What do you think Tales Of Brave Ulysses means?

Cream: Tales Of Brave Ulysses Meaning

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Album cover for Tales Of Brave Ulysses album cover

Song Released: 1967


Tales Of Brave Ulysses Lyrics

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...

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  1. anonymous
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     Jun 4th 2019 !⃝

    A reawakening of man's desire to have a carnal relationship with divinity in the shape of the ancient Greek deities.

  2. anonymous
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     Feb 3rd 2012 !⃝

    at the time the song was brought out almost everyone who chose to listen to the lyrics had the intepretation that the song was about the trips that the singers experienced while under the influence of drugs.allthough you could give it the benefit of the doubt that it had some fabled historical base.

  3. anonymous
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     Oct 31st 2011 !⃝

    The lyrics are inspired by Homer's Odyssey, an account of the adventures undertaken by Ulysses. This can be seen in the song's reference to "naked ears ... tortured by the sirens sweetly singing," an event from Homer's epic. When interviewed on the episode of the VH1 show, Classic Albums, which featured Disraeli Gears, lyricist Martin Sharp explained that he had recently returned from Ibiza, which was the source of many of the images in the song (e.g. "tiny purple fishes run laughing through her fingers") and the general feeling of having left an idyll to return to "the hard lands of the winter"; Clapton stated in the same show that he had been independently writing a tune based on the Loving Spoonful's "Summer in the City", and when Sharp gave him the words (on the back of a bar napkin) they fit the tune.


    -----------------------------------------

    Eric Clapton
    TALES OF BRAVE ULYSSES

    by Eric Clapton and Martin Sharp
    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 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, 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,
    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 laughing through your fingers,
    And you want to take her with you to the hard land of the winter.


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