Tales of Brave Ulysses – Cream

“Tales of Brave Ulysses” is a song recorded in 1967 by Cream. In November, the song was included on Cream’s second album, Disraeli Gears.

This song was inspired by trips Eric Clapton took to the Greek Islands. 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, and the basis for the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Cream switched to a more psychedelic sound for their second album Disraeli Gears, which was helmed by producer Felix Pappalardi, who pushed them in this direction. Their first album, Fresh Cream, was produced by Robert Stigwood and was filled with Blues material.

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Cream - Tales of Brave Ulysses

Cream - Tales of Brave Ulysses03:46

“Tales Of Brave Ulysses” is one of the trippiest songs on the album, thanks in part to the wah-wah pedal Eric Clapton used on his guitar. According to Pappalardi, their first attempts to record the song fell flat. Taking a break, he and Clapton went to Manny’s Music store, where they found some wah-wah pedals – Clapton only agreed to use them because he heard Jimi Hendrix was experimenting with one (he was – Hendrix used one on his song “The Burning Of The Midnight Lamp”). This guitar effect became a distinguishing feature of the song.

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”.[5] “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.”[6] Sharp had written the lyrics to the melody of Leonard Cohen’s song “Suzanne”, specifically the Judy Collins version.

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