"Tales of Brave Ulysses" is a song recorded in 1967 by British group Cream. It was released as the B-side to the " Strange Brew" single in June 1967. 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 Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list of ...

plays throughout the song. Cream's song " White Room" copies the chord progression to a large extent.

Background

The song was the first collaboration between guitarist

and artist

Martin Sharp Martin Ritchie Sharp (21 January 1942 – 1 December 2013) was an Australian artist, cartoonist, songwriter and film-maker. Career Sharp was born in Bellevue Hill, New South Wales in 1942, and educated at Cranbrook private school, where one ...

. Clapton composed the music, inspired by the Lovin' Spoonful's 1966 hit " Summer in the City". "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." Sharp had written the lyrics to the melody of Leonard Cohen's song " Suzanne", specifically the

Judy Collins Judith Marjorie Collins (born May 1, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and musician with a career spanning seven decades. An Academy Award-nominated documentary director and a Grammy Award-winning recording artist, she is known for her ec ...

version. The song was the B-side for " Strange Brew" in June 1967, several months ahead of the group's second album, '' Disraeli Gears'', which included both songs. ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' called it a "visionary hard rock excursion." 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 Ulysses is one form of the Roman name for Odysseus, a hero in ancient Greek literature. Ulysses may also refer to: People * Ulysses (given name), including a list of people with this name Places in the United States * Ulysses, Kansas * Ulysse ...

". 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". 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. Cream performed the song in concert and a 10 March 1968 recording from Winterland in San Francisco is included on ''

Live Cream Volume II ''Live Cream Volume II'' is the second live album by the British rock band Cream, released in March 1972 by Polydor Records (Atco Records in the US). This album contains six tracks recorded at various performances from 9 March to 4 October 196 ...

''. In May 1968, the group were filmed performing it for '' The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour'' television programme. "Tales of Brave Ulysses" was later overshadowed by " White Room", which utilised the wah-wah and a superficially similar chord progression (although starting on Dm instead of D major) to create one of Cream's biggest hits.

References

Sources

*Hjort, Christopher (2007). ''Strange Brew: Eric Clapton & the British Blues Boom, 1965–1970''. London, UK: Jawbone Press. pp. g. 29. . *Ertegün, Ahmet (2006). ''Classic Albums: Cream – Disraeli Gears'' (DVD). Eagle Rock Entertainment.

External links

* {{Authority control 1967 songs Cream (band) songs Songs written by Eric Clapton Song recordings produced by Felix Pappalardi Atco Records singles Polydor Records singles Songs based on poems Music based on works by Homer Works based on the Odyssey