Sad news indeed. One of the greatest songwriters of all time who influenced Dylan, Joni Mitchell and any number of other artists.

I *almost* saw GL in concert when I was 16 years old and a female friend of the family (who was about 10 years my senior) took me to one of his concerts. As fate would have it, Gordon made some harmless, off-color joke during his banter with the audience following the first song of his set, and my "chaperone," who happened to be an evangelical Christian, promptly pulled me from my seat and marched me out of the auditorium (such was the gravity of her shock and moral outrage!)

A couple years later, while serving in the U.S. Air Force, I was stationed at a (long since closed) SAC (an organization which spdirty informed me no longer exists!) base near Lake Superior around the same time that the Edmund Fitzgerald disaster occurred, so the song Gordon wrote in remembrance has always had a special significance.

A good friend of ours used to do an amazing rendition of "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"; accompanying his vocals on his 12-string guitar. Unfortunately, he's had some health issues recently and is no longer able to put as much strength into his vocals, but he did come to the jam session and play a couple of months ago.

Gordon will be missed, for sure.

Nice tribute/retrospective by Rick…