Trains Newswire: Sinking of Edmund Fitzgerald.

[IRONROOSTER]

I think the song is a nice memorial to the crew, which is all it ever tried to be. As Dave said "for history go to history books".

Enjoy
Paul

[wjstix]

I've got to dig out my book on the sinking of the Fitz, but I think he was saying the boat had gone from a mill in Wisconsin (perhaps delivering coal) before being loaded in Superior. No where in the song does he say it was loaded with iron ore at a mill in Wisconsin, just that it was coming from a mill in Wisconsin, was loaded with iron ore, and was heading towards Cleveland.

[tsgtbob]

If you really listen to the song, Lightfoot says "some 'ville in Wisconsin" not some MILL.
I always thought he was saying "mill" until I listened to it on a set of Bose studio monitor speakers.

[wjstix]

If you really listen to the song, Lightfoot says "some 'ville in Wisconsin" not some MILL. I always thought he was saying "mill" until I listened to it on a set of Bose studio monitor speakers.

That's a good point regarding songs, often even the "official" published version of a song comes from someone at the publishing company sitting down and listening to a recording and transcribing the words. I'm sure many 'on line' versions of songs that fans have transcribed have errors in them. (Reminds me of when I was a kid during the "British Invasion" of the sixties. A lot of UK groups did American songs and in trying to transcribe the words from 45's came up with some odd lyrics.)

[Pathfinder]

We are nit picking a song about a ship wreck on a train forum?   

This could open up a whole bunch of songs that are supposed to be about historical events that may be lacking in some factual way but does it really matter?  I never heard Gordon Lightfoot or Stompin' Tom Connors or Harry Chapin ever proclaim their songs to be factual history.  They tell a story.  You want the details, check out books.