What Gordon Lightfoot Taught Me

What do you remember about what you learned in the fourth grade? If you’re anything like me, chances are, not much. One of the things I do remember, however, is that once a week like clockwork, my teacher would have everyone take out these thick, musty-smelling music books that looked like they hadn’t been updated in the last decade and she’d choose a song for us to sing. Now, if you’re even half as tone deaf and “rhythmically challenged” as I am, you’ll be able to sympathize with me when I say how much I dreaded having to sing “Fish and Chips and Vinegar,” “There’s a Hole in my Bucket” and “La Bamba” on a weekly basis.

But I digress...

The point that I wanted to make about my 4th grade music class was not the songs that I didn’t enjoy singing, but the one I did – Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” For anyone unfamiliar with the song, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” is a folk song about a boat that sank in bad weather on Lake Superior in the 1970s, carrying the captain and all 28 crew members to their deaths. The song was apparently inspired by an article Lightfoot read in Newsweek and (understandably) the lyrics read like an incredibly tragic story. I still remember sitting at my desk in the classroom, examining a black and white photograph of the Edmund Fitzgerald from the text and pouring over the song’s lyrics in order to learn about this piece of maritime history (an aspect of history that I’d never been particularly interested in before). In fact, for the rest of the semester, every time we opened our music books for a new lesson, I would take the time to reread the lyrics of Lightfoot’s song.

To be honest, I don’t recall what first prompted me to think about this particular memory tonight as I sat down to write my latest post; I haven’t thought about that song in years. But I think the fact that this memory is still so vivid after more than a decade just goes to show what potential music has to be a powerful tool with which to educate the public about historical events and eras. As a teacher, I can’t help but think about the ways that this cross-curricular approach to history might benefit students. Songs written about specific events in history, like “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” or the ones found in the Song Gallery of the Ultimate Canadian History Site, have the ability to teach history to students that might otherwise not engage in more traditional learning methods or to those that identify themselves as being uninterested in the subject as a whole but enjoy music.

That said, I think it is important to approach music about historical events with the same caution that historians would take towards other forms of popular culture such as historical fiction in books and movies. Firstly, we have to be careful not to romanticize history just because of the medium that we are using to communicate to the public with. We should also be aware that the nature of the mediums put limitations on the content. For instance, songs, just like fiction books and movies, face time and space contraints that force artists to pick and choose the details that they are able to include. Lastly, we must also strive to remember that the majority of songwriters (like screenwriters or filmmakers) are not historians and their first concern, therefore, is likely not historical accuracy. Doing some quick research on the Edmund Fitzgerald as an adult and comparing that to Lightfoot’s lyrics, I can see that he took a few artistic liberties with some terminology as well as details of the shipwreck in order to fit the format of his song. These sorts of changes have the potential to be problematic if carried out on a large scale. With this particular song, however, I was able to determine that the changes were relatively minor and therefore the core historical facts remained. As a result, I realize that I did learn about history in a lasting and meaningful way through Lightfoot's music.

In addition to music written about history, I believe that it is also important to consider the impact of listening to music written during particular eras. Listening to music from the time periods you are studying is a great way for a person to get a ‘feel’ for the time. Personally, I can barely imagine what my university course on the 1960s would have been like without the lessons on music or what my Apartheid literature course would have been like without including the protest music of those living in the townships.

It is my hope the in the future recording artists continue to be inspired by both current and past events, drawing on them to write accurate and engaging songs that educate as well as entertain.

Questions? Comments? Statements of brilliance?