This is GORDON LIGHTFOOT, after I gave him a copy of WRECK!
The album the song is on, newly autographed.
The title doesn’t make it clear, but the book does: the title of WRECK is inspired by “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” a song written and performed by Gordon Lightfoot in 1976, about the shipwreck of the ore boat Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior. The ship left from Duluth on November 9, 1975, and and sank the next day, close to Sault Ste. Marie, MI.
In the book, Steve saw the Edmund Fitzgerald leave Duluth. After the ship sank, he became obsessed with the song when it came out. After his daughter Tobin was born, the anniversary of the shipwreck was the day he would play the song as many times as she was old.
Music always inspires my writing. I could talk for days about the music in BEAUTIFUL MUSIC, there’s so much. ORIGINAL FAKE was inspired by the conceptual artists I was paying attention to in college–two of which are musicians David Byrne and Laurie Anderson.
So if you’re writing about Lake Superior, wouldn’t you want to include a song about the lake, the only song that makes you physically cold, the song that could conceivably be a touchstone for someone who lives on Lake Superior, especially if he saw the actual ship?
Yeah, you would. Of course you would.
As fate would have it, and it does feel like fate, Gordon Lightfoot did a concert in my town in early June. My sweet and wonderful friend Rachael (see the album autograph above) suggested we go, and suggested I try to get a copy to him. And, through a new friend, some smooth talking, and probably a miracle that he wasn’t too tired after the show, I got to do just that.
It was AWESOOOOOOOOOOOOOME.
Also a bit dumbfounding.
Mr. Lightfoot (yes, I want to call him that, he’s Canadian royalty) seemed genuinely surprised and pleased a person would use his music as I did. His wife and his crew also seemed genuinely surprised, and they were very respectful of the book. They said they’d put it in a place of honor. And maybe that was bullshit, but I don’t think so.
Their surprise surprised me. Wouldn’t you think someone else would have given him a novel inspired by his music—in the course of a 60-year career?
Maybe not.
When he played “Wreck,” I sobbed, and Rachael patted my shoulder. I’m almost as attached to Tobin and Steve as I am to actual humans. The book is a long meditation on sorrow and grief, mine and theirs, and it was incredibly moving to hear him do the song live. It was heartbreaking and healing, all at the same time.
Maybe I’m just imagining things, but he seemed as appreciative of me as I was of him, which was unexpected and extraordinary. It’s amazing the places our books go. Standing next to the 80-year-old Gordon Lightfoot is a place I never expected to be.