10 Immersive Songs That Would Make Killer Movies

5. The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgI8bta-7aw It's rare that a story-song tells such a complete story that no embellishing is needed to transfer the story to film. Gordon Lightfoot's 1976 tune "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" is one of the exceptions to this rule. Lightfoot's song tells the true story of the last voyage of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, a freighter that sank on Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. On November 9, The Edmund Fitzgerald set sail, bound to a Detroit steel mill with a cargo of iron ore pellets. There had been a weather report stating that there would be a large storm within the next couple of days, but the report stated that the report would not cross over Lake Superior. While briefly meeting with another freighter, however, the crew of the Edmund Fitzgerald learned that the storm had shifted and now would be crossing the lake. The Fitzgerald's crew decided to take an alternate northward route, hoping to avoid the worst of the storm. This tactic didn't work; the Fitzgerald encountered a winter storm, with winds rushing by at the speed of 52 knots (60 mph; 96 km/m) and 10-foot-high waves. The Fitzgerald began taking on water and started to list. The Fitzgerald's crew lost the use of their instruments, including their navigation beacon. A few hours later, the Fitzgerald sank. Gordon Lightfoot took a few artistic liberties when penning his song's lyrics, but the changes only serve to make the facts more dramatic. The song (and the story behind it) is ripe to be adapted into a powerful sea story, something in the vein of The Perfect Storm.