Sunday, March 28, 2010

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down...

Gordon Lightfoot has changed some of the lyrics to his epic "Edmund Fitzgerald."

Apparently singing about the main hatchway caving in somehow implied that the crew failed to secure the hatchway and caused their own death. He has now replaced that lyric with "At 7 p.m., it grew dark, it was then he said, 'Fellas it's been good to know ya."

Apparently some of the deckhands' families are very pleased. Honestly, I never even thought about it...I figured they were sinking, of COURSE the hatchway would cave in.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

iam a musian, and live on lake t, i play that song all the time, and i agree, never even thought about it, also, the new lyric doesn't fit the metre or rhyme.

Anonymous said...

There was a recent twitter blow up regarding a false rumour that Gordon Lightfoot had died. Anyway, the lyrical change will only be there in live performances; Gordon Lightfoot will not re-record the song. I think the change is about supporting the "rogue wave" theory rather than the "human error" theory. I know this sounds crazy, like splitting hairs, but somehow it is a significant part of CDN history and culture. Plus it's a cool song.