Tales Of Brave Ulysses

by

Cream

Album: Disraeli Gears     Released: 1967

Get the Ringtone  Get Song @ Amazon
Get the Sheet Music

Send "Tales Of Brave Ulysses" Ringtone to your Cell

Songfacts:  You can leave comments about the song at the bottom of the page.

Ulysses, also known as Odysseus, is a character of Greek Mythology. A hero of the Trojan War, he was the subject of the novel The Odyssey.

This was inspired by trips Eric Clapton took to the Greek Islands.

An Australian painter named Martin Sharp helped Clapton write this. Sharp painted the album cover of Disraeli Gears.

Clapton was in his phase where he was experimenting with distortion devices on his guitar. He used a fuzz-box and wah-wah pedal on this, as well as some echo. This was Eric Clapton's first use of the wah-wah pedal. He used it again for background effects and an extended solo on "White Room." (thanks, James - Tracy, CA)

The movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? is based on the story of Ulysses.

This vocal pacing is identical to Bob Dylan's "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" (thanks, Conrad - Los Angeles, CA)

Send "Tales Of Brave Ulysses" Ringtone to your Cell

Comments:

One show I heard this on was Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Band Candy" from season 3 I think. Giles and Buffy's mom are listening to his album collection and he tells her to listen to a guitar solo and says he needs to get a band together.
- Eva , Castro Valley, CA

I think this song is about a man who regards himself as a kind of drifter (Ulysses drifted through the sea - he could not find his way home because Aphrodite had punished him this way) who fell in love with a girl looking like Aphrodite (look at Boticelli's Aphrodite with the shell)and he thinks that having sex with her would never get out of his head again (carving deep blue ripples in the tissues of your mind)
- manuela , eisenhüttenstadt, Germany

Clapton said that the chords in this song were inspired from Loving Spoonful's "Summer in the City" (but the timing was adjusted). The members of Cream, and most other contemporaries, held Loving Spoonful in high regard.
- George , Huntington, NY

Martin Sharp was also a poet and he was writing the intro to Tales of Brave Ulysses on a napkin or on the back of a coater or something, and Calpton said he amediatley fell in love with the song. True story. Read it in the auto-bigraphy.
- nady , adelaide, Australia

A few comments: in an interview one of the band members said that the idea of a wah-wah pedal was Felix Papparidi's (sp?). He sent one of the band across the street from the studio to a music store to buy one. EC's MSG comment was wrong, as when I saw Cream at winterland on their '68 tour they opened with this song. EC didn't sing it because: 1) he didn't write it, and 2) in those days his voice was truely bad (listen to his parts on "Sunshine of your Love"). I also read a recent interview which said that EC likes to open shows with a wah-wah pedal number, but I don't remember the era it was commenting about.
- Mark , Seattle, WA

This is a really cool song, I especially love the lines: And when your fingers find her, she drowns you in her body,Carving deep blue ripples in the tissues of your mind.
- j , atl, GA

I also loved the Greek mythology connection and wondered at some of the lyrics. A few facts to set the record straight: Martin Sharp (an artist)wrote the lyrics based on a vacation he took abroad to the greek isles. He gave the words to Clapton after a chance meeting between the two. Clapton used the chord changes to the Lovin' Spoonfull's "Summer In The City" as inspiration for the music. Jack Bruce came up with a way to sing it to Eric's music. Clapton and Sharp hit it off and Sharp ended up designing the album cover as well. Source: Desraeli Gears/Classic Albums DVD w/ interviews of Sharp/Clapton, etc. P.S. I always thought that the title "Desraeli" was some deep comment based on the British politician of the same name. According to the same source, the name actually comes from a friend of the band saying a bicycle was equipped with "desraeli gears" instead of derailier gears. It struck the band as funny and the name stuck.
- Brian , Long Branch, NJ

Tales and White Room are definitely the same chord patterns. This was the first use of the Wah pedal, before Jimi H used his on Up from The Skies on Axis: Bold as Love. Martin Sharp, who also did the art work for Disraeli Gears, collaborated with Eric Clapton to write Tales. White Room, which is credited to jack Bruce/Peter Brown was an 8 page poem that Jack said was the only time he wrote the lyrics first and then edited down to the almost 5 minute White Room. Diraeli was also the LP that introduced the famous Clapton "Woman tone" sustain that was used on Sunshine, Strange Brew, We're Going Wrong, Outside Woman Blues and SWALBR.
- Craig , Irvine, CA

Cream played this at their Madison Square Garden leg of their reunion run. Clapton announced before playing it that this was the first time to be performed onstage. I hope he was just kidding because it was played many times in 1967 and is featured on the "Live Cream Vol 2" LP.
- Barry , New York, NY

One of my favorite Cream songs; I like the comment about Dylan's "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding," there is a similarity in the vocal pacing: dit-DAH-dit-DAH-dit-DAH-dit-DAH; relentless and urgent in both cases, though the themes are so different. "White Room" is essentially Cream cannabilizing its own earlier song, but I prefer "Tales". Patrick and Grey: are you guys OK? I believe in the freedom to explore your inner states as long as you harm nobody (the term "psychedelic," as you are probably aware, is from the Greek for "soul revealing") but I hope you guys are able to touch down and not get permanently lost out there, a la Syd Barrett...
- mac , evanston, IL

This song has almost the exact same chord pattern as the verses in White Room: Tales of Brave Ulysses- D, C, B, Bb White Room- D, C, G/B, Bb, C Take the chorus out of White Room and slow it down a little, it's practically the same song with different lyrics.
- Jim , Troy, NY

I have heard this song somewhere, if anyone could tell me what films/TV shows this has been played in so I'll know where I heard it, that'd be great.
- Shaft , Glenville, WV

No inbar. Women in ancient greece were completely neglected and used for the sole purpose of procreation. Whore houses in ancient greek were primarily filled with young men. They weren't so much brothels as they were old men taking young men under their wings to teach, and "love" I think this song is just about Odysseus, and an adventure, it's a good topic, why not? It's one of the best Cream songs in my opinion.
- kika , nyc, NY

I like songs about mythology, particularly Greek and Roman mythology. But what, pray tell, are the tiny purple fishes in the lyric? I don't remember any purple fishes in The Odyssey.
- Christina , Arnold, MD

I think this song is about how women can be beautiful and tempting, and how men can be overtaken and sweeped away by them. Not just in ancient Greece, but in general. the lyrics to this are so good.
- Inbar , Tel Aviv, United States

Cream didn't play this at their 2005 reunion shows at Royal Albert Hall. I hope they do play it when they hit MSG at the end of October. I'll be at the final of these shows and I hope to hear it!!
- Barry , New York, NY

one of the few songs worth listening to over and over again, i can't get enough of it
- james , Des Moines, IA

When I was a little kid, like 8, I would listen to this song endlessly in my parents room. They thought I was insane. Even today, at 32, it hyptonizes me.
- Johnny , Scotch Plains, NJ

why do patrick and grey think this a song that he came up with while on a drug trip? The sirens were real in greek/roman mythology. they were very pretty fishwomen who attracted men to their doom because the men would either steer their ships into the rocks surrounding the sirens or they would jump in the ocean and swim towards the sirens only to be drowned. and aphrodite in a crimson shell is how she appeared on earth since her mother was mother earth.
- Brett , Birmingham, AL

It's really fun to sing the lyrics to Tales of Brave Ulysses to the tune of Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner"... do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do x2 You thought the leaden winter... Etc. Try it. It's fun.
- Boris , Fort Collins, CO

what a great song! I can almost imagine hearing the ocean in the background, along with the lyrics. Maybe that's because of the guitar solos.What can I say? The guys in cream are amazing!
- Stefanie magura , Rock Hill, SC

william---- i think they trade off lines singing eric does the soft part and jack does the loud part....or the other way around cause i have the Crossroads box set and it says that they both sing on this track...hmmm...anyway this is one of the greatest wah-wah songs ever right up there with White Room and Voodoo Chile(Slight Return) this is also the song that got Jimi Hendrix exposed to wah-wah
- Schmitty , Vienna, VA

what a cool song. what a great album. what can one say? what a great band. amazing stuff.
- william , phoenix, AZ

I was aware the song was my eric clapton/martin sharp.....didn't know who martin was till a couple minutes ago. I wonder why jack bruce sang it. cause he was a more powerful singer? just a guess.
- william , phoenix, AZ

Martin Sharp was EC's room-mate when they wrote this.
- Steve , Hamilton, Canada

I thought it was about the lure of life. How we feel called into living and taking action in the world. "Crimson", the color of luxury and decadence; "torturing our naked ears" tempting us in our naivety .
- Bailey , San Francisco, CA

correction patrick...acid+acid+acid+acid+acid+acid+pot+pot+pot+ smack times 50 + white times 50 = classic rock...namely clapton..floyd..zeppelin..the dead
- Grey , knoxville, TN

This is an amazing song, Eric Clapton is just fantastic on this!
- Don , Philadelphia, PA

Acid + Acid + Acid + LSD + SHROOMS + ACID + CANNABIS + HEROIN + TINY PURPLE FISHES = Tales of Brave Ulysses. ; )
- Patrick , Durham, NC

Send "Tales Of Brave Ulysses" Ringtone to your Cell