dropping...