Entertainment For Lively Minds
Tales Of Brave Ulysses...
Posted by shane pacey on 7 December 2011 - 12:42am.
When I was about 12 I thought this was right mystical, concerned with Greek mythology at it's very core.
In my latter years I realised it was more to do with a louche hippy getting jacked off with London and chuffing off to the Mediterranean and "having a scene" with a bronzed blitzed out hippy chick on some island (probably Hydra)
Stonking track though.
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..and here's Rotary Connection..
..with the great Minnie Riperton tackling the very same..
Wonderful album.
On the back cover you can just about make out Paulton's Square, off the Kings Road, on the corner of which was the Chelsea Drug Store (and also where The Servant with James Fox & Sarah Miles was filmed). I have always loved the Ginger Baker track 'Blue Condition': 'all the way froooo'. Brilliant.
And here's the Alternate Blue Condition with Eric singing......
Martin Sharp
who wrote the lyrics and designed the sleeve for Disraeli Gears (and the follow-up Wheels Of Fire) is an Aussie who, as you say, was swanning around Europe in 1966/1967.
I love the story of how he was introduced to Eric Clapton for the first time at (I think) the Speakeasy club and said, "here's some lyrics I've written". He gave Eric a piece of paper with Tales of Brave Ulysses written on it. Next thing, Clapton's put the lyrics to the chord sequence and the song was born.
Just like that.
Edit:
It was also possibly the first place I ever heard a Wah-Wah pedal. Tales of Brave Ulysses was the B-Side of Strange Brew which was released in June 1967 (some months before Disraeli Gears appeared). Meanwhile in August 1967 Hendrix released Burning Of The Midnight Lamp, another Wah-Wah fest. So I reckon Eric got there first.
Here's the other Cream tune written by Clapton/Sharp...
.....i've always liked this. A single, never a hit though. Nice quirky lyrics.
Always loved
that story. So redolent of the '60's.
Wasn't Sharp heavily involved with Oz magazine?
Love the album too; still believe it's their best pop/blues outing.
Oh yeah
Martin Sharp did a lot of work for Oz magazine in the 60s, some of which was turned into (now hugely collectable) posters, like this:
and here they are playing it live
a power trio, oh yes!
Great footage
Filmed at The Revolution Club in London, November 1967 with one camera and no audience.
The photo on the back cover of the Best Of Cream LP was taken here, too.
Here's some Pathe News footage of the Revolution Club. Contains John & Yoko.
Note the chandeliers and fancy decor match the Cream clip.
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=45388
Ulysses you say?
Not a patch on this
Ha ha - I was hoping it would be this
Can't see vids at work, so did a search on the url - nice one.
Just like "Mysterious Cities of Gold" it seemed to go on for ever...
The vocal melody of Tales of Brave Ulysses
has always reminded me of this -
Which, I have to say, I much prefer.
Tales of Brave Ulysses
is one of the few Cream/Clapton efforts I've any time for, in fact I bought a Clapton compilation recently just to get my hands on it, but I've always suspected the Stranglers may have sat around getting stoned to Disraeli Gears.
I love Cream and the Stranglers but thats the first time i've...
....heard the 2 tunes being compared. True, it does fit.
I suspect I slightly prefer Hanging Around though. That bass line is fantastic.
Quote from Jack Bruce
on the Telegraphs recent finance pages:
"I now strongly advise people not to get involved in multihull commercial boating."
So, if you want to ride to the violence of the sun stick to the steamer.
Thanks for the heads-up on the multihull boating thing...
...now we can concentrate on someone posting the BBM 'rewrite' of 'Tales...' - forget what its called, and no audio on my work PC to find it...
I suspect Moje will get there first... :-)
Several songs on the BBM album
Around The Next Dream were virtual rewrites of Cream songs.
City Of Gold = Crossroads
Glory Days = Those Were The Days/We're Going Wrong
And the one I suspect you're thinking of
Waiting In The Wings = Tales Of Brave Ulysses (with a touch of White Room)
Edit: just listened to the CD for the first ime in years and noticed a few others:
High Cost Of Love = Born Under A Bad Sign
Naked Flame = We're Going Wrong
I Wonder Why = Strange Brew
You really would have thought...
...they could have done something at least vaguely original, wouldn't you?
Well Colin..
..they split up after about a gig and a half, I suppose that was fairly original.
I remember Ginger
saying that Gary Moore insisted on playing at full volume even in rehearsals and ended up damaging his hearing, causing the tour to be postponed/cancelled. That's almost like something out of Spinal Tap.
Now that you mention it, lads...
...I seem to recall that I had arranged to interview Gary when he was due to be in Belfast for a BBM show. I had a guitary magazine (cover guaranteed) and the Irish News lined up as recipients: I was told that Gary was most excited about getting into the Irish News (a non-protestant-associated parochial Northern Ireland daily). But then the tour or the show was cancelled and the piece(s) never happened...
What about BLT, were they any good?
I was a bit of a Trower fan as a lad
BLT?
...you've just made that up, Nick, haven't you?
Jack Bruce, Bill Lordan, Robin Trower - BLT
It was, really, a Robin Trower solo effort. He wrote all the material and had the largest credit on the cover.
And amusingly...
...the cover looked like this:
a bit heavy on the lettuce
.
Let's face it
It would never have worked as a Ted Nugent album cover design.
No..
That would have been a whole deer between two massive slices of bread.