Behind The Song: Gordon Lightfoot, "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald"

Behind the Meaning of Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," 50 Years After the Sinking

Gordon Lightfoot immortalized the Edmund Fitzgerald. This is what the song got wrong.

On today’s date, 50 years ago, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald tragically sank to the bottom of Lake Superior during a violent storm. Two of the 29 men who lost their lives, Thomas Borgeson and Nolan Church, hailed from Minnesota. The tragedy was immortalized by Gordon Lightfoot, who wrote the song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”, and who spoke with the Minnesota Historical Society about the song shortly before he passed. You can tune in tonight to the livestream of the Historical Society’s memori