Music meme?

[erinlefey]

[Public]

Lots of music memes going around. What is my most hated song of all time? Easy.

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, by Gordon Lightfoot.

I'm not linking to it, nor embedding a video to it. I suspect that it is a proto-virus, equipped to cause chaos in any system, human or electronic. The things that man did to the English language in that song should be criminal.

Comments

[orangetango.livejournal.com]

Whatever. Us folks from the Great Lakes be representin'! Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, word up!

[erinlefey.livejournal.com]

Comedian Richard Jeni used to reference the song in his standup monologues, insisting that the sad lyrics were useful for getting party guests who have overstayed their welcome to go home.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wreck_of_the_Edmund_Fitzgerald

[orangetango.livejournal.com]

At one point in grade school I knew all the words to that song. It's the third thing they teach Clevelanders after Kent State and the Cuyahoga River catching on fire.

[erinlefey.livejournal.com]

No wonder Yankees are so morbid. I'm glad they let you out of the camp...

[valatan.livejournal.com]

Check out the uplifting groundswell from one of the most popular local bands from my hometown when I was in High school:

[drexplosivo.livejournal.com]

Are you a Tupelo fan yourself?

[blissfish.livejournal.com]

He is. Trust me, I live with him. :)

[austingoddess.livejournal.com]

Ha - was going to reference this if no one else knew it.

And their ship sank at sea
And they all drowned like rats
And they died as their lungs filled with water

Their women and children
Were left without support
So they turned to drugs and prostitution

[curmudgn]

Actually, it's right in the tradition of broadside ballads, and the rhyming and assonance (or lack of it, sometimes) is no worse than any of its eighteenth-century counterparts.

Apropos of which: you might be interested to read this reminiscence, written by a woman I've known since my days in alt.callahans. She covered the loss of the Fitz, as a cub reporter in the Soo, and hell, she'll take you there and put you right next to her that night.

Edmund Fitz? you never heard of the Yarmouth Castle?

[arthurthedented.livejournal.com]

Makes wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald sound like grand parade :)

and yes.. I love them both and can probably still sing them from memory for the most part ...

Yankee blue , through and through.

(and born in Michigan)