| Tales of Brave Ulysses | |
| Cover: | Cream tales ulysses 1967.jpg |
| Caption: | Norway picture sleeve |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Cream |
| Album: | Disraeli Gears |
| A-Side: | Strange Brew |
| Released: |
|
| Recorded: | May 1967 |
| Studio: | Atlantic, New York City |
| Genre: | Psychedelic rock[2] |
| Length: | 2:50 |
| Label: | |
| Composer: | Eric Clapton |
| Lyricist: | Martin Sharp |
| Producer: | Felix Pappalardi |
| Chronology: | Cream UK singles |
| Prev Title: | I Feel Free |
| Prev Year: | 1966 |
| Next Title: | Anyone for Tennis |
| Next Year: | 1968 |
"Tales of Brave Ulysses" is a song recorded in 1967 by British group Cream.[3] It was released as the B-side to the "Strange Brew" single in May 1967.[1] In November, the song was included on Cream's second album, Disraeli Gears. The song features one of the earliest uses of a wah-wah pedal, which guitarist Eric Clapton plays throughout the song. Cream's song "White Room" copies the chord progression to a large extent.
The song was the first collaboration between guitarist Eric Clapton and artist Martin Sharp. Clapton composed the music, inspired by the Lovin' Spoonful's 1966 hit "Summer in the City".[4] "I just started chatting to Eric", said Sharp, who lived in the same building. "I told him I had written a poem. He, in turn, told me he'd written some music. So I gave him my poem. Two weeks later, he turned up with it on the B-side of a 45 record."[5] Sharp had written the lyrics to the melody of Leonard Cohen's song "Suzanne", specifically the Judy Collins version.[6] In an interview at the time of the song's release, Clapton revealed that the Greek mythos-inspired subject matter stemmed from Sharp's love of the Mediterranean islands and that he had written it the previous winter, wishing he were out in the sun.[7]
In his 2007 autobiography, Clapton recalls:The song uses a descending tetrachord bass line of D/C/B/B-flat, which Greenwald describes as "simple but effective".[2] Jack Bruce, on bass, also provides the vocal, and Ginger Baker is on drums.
Cream recorded the song at Atlantic Studios in New York City in May 1967, during the sessions for Disraeli Gears. Atlantic brought in engineer Tom Dowd and producer Felix Pappalardi to work with Cream on their next album. For the recording, Clapton used a wah-wah pedal guitar effects unit for the first time.
The song was the B-side for "Strange Brew" released on 26 May 1967, five months ahead of the group's second album, Disraeli Gears, which included both songs. Cash Box called it a "visionary hard rock excursion."[8] Derek Johnson at New Musical Express opined "a complex enigmatic lyric combined with a pounding whalloping beat. Bit more psychedelic than the top side, but not nauseatingly so".[9] Retrospectively, AllMusic's Matthew Greenwald calls it, "One of a few overtly psychedelic songs to have aged gracefully ... Lyrically, it's a relatively factual and colorful rendering of the great Greek tragedy Ulysses".[2]
Cream performed the song in concert and a 10 March 1968 recording from Winterland in San Francisco is included on Live Cream Volume II.[2] On 10 January 1968 the group were filmed performing it live at the Revolution Club for the French television show Bouton Rouge.[10] [11]