The song also featured Eric Clapton's first use of the wah wah pedal (released a day before Hendrix's first wah wah single, "Burning of the Midnight Lamp"). This is one of the first recorded uses of the wah-wah pedal in rock music.
Tales of Brave Ulysses
Cream Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Would bring you down forever
But you rode upon a steamer
To the violence of the sun
And the colors of the sea
Blind your eyes with trembling mermaids
And you touch the distant beaches
How his naked ears were tortured
By the sirens sweetly singing
For the sparkling waves are calling you
To touch their white laced lips
And you see a girl?s brown body
Dancing through the turquoise
And her footprints make you follow
Where the sky loves the sea
And when your fingers find her
She drowns you in her body
Carving deep blue ripples
In the tissues of your mind
The tiny purple fishes
Run laughing through your fingers
And you want to take her with you
To the hard land of the winter
Her name is Aphrodite
And she rides a crimson shell
You know you cannot leave her
For you touched the distant sands
With tales of brave Ulysses
How his naked ears were tortured
By the sirens sweetly singing
Yeah
The tiny purple fishes
Run laughing through your fingers
You want to take her with you
To the hard land of the winter
The opening line of “Tales of Brave Ulysses” by Cream sets the tone for a psychedelic journey through the metaphorical images of sea voyages and making love to mermaids. Directed towards an individual who had thought the “leaden winter” would bring them down forever, the song emphasizes the power of visualizing the world with positive and vibrant colors, achieving a greater sense of freedom and spiritual awakening. This is further illustrated by the presence of a goddess-like figure, who is both a source of desire and an inspiration for adventure. As the song progresses, we see the singer, consumed by desire for this mysterious brown-skinned girl or Aphrodite riding on a crimson shell, relinquish himself to the alluring power of nature and forget the constraints of the material world.
The lyrics of "Tales of Brave Ulysses" are filled with metaphorical imagery and allusions to Greek mythology, the singer's journey mirroring that of Homer's hero Ulysses in the Odyssey. The song also evokes a sense of nostalgia for a free-spirited lifestyle, where the beauty of the natural world can inspire and uplift the human spirit. The use of the color blue, both in the water and sky, suggest the vastness of the universe and the infinite possibilities that exist beyond the human realm.
Line by Line Meaning
You thought the leaden winter
You believed that the gloomy winter season
Would bring you down forever
Would lead to your downfall perpetually
But you rode upon a steamer
Yet, you navigated the sea on a boat
To the violence of the sun
Towards the intensity of the sunlight
And the colors of the sea
The shades of blue and green of the ocean
Blind your eyes with trembling mermaids
Causing you to shut your eyes from shaking sirens
And you touch the distant beaches
You explore far-off coasts
With tales of brave Ulysses
Narrating the courageous account of Ulysses
How his naked ears were tortured
How his undressed ears suffered greatly
By the sirens sweetly singing
Due to the harmonious songs of the sirens
For the sparkling waves are calling you
Since the waves that sparkle beckon you
To touch their white laced lips
To caress their smooth, frothy crests
And you see a girl?s brown body
You perceive a woman with tanned flesh
Dancing through the turquoise
Gracefully moving in the blue-green waters
And her footprints make you follow
Her tracks provoke you to trail after her
Where the sky loves the sea
To where the blue heavens meet the water
And when your fingers find her
And once you finally catch her
She drowns you in her body
Her physique engulfs you completely
Carving deep blue ripples
Forming indigo waves
In the tissues of your mind
In the fibers of your very being
The tiny purple fishes
The diminutive violet fish
Run laughing through your fingers
Flit gleefully past your grasp
And you want to take her with you
You yearn to bring her alongside you
To the hard land of the winter
To the unforgiving wintry terrain
Her name is Aphrodite
Her given title is Aphrodite
And she rides a crimson shell
And she travels upon a red seashell
You know you cannot leave her
You are convinced that you cannot forgo her
For you touched the distant sands
For you reached out to the faraway beaches
With tales of brave Ulysses
Having recounted the story of the dauntless Ulysses
How his naked ears were tortured
How his bare ears faced agony
By the sirens sweetly singing
From the mellifluous melodies of the sirens
Yeah
Indeed
The tiny purple fishes
The minuscule violet fish
Run laughing through your fingers
Dart playfully among your digits
You want to take her with you
You desire to take her along
To the hard land of the winter
To the frozen, harsh land of winter
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Eric Patrick Clapton, Martin Sharp
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@smokinjz
You thought the leaden winter
Would bring you down forever
But you rode upon a steamer
To the violence of the sun
And the colors of the sea
Blind your eyes with trembling mermaids
And you touch the distant beaches
With tales of brave Ulysses
How his naked ears were tortured
By the sirens sweetly singing
For the sparkling waves are calling you
To touch their white laced lips
And you see a girl?s brown body
Dancing through the turquoise
And her footprints make you follow
Where the sky loves the sea
And when your fingers find her
She drowns you in her body
Carving deep blue ripples
In the tissues of your mind
The tiny purple fishes
Run laughing through your fingers
And you want to take her with you
To the hard land of the winter
Her name is Aphrodite
And she rides a crimson shell
You know you cannot leave her
For you touched the distant sands
With tales of brave Ulysses
How his naked ears were tortured
By the sirens sweetly singing
Yeah
The tiny purple fishes
Run laughing through your fingers
You want to take her with you
To the hard land of the winter
@BaronAnselme69
You thought the leaden winter
Would bring you down forever,
But you rode upon a steamer
To the violence of the sun.
And the colours of the sea
Bind your eyes with trembling mermaids,
And you touch the distant beaches
With tales of brave Ulysses,
How his naked ears were tortured
By the sirens sweetly singing,
For the sparkling waves are calling
You to kiss their white laced lips.
And you see a girl's brown body
Dancing through the turquoise,
And her footprints make you follow
Where the sky loves the sea.
And when your fingers find her,
He drowns you in her body,
Carving deep blue ripples
In the tissues of your mind.
The tiny purple fishes
Run laughing through your fingers,
And you want to take her with you
To the hard land of the winter.
Her name is Aphrodite
And she rides a crimson shell,
And you know you cannot leave her
For you touched the distant sands
With tales of brave Ulysses,
How his naked ears were tortured
By the sirens sweetly singing.
The tiny purple fishes
Run lauging through your fingers,
And you want to take her with you
To the hard land of the winter.
@GereDJ2
This is no longer just a song. It has become a time machine.
@saigonKT
I agree especially with the way Cream play their song..I wish I can spin back in time. Back to the Hippie time!.lol.
@richardschneller7674
Timeless….. I still dig this as much as I did in the sixties
@jayhache5609
@@richardschneller7674 Your comment reminds me of when I was a younger man working with older SF guys in the early 90’s. They had been in Vietnam as younger men themselves, and still spoke the lingo of the times… "Far out, man! I dig it! That’s groovy!” Interesting times. I learned a lot from them.
@elliotjones3098
carving deep blue ripples, in the tissues of your mind...
@fliedaway
I'm confident you wrote this comment yesterday in 1967.
@ChrisSmith-lo2kp
the fact that Jack Bruce lays down such awesome bass lines all the time singing lead is so much harder that people can imagine
@jerryvivanco4352
You know what? Jack Bruce DID have a GREAT voice!!!
@HughAskew2
Yeah, and utterly distinctive.
@thomasperkins7318
Oh yeah!