It gets alot of airplay here in Michigan ( and Canada too, eh?) every fall. There is a Museum for this up in da UP Hi Athena! at White Fish Point LightHouse. Cool, yet desolate. I cannot imagine sinking out there in the summer. In November it would be brutal.
On the date it happened, every year the Mariner’s Church in downtown Detroit chimes in honor of this event.
Shirley, how interesting! It’s neat hearing about someone who is familiar in person with the places Lightfoot names in his song. Thanks for your post. 
:: SA walks off humming ::
“The mariners all say she’d have made White Fish Bay…”
and
“In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed, in the Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral…”
Thanks again, Shirley.
Unfortunately, my CD doesn’t have “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” on it. Which sucks, because it’s such a cool song-I get chills when I hear it. (I love reading and studying about shipwrecks). From what I gather, he was inspired to write the song when he read an article in the paper right after the sinking, and they didn’t even get the name of the ship correct.
Unfortunately, I don’t like this song much any more, and here’s why: I was hanging out with my sister one night about 20 or so years ago, and we were smoking a substance which, strictly speaking may not be entirely legal, and I was. . .very fuzzy. For me, whenever I used to smoke such substance (haven’t done it in over five years, which is why I say “used to”), time always stretched out like warm taffy. So there, I was, and The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald came on. What was normally a loooooooong song stretched out to about six and a half hours. I kid you not: I listened to it a bit, had a conversation with someone, took a little nap, had a snack, had a couple more conversations, and that damned song was still playing! I had a life’s share of that song on that night!
I saw the Oprah Winfrey show with Manilow on it. You’d have thought those people were meeting God. It both amazed and scared the hell out of me.
Manilow’s okay and I’ve heard the stage show of Copacabana is good. But he’s hardly a candidate for sainthood.
We went to the Madison Square Garden concert last night. We got the tickets free, and basically we were just like, “Well, they’re free… why not?”. But it actually really wasn’t that bad. I mean not that we were expecting it to be bad, but it’s just that we’re not familiar with most of his work, outside Mandy and Copacabana.
But honestly, he did put on a good show, and it’s hard not to get caught up in the excitement of 30,000 people screaming while lights are flashing and music is pounding at the Garden.
He made a joke about the walking into a wall thing… he had a few guest appearances. The cast of his musical Harmony showed up and did a few numbers. They showed old footage of his concerts from the 70s on the Jumbotrons; that was pretty cool. Oh and I guess one of his “things” is that during Can’t Smile Without You he pulls someone on stage (usually a middle-aged housewife-type, apparently) so when that song started everyone lifted their signs asking him to please make them the one.
He certainly did act flamboyant, in kind of a Peter Allen way. And he made a lot of sexual innuendos… he was trying to lean on a stair banister to sing a ballad, and he made like he kept slipping off of it, so finally he said, “Can I borrow someone’s ass please?” and of course the ladies went crazy. So maybe he’s trying to cover something up, or maybe he really is just straight but effeminate.
Anyway, bottom line was that it was fun. I definitely would not have paid to go, because I’m just not into his music, but it was not something that I would call a “wasted night”, either. It was a good time.
I used to work at an arena. Part of Mr. Manilow’s contract rider stated that he needed a 6 oz. chicken breast for dinner and when the food service person brought it in, they were to avert their eyes while sliding it across the table. Further, if any of us plebes were in the tunnel as Mr. Manilow went to the stage, we were to turn and face the wall. Another serious point for Mr. Manilow was that the arena be 62 degrees and he even had a flunky go and test throughout the day. If, at concert time, the temp wasn’t correct, Mr. Manilow would not perform.
Limos for performers used to park at star entrance in the fire lane and everybody in the arena looked the other way. On this night, Mr. Manilow’s limo got towed for violating fire ordinances.
In my time working there, I found that performer demands seemed to be in inverse proportion to their talent.