Clinton, I think it's inappropriate to compare "Edmund Fitzgerald" with "Capt. Torres". They both concern real-life modern shipwrecks, but the subject is approached completely differently.

Lightfoot commemorated the loss of the Fitz and its crew by writing a very traditional style, straightforward narrative with reference to the past (native legend, etc.) People relate to it on that basis, because it sounds like history, and are often surprised that it refers to an event that happened in 1975. The only thing non-traditional about the song is the electric guitar lick.

Keelaghan, who works a bit harder at innovative literary devices, wrote a masterpiece in "Captain Torres". It examines the irony of modern day technology that allows the shorebound wives to receive "phone calls from young men dying", but cannot save them from their fate.

You learn a lot from the Edmund Fitzgerald, if you study the lyrics, of what happened, where, and maybe why. Very little of this information is present in the Keelaghan song.

They are both great songs that have moved many, although of course the Edmund Fitzgerald has been overplayed. You don't have to like 'em both, but it's not a case of one good, one bad.

Respectfully, on dry land,
W-O