The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #75355 Message #1324680
Posted By: GUEST
12-Nov-04 - 12:07 PM
Thread Name: 10 Nov 1975 -- Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald
Subject: RE: 10/11/75 -- Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald
Not the worst Gordon Lightfoot song, I agree. That would have to go to the maudlin "If You Could Read My Mind".
I'm a big lover of the story behind the song. But in this case, the story of the storm, the wreck, etc is much more compelling than the song. Besides being drearily arranged by Lightfoot on the 'Summertime Dream' album, it has only a marginally decent lyric compared to the other songs on the album like "House You Live In" and "Race Among the Ruins".
I mean come on--"Gitchee Gummee"?
How tragically Longfellow-esque. The lyrics are very stilted, IMO.
As to the tune, I used to have the album but don't anymore, so I can't check the credits. But I'm recalling it was one of those "Lyrics by, tune trad" songs.