Music Monday

HOMES. It’s a mnemonic. Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior. Five lakes along the US-Canadian border, containing 21% of the world’s surface fresh water.

Water flows from Lake Superior through Lake Huron then Lake Erie. Then over Niagara Falls into Lake Ontario, and then to the ocean vis the St. Lawrence River. Michigan and Huron are actually a single body of water, connected by the Straits of Mackinac.

Fifty years ago, on November 10, 1975, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior, killing the 29 men aboard. It wasn’t the first shipwreck, nor would it be the last. But we remember it today because of Gordon Lightfoot’s song. The song, as written, contained a few inaccuracies. In later years when Lightfoot sang it, he corrected the lyrics to be more factually accurate.

And then there’s information he didn’t correct, 50 years later.

But you have to admit, the melody is haunting …