Dsus2                   Am
The legend lives on from the chippewa on down 
      C       G             Dsus2
Of the big lake they called "Gitche Gumee"
                            Am
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
          C        G              Dsus2
When the skies of November turn gloomy
                                   Am
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more 
         C           G             Dsus2
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty.
                              Am 
That good ship and crew was a bone to be chewed 
           C        G              Dsus2
When the "Gales of November" came early. 

                              Am
The ship was the pride of the American side 

      C           G      Dsus2
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
                                  Am
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most 
      C           G         Dsus2
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
                              Am
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms 
           C         G          Dsus2
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
                              Am
And later that night when the ship's bell rang 
        C          G             Dsus2
Could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?


                             Am
The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound 
      C       G       Dsus2
And a wave broke over the railing
                           Am
And every man knew, as the captain did too, 
           C       G             Dsus2
T'was the witch of November come stealin'.
                           Am
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait 
        C      G           Dsus2
When the Gales of November came slashin'.
                           Am 
When afternoon came it was freezin' rain 
      C       G             Dsus2
In the face of a hurricane west wind.


                              Am
When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck 
        C         G              Dsus2
Sayin’. "Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya."
                     Am
At Seven P.M. a main hatchway caved in', 
        C         G             Dsus2
he said "Fellas, it's been good t'know ya"
                            Am
The captain wired in he had water comin' in 
       C           G        Dsus2
and the good ship and crew was in peril.
                               Am
And later that night when 'is lights went outta sight 
        C          G        Dsus2
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.


                             Am
Does any one know where the love of God goes 
        C           G        Dsus2
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
                                 Am
The searches all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay 
         C             G         Dsus2
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her.
                                  Am
They might have split up or they might have capsized; 
     C           G           Dsus2
They may have broke deep and took water.
                            Am 
And all that remains is the faces and the names 
      C           G          Dsus2
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.


                   Am
Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings 
      C          G       Dsus2
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion.
                           Am
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams; 
     C          G             Dsus2
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.
                  Am 
And farther below Lake Ontario 
     C          G           Dsus2
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her,
                             Am
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know 
        C      G       Dsus2
with the Gales of November remembered.

                        Am 
In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed, 
       C      G       Dsus2
In the "Maritime Sailors' Cathedral."
                                Am
The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times 
          C         G           Dsus2
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.
                               Am
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down 
      C           G          Dsus2
Of the big lake they call "Gitche Gumee".
                               Am
"Superior", they said, "never gives up her dead 
         C      G             Dsus2
When the 'Gales of November' come early!"