I have always loved this song, ever since first hearing it as a very young child. I didn't really fully understand it all then, being so young. But the melody always chilled me. The sadness was so profound, so heavy. It always stuck with me.
Being much older now, I've since looked up the history of the incident. And Gordon Lightfoot has here a song about it that is properly haunting, properly mournful. His lyrics are incredible, as is the melody itself. I've posted the video that I most prefer, as it doubles as a tribute, with news footage, photos, and radio communication.
Water...the great lakes, the seas. An element so powerful, so beautiful, so destructive, so merciless and unforgiving. I still feel that if past lives are a real phenomenon, one of mine was as a sailor.
Anyway, an awesome and horribly sad song:
Does any one know where the love of God goes
when the waves turn the minutes to hours?
Gordon Lightfoot - "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"