Using the notes from Lee Murdock's Freshwater Highway CD, I thought I'd see if I could add a few corrections and some HTML to the lyrics Cap't Bob posted above. The Silverstein is Shel. Don't know who Daley is. Murdock's notes often have horrible spelling and a few other errors, so I can't vouch that these are absolutely exact. Some of the lyrics Cap't Bob posted fit the tune and meter a bit better.

THE GREAT LAKES SONG
© 1995, Silverstein/Daley, Evil Eye Music/Island House Music BMI

CHORUS:
Sweet Mother Michigan, Father Superior
Coming down from Mackinac and Sault Sainte Marie
Blue Water Huron flows down to Lake Erie-o
Falls into Ontario and on out to sea.

The Great Lakes are a diamond on the hand of North America
A bright, shining jewel on the friendship border ring.
It's a freshwater highway coming down from Canada
And all along the coastline you can hear the people sing.
CHORUS

Hardy are the seamen on the ships that load the iron ore
Hauling out of Thunder Bay, bound for Buffalo.
And hardy are the fishermen, like their fathers were before.
They say, "Bury me at sea when it's my time to go."
CHORUS

Down below the quarter-deck, old men mend the fishing nets.
While up on the windy bridge, young men curse into the wind.
Up and down the Windsor Straits, the wives and mothers lie awake
They pray Our Lady Of the Lake will bring them home again.
CHORUS


Windsor Straits? Hmmm. That's a term I haven't heard. My ancestry is French Canadian, but I was born in Motown. I think I'll stick with Detroit River and try to forget that the Brits prevailed on the Canadian side.
Oh, and those other straits are ALWAYS pronounced "mackinaw," but never spelled that way except in the name of Mackinaw City. The correct spelling of everything but the city is Mackinac, but the pronunciation of both spellings is the same. Spell it wrong or pronounce it wrong, and Michiganders will question whether you are truly cosmopolitan.
-Joe Offer-