11/10/2025

50 Years Ago Today

It is hard to believe that it’s been 50 years since the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald sank during a storm on Lake Superior. While it wasn’t big news “back in the day”, Gordon Lightfoot immortalized the sinking and the loss of 29 men in his song “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”, telling the story of the ship and the men who manned it.



When Gordon Lightfoot passed away in 2023, “the Mariners' Church in Detroit (the "Maritime Sailors' Cathedral" mentioned in "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald") honored Lightfoot the day after his death by ringing its bell a total of 30 times, 29 for each of the crewmen lost on the Edmund Fitzgerald and the final time for Lightfoot himself.”

There have been a small number of covers of the song, but only one has stood out, at least to me, that being the one performed by Home Free. It was released early this year in commemoration of the 50 years since the Edmund Fitzgerald was lost with all hands.