Yeah but: Did we ever find out if the TUNE of The Edmund Fitzgerald came from a traditional tune contained in that Drum and Fife Book? That's what I want to know.

When I was a rather small gal in the 1970's, being maybe ten or twelve when Edmund Fitgerald cam upon the radio, I recall my grandpa Vic ( who was an old storyteller and musician with a huge repetoire) expressing surprise when he was told that The Edmund Fitzgerald was a recent shipwreck.

He said that from the tune, with he was familiar, he assumed it had sunk a hundred years or more prior. Living where he did, in the Far Nothern Wilds of Upstate New York, he did know much about modern Seafaring on the Great Lakes to the west. He regularly heard of disasters on Lake Ontario or on The St. Lawrence River...but...The Edmund Fitgerald...coulda happened on the moon for all he knew. He just heard the old tune and a song about Lake Gitchigoomie and guessed "long time ago."

Of course, we kids were astounded that he could have slept through such a seriously spooky disaster as a huge modern Ore hauler disappearing from radar just a few years prior..but he did! The point being, of course, that he was familiar enough with the tune to assign to it some antiquity. He had no trouble playing it for us and added a chorus or bridge that Gordon Lightfoot chose not to use. I wonder if it's the same Chorus as in Bobby Sands' song?

At any rate, Grandpa Vic was born in the Nineteen-Teens in Canada and he took the tune for an old one. He was usually right about such things. We never did bother to ask the name of the song. He told us it was English in origin.

As for Bobby Sands and who is or who ain't a Terrorist...not here..please. The world is such a polarised place these days, can we not allow Mudcat to remain free of such rhetoric? Mind you, I come from a family which on my dad's side sang Republican ballads at every opportunity. It's just that these days the lines have been blurred and those not old enough to recall their Pawdredeen's stories about getting smacked for speaking Erse should just butt out. It's an ugly world but thankfully Mudcat isn't part of it.