UPDATE: OMG, it’s number 1 today 11/11/2025 5pm.
from Monday: I was a Gordon Lightfoot fan, mainly because of “If I Could Read Your Mind” and “Sundown.”
But then came “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
By that time I was 19, and listening pretty much only to R&B and to the burgeoning world of punk and new wave, and great pop.
“The Wreck” went on for hours, a droning story about the actual wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald a year earlier. That was a tragedy. Twenty nine crew members went down with the boat on Lake Superior in November 1975. Terrible stuff.
But did you have to hear it every minute on AM radio? The great Lenny Waronker produced it at Warner Bros, and the single was number 1 for weeks. Weeks! On Cashbox (which I followed), Billboard, and the goddam radio! You couldn’t get away from it. Just droning on and on.
Well, it’s the 50th anniversary of the actual wreck. Next year will be the 50th for the song. And it’s back! Number 2 on iTunes. The record will put you into a fitful sleep, trust me. It was six minutes long! And look, it wasn’t “Isn’t She Lovely” or “Hey Jude.” Or “Inagaddadavida.” It marked the end of the 1970s. A year later, the Ramones, Talking Heads, Blondie, Sex Pistols, Elvis Costello were all in swing. They were a reaction to the Edmund Fitzgerald, a purging.
Anyway, if you love it, this is your week.
