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Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald

Gordon Lightfoot

Text File

 (strum up on the first three chords)
   E                         G
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
   D                      E
to the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
    E                       G  
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
     D                          E
When the skies of November turn gloomy

     E                    G
With a load of iron ore -26,ooo tons more
     D                      E
than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
    E                         G
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
    D                      E
When the gales of November came early

    E                         G
The ship was the pride of the American side
     D                        E
coming back from some mill in Wisconson
   E                            G
As the big freighters go it was bigger than most.
    D                       E
With a crew and the captain well seasoned.

    E                         G
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
     D                           E
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland,
   E                           G
and later that night when the ships bell rang,
     D                                 E
could it be the North wind they'd been feeling.

    E                        G
The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound
    D                     E
and a wave broke over the railing.
     E                 G
Every man knew, as the captain did, too,
     D                           E
T'was the witch of November came stealing.

    E                      G
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
    D                           E
when the gales of November came slashing.
    E                      G
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
   D                       E
in the face if a hurricane west wind.

     E                        G
When supper time came the old cook came on deck,
      D                        E
Saying fellas it's to rough to feed ya.
  E                    G
At 7PM a main hatchway caved in.
   D                             E
He said fellas it's been good to know ya.

   E                  G
The captain wired in, he had water coming in,
    D                              E
and the good ship and crew were in peril.
     E                    G
Later that night when his lights went out of sight
    D                        E
came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

     E                     G
Does anyone know where the love of God goes,
    D                          E
When the words turn minutes to hours.
    E                             G 
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
   D                          E
If they'd fifteen more miles behind her.

     E                       G
They might have split up and they might have capsized.
     D                       E
They may have broke deep and took water.
    E                   G
All that remains is the faces and the names
   D                              E
of the wives and the sons and the daughters. 

    E             G
Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
   D                          E
in the ruins of her ice water mansion.
   E                       G
Old michigan steams like a young man's dreams,
    D                        E
the islands and bays are for sportsmen.

    E             G
And farther below Lake Ontario
     D                       E
takes in what Lake Erie can send her
    E                        G
and the iron boats go as the mariners all know
    D                      E
with the gales of November remembered. 

   E                   G
In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
  D                     E
in the Maritime Sailors Cathedral
   E                     G
The church bell chimed, 'til it rang 29 times
    D                      E
for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

    E                        G
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
   D                             E
to the big lake they call Gitche Gumee.
       E                    G
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
     D                          E
when the gales of november come early.