What song is this from? It’s driving me crazy. Yes, I did check songfile and lyricsworld, they’re no help. Google Search for exact words doesn’t help. Evidently nobody has it linked.
I heard it on the radio a while ago and I assumed it was some new top 40 thing, but I haven’t heard it since. So now I’m assuming that it was something from the mid 90s (rock/pop) because that was a time period when I wasn’t listening to the radio much.
aargh.
I even Asked Jeeves. He said, "Is it–
Where can I find land for sale by owners?
Where can I find resources from Britannica.com on winter?
Where can I find Winter clip art?"
And he helpfully pointed out:
“People with similar questions have found these sites relevant:”
[ul][li]Compucon’s Chief Architect Home Page[/li][li]Electronic Mail Services[/li][li]http://www.TaiChiLA.com[/li][li]Catherine Adams, Clairvoyant Counselor, Healer and Teacher[/li][li]Daytona Beach Real Estate - Joan Wickham,CRS,GRI[/li][li]Customer Comments about deSignet’s jewelry from hundreds of happy customers.[/li][li]Country House Hotels in Great Britain - UK[/li][li]Attitude Curiosity–Start your day with the right attitude[/li][li]Save money with coupons and discounts from Ohio and Michigan local businesses[/li][li]Latin Princess ladies FAQ bulletin board, romance, mail order brides? [/ul][/li]:rolleyes:
And 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
“Tales of Brave Ulysses” by Cream, off of Disraeli Gears - 1967, I think. I’m impressed with the station you listen to.
Yup, it’s Tales of Brave Ulysses. Lyrics by Eric Clapton and Mike Sharp, and 1967 sounds about right to me.
Personally, I have never asked Jeeves a difficult question and received a relevant answer.
I am going to check out the “Latin Princess Ladies Faq Bulletin Board” Jeeves offered, though! Sometimes I think he just throws in random stuff out of Bertie Wooster’s address book.
I clicked because for some reason the subject line sounded like something Garrison Keillor would write in his “Mr. Blue” column at Salon.com.
Then I was struck by the fact that every other line of the song barton quoted sounded like Longfellow: trochaic tetrameter.
"On the shores of Gitche Gummi,
By the shining Big Sea Water,
Stood the hut of old Nokomis,
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis. . . "
(Quoting from memory, all errors mine.)
A scholar once told me that Longfellow intended the meter to be imitative of common American speech. He says that it’s really easy to get people speaking in trochaic tetrameter by saying at a party:
“I am going to the kitchen.
I am going for a soda.
Would you like to have a soda?
Will you come into the kitchen?”
Which makes me wonder if Keillor employs a similar meter (unconciously or consciously) for a folksy feel. I shall have to listen for it.
Anyway. . . don’t mind me, just rambling. Now I want to hear this song. . .
And I’m annoyed. Not only was I too late to answer the question, but thinking about the album made “Strange Brew” start running through my head, and I can’t get it to stop.
BTW, the title of the album, “Disraeli Gears” apparently came from one of their roadies mispronouncing “derailleur gears” when talking about pushbikes. Been covered in the archives in the discussion of SWLABR.
One of my all-time faves, and thank you Napster very much (I don’t feel guilty–I bought Disraeli Gears on vinyl, so they’ve got my royalties already). Love the wa-wah.
I once heard a DJ say, after playing ToBU, that “ya know, we all went through the 60s, but I think Jack Bruce went through twice.”
Hmmm. In fact, the first 3 lines of Hiawatha as quoted above fit the melody to “Tales of Brave Ulysess” spot on - the fourth line has to be tortured a bit. The professor’s metric example fits perfectly.
And Bruce’s most famous signature riff was on that album, too - “Sunshine of your Love” - Da, da-da-da-da, dum, dum, dum … can’t you just HEAR that thing …
It was on “Ninety Four Point Five–the…PARTY!!”, in amongst Sixpence None the Richer and Madonna and the “thong song”. Not to mention “won’t the real Slim Shady please stand up, please stand up…”
Golly. No wonder none of my kids didn’t recognize it, either. I doubt if they even know who Eric Clapton is.
The trochaic tetrameter thing reminded me of the fact that you can sing “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” to the Gilligan’s Island Theme. I recently noticed that it works extremely well with the Rolling Stones’ “Red Door.”
(And, of course, “Yellow Rose of Texas,” Emily Dickenson, blah blah blah…)
Now “Tales of Great Ulysses”
Is still running through my head
And everything I’m thinking
Is in that goddamn meter…
If we are being totally historic, The Kalevala, the Finnish Epic is written in the same meter and I believe that Hiawatha was based on the Kalevala for much of its structure.
Possibly I am unique in having and liking the Kalevala, Hiawatha, Suzanne, and Tales of Brave Ulysses, but not having realized the connection between the first two and the last two- compartmentalized thinking!
