[MARTIAL MONK]

A few years after the sinking, I was thumbing through a stack of old Time or Newsweek magazines. I found the article announcing that the ship was missing and about the search. It began something like:

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy.

I did a double take, how could they quote the song before it came out and while the initial search was under way? It seems it was the other way around. Lightfoot was lightfingered as far as the lyrics.

[cva66snipe]

Lightfoot credits the inspiration for the song to a Newsweek article actually. My source on this is a CD insert. A lot of songs have been written with a paragraph or so of others works that inspired the song and even included in such but the writer of the finished product takes credit for composing. I can think of several like that. Bucket down to the south has an “I’ll fly away” variant in it including the tune itself. Did Tom T Hall credit the man who gave him inspiration for Old Dogs, Children, and watermelon wine? Yet he wrote the song on a plane on the back of an air sickness bag.

[LonePalm]

Don't forget my parody.
The Wreck of the John F'n Kerry

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[SAJ]

Now, that is fascinating.