50 years ago, the Edmund Fitzgerald, a 'rock star' ship, sank in Lake Superior
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No one was more surprised than Gordon Lightfoot when his ballad "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" became one of the biggest hits of 1976, less than a year after the disaster it commemorates. The Canadian musician had agonized over writing the song in the first place.
"He feared being inaccurate, corny or worse, appearing to exploit a tragedy for profit," writes John U. Bacon in his new bestseller, The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
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