Tales of Brave Ulysses

"Tales of Brave Ulysses" is a song performed by the 1960s group Cream. The music was written by Eric Clapton and the lyrics by artist Martin Sharp. The song is featured on Cream's album Disraeli Gears. The lyrics were written by Martin Sharp on the back of a beer mat, which he gave to Eric Clapton after a chance meeting. These lyrics were put to a melody inspired by Judy Collins' version of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" and chords inspired by The Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City".

The song also featured Eric Clapton's first use of the wah wah pedal (released a day before Hendrix's first wah wah single, "Burning of the Midnight Lamp").

Song meaning

The lyrics are inspired by Homer's Odyssey, an account of the adventures undertaken by Ulysses. This can be seen in the song's reference to "naked ears ... tortured by the sirens sweetly singing," an event from Homer's epic. When interviewed on the episode of the VH1 show, Classic Albums, which featured Disraeli Gears, lyricist Martin Sharp explained that he had recently returned from Ibiza, which was the source of many of the images in the song (e.g. "tiny purple fishes run laughing through her fingers") and the general feeling of having left an idyll to return to "the hard lands of the winter"; Clapton stated in the same show that he had been independently writing a tune based on the Loving Spoonful's "Summer in the City", and when Sharp gave him the words (on the back of a bar napkin) they fit the tune.^[1]

Composition

The main guitar riff follows a descending chord progression in D Minor: D D/C D/B D/Bb, very similar to that of another famous Cream song, "White Room". Both songs also feature Clapton's distinctive and pioneering guitar decorated with a wah-wah pedal.

Despite it being one of their more popular songs, Cream did not play it in their 2005 reunion show at the Royal Albert Hall, though they did play it at their Madison Square Garden shows.

Later use

• The song is featured twice on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The first of these episodes is the sixth episode of season 3: Band Candy, the second of these is episode 17 of season 5: Forever. In both instances it is played by the character Giles.
• The song is featured on the HBO series Entourage. On the season 5 episode "Tree Trippers" on the end credits.
• The song was covered by pioneer doom metal band Trouble on their 1984 album, Psalm 9,by the grunge band Screaming Trees on the 1990 compilation album Taste Test #1,and by psychedelic soul band Rotary Connection with Minnie Riperton on vocals, as found on their 1969 album Songs and on the 2005 compilation Psychedelic Jazz and Funky Grooves. It was also covered by the New Wave band Algebra Suicide.
• An extended arrangement of the song was recorded in 2007 by American artist Cary Grace, and was released as the B-side of the single "Pandora".
• The song is featured on the soundtrack of the documentary "Tom Dowd and the Language of Music" about the legendary Atlantic Records recording engineer.

References

1. ^ "Cream: Disraeli Gears", Classic Albums on VH1, November 3, 2006

External links

• Video Interview; The Making of Tales of Brave Ulysses