Remember the Edmund Fitzgerald - November 10, 1975

[JudyJB]

The Edmund Fitgerald was the largest ship to ever sink in the Great Lakes. It went down in storm on Lake Superior 48 years ago today with 29 crew members. A memorial was held today and has been held every year for the family members of the crew. The story of the ship is here: The Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald -- Introduction

If you have never been to the museum on Whitefish Bay, you should go.

You also might be aware that Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot passed away this year, but his song about the ship wrecking is still around: How ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’ Defied Top 40 Logic

Scroll down in the article above and listen to the song if you have never heard it. (Skip the ads.)

 

[zulu]

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

Lived near Lake Michigan most of my life. I got to ride on a friend's 40-foot schooner a few times on the lake. I used to ride on the bowsprit and told the boat owner how smooth the rides were. Then he told me about a race he was in during a storm where the mast spreader touched the water. It can get rough out there . . . and that wasn't even Superior.

 

[Laura & Charles]

The museum is definitely worth a visit. Folks not from a Great Lakes state generally don’t realize just how big these bodies of water are. Collectively, they contain about 21% of the world’s freshwater. They are practically inland seas, and often have serious weather to deal with as threatening as ocean sailors experience.

 

[Jkoht]

I live in Duluth where she left her final port. Yesterday we had a surprisingly decent day for November, mid 30's and pretty calm. No gales or witch come slashing. It's hunting season and normally by now there would be snow on the ground but thankfully there isn't any. As a permanent resident I'll say there isn't anybody who doesn't know about the Fitz and how powerful that lake can get when the winds shake it up. A few years ago the waves coming off the lake into the harbor almost reached the decking of the lift bridge over the shipping channel entry, I don't know the normal clearance off hand but I'd say on a normal day there's probably 20-30 feet. That's some big wave action. In my younger years I ventured onto lake superior in a 1957 14 foot alumacraft boat with a 9.9 evinrude. Thankfully it was a calm day but that was probably the stupidest thing I could have ever done. You get the true sense of what it feels like to be a bobber on the water in a boat that small on water that big. I turned around and headed back for the relative safety of the harbor instead. If you're interested in the history of shipping take a tour around Lake Superior, there's lots of places to camp, even on the Canadian side, and lots of places filled with history to see. I promise it'll a trip you'll remember forever.

 

[Matt_C]

My wife liked the museum at Whitefish Point until she saw the picture of her favorite porter. I can't go in that part of the museum at all. Many of them were friends.

 

[Tulecreeper]

A few months ago we were at a local restaurant that has an outdoor stage and live music on Friday and Saturday nights. About halfway through our meal one of the band members said, "We're missing a guitar player this evening because he busted his hand. Anyone know Edmund Fitzgerald?"

Coincidentally, I had been messing around with the song the previous week at a BBQ at our place, so both my wife and a friend who was eating with us pointed at me and yelled, "He does!" So I ended up sitting in for a song.

Did you know that The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald only has 4 chords, but is 1 hour and 87 minutes long? I couldn't straighten the fingers of my left hand for a week.

 

[Adventurous Traveler]

The museum definitely a go-to destination for anyone planning a trip to the the Michigan UP. Although not large in the typical sense of museums it certainly packs a lot of great information about the Great Lakes shipping industry and how important it was especially through the growth years of this country.

There are also several great Michigan State parks to camp at in the UP with Tahquamenon Falls SP only a few miles away from the museum. Beautiful campsites and the falls are fantastic.

 

[John From Detroit]

I do not recall an "Single" being more than 3 minutes long.. But of course they may have added more verses to the full length performance
That church mentioned in Gordon Lightfoots' song is actually callled the Old Mariner's Church (not Maritime Sailors Cathedral) But the Bell.... Oh that bell.. My Daughter's Godfather worked about half a mile away and when it rang 29 times.. he said there was absolutely no mistaking the meaning of the bell.

 

[SMR]

The museum definitely a go-to destination for anyone planning a trip to the the Michigan UP. Although not large in the typical sense of museums it certainly packs a lot of great information about the Great Lakes shipping industry and how important it was especially through the growth years of this country.

There are also several great Michigan State parks to camp at in the UP with Tahquamenon Falls SP only a few miles away from the museum. Beautiful campsites and the falls are fantastic.

Yes
We stayed at Tahquamenon Falls when we visited the museum it is a beautiful park, we rowed the boats out to the island. The museum is a must see.

 

[JudyJB]

And don't forget the campground about a mile east of the Soo locks in Sault. St. Marie, MI. It is called Aune-Osborne and owned by the city. The big lake freighters go very close to the campground as they go into or out of the locks. Well worth a few nights stay.

 

[DonTom]

 

[Lou Schneider]

I do not recall an "Single" being more than 3 minutes long.. But of course they may have added more verses to the full length performance

4 and 5 minute long singles were fairly common in the late 60s. Richard Harris' song "MacArthur Park" managed to pack the entire 7+ minutes performance onto a single side of a 45. It reached #2 on the Billboard Top 100 singles chart. It was a favorite of Top 40 DJs everywhere when they had to run down the hall to take care of business. Here's the original audio:

 

[Adventurous Traveler]

We actually took our kayaks down to the falls at Tahquamenon SP. Just before the falls is a set of stairs where they built a kayak ramp into the handrail. You put your kayak in the large V groove and slid it down the embankment. My 12' kayak went down, and surprisingly up easily. The tough part was landing and getting out of the kayak with the current and no ground to run up and on to.

 

[John From Detroit]

4 and 5 minute long singles were fairly common in the late 60s. Richard Harris' song "MacArthur Park" managed to pack the entire 7+ minutes performance onto a single side of a 45. It reached #2 on the Billboard Top 100 singles chart. It was a favorite of Top 40 DJs everywhere when they had to run down the hall to take care of business. Here's the original audio:

The single was under 4 minutes 3:59) the version you posted was the LP version.
Same with a few other pieces I know of there were single versions 3-4 minutes and an LP version those can run UP to about 30 minutes give or take but most were shorter.
Why is this? SIngles were 45RMP and you can stuff so much music on a 7" disc side.
Lp's were 12 inch as I recall and 33.333333 RPM so you could stuff lots more on 'em.

 

[Tulecreeper]

I do not recall an "Single" being more than 3 minutes long.. But of course they may have added more verses to the full length performance
That church mentioned in Gordon Lightfoots' song is actually callled the Old Mariner's Church (not Maritime Sailors Cathedral) But the Bell.... Oh that bell.. My Daughter's Godfather worked about half a mile away and when it rang 29 times.. he said there was absolutely no mistaking the meaning of the bell.

Well, they played the extended version. When I got up on stage the bass player asked, "Can you play for 7 minutes?" I thought, "Oh man, this is gonna hurt."

I've had two surgeries on my left hand and have lost probably 20% of my dexterity, and my little finger has a permanent crook in it so I find it very difficult to bar chords anymore. But as they say, "The show must go on!" And I didn't even get paid for it.

 

[Lou Schneider]

The single was under 4 minutes 3:59) the version you posted was the LP version.
Same with a few other pieces I know of there were single versions 3-4 minutes and an LP version those can run UP to about 30 minutes give or take but most were shorter.
Why is this? SIngles were 45RMP and you can stuff so much music on a 7" disc side.
Lp's were 12 inch as I recall and 33.333333 RPM so you could stuff lots more on 'em.

I was there, as a DJ on a local radio station back then and yes, RCA did issue the full 7.5 minute version on a 7" 45. Lots of closely spaced grooves. It was needed to qualify for the Billboard Top 100 Singles chart, where it stayed for close to a year and peaked at #2. The shorter version followed later after radio stations started doing their own hack jobs to shorten the length. That, along with Marty Robin's "El Paso" (also issued full length on a 45) were my favorite go-to songs when I needed to take a break.

RCA invented the single play 45 RPM record and pushed the format as an easier to use alternative to the 12", 33 1/3 LPs. They stretched the format by releasing several 45s with a couple of 2-3 minute tracks on each side of the record so they could be played on the 45 RPM only record changers RCA came out with around the same time. Again they traded loudness for groove density.

 

[DonTom]

That, along with Marty Robin's "El Paso" (

That reminds me that I have no way to avoid El Paso to get back home on this trip. I think I will play this as I am driving through it which seems to take forever these days:

Mission, TX 78572

 

[Larry N.]

Marty was great -- first time I heard him was in the '50s with A White Sport Coat (And A Pink Carnation). His son Robby sounds almost like his dad on El Paso and others. This is an excerpt of El Paso from Larry's Country Diner and the song proper starts about 1:50 into the clip -- it gets cut a tad short because it's at the end of the show.

And as another example here he is doing Big Iron.

 

[Onyrlef]

The documentary on the sinking of the EF is interesting. I think the prevailing opinion is they took on water through the deck hatches and/ or struck bottom in the trough of a giant swell and broke it's back. As the song says if they'd just made Whitefish Bay they'd have made it out.
It's also interesting watching the ore carriers entering and exiting the ports on YouTube, especially on their final trips when it's icing up.

 

[Tulecreeper]

That reminds me that I have no way to avoid El Paso to get back home on this trip. I think I will play this as I am driving through it which seems to take forever these days:


Mission, TX 78572

I passed through on the I-10 in 2016. If I remember, it was about 5 or 6 PM on a Tuesday and although there was traffic it wasn't bumper-to-bumper. I'm pretty sure it was that time of day as I made it to Pecos about 9 PM.

If you take Hwy 62 around to the north, it brings you to the 375 by Biggs Field, then just take that around and come out in Canutillo on I-10 north of El Paso. It'll take a little longer, but I think you can by pass all the traffic.