Break out your mink hats, Cream fans, here’s Jack Bruce and his mates (Eric Clapton, guitar; Ginger Baker, drums) performing “Tales of Brave Ulysses” live on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, 1968.

To the uninitiated, the lyrics of “Tales of Brave Ulysses” might sound more like a bit of hallucinogen-inspired rambling than a literary-laced pop song inspired by Homer’s Odyssey focusing on some of the more memorable adventures undertaken by Ulysses:

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,
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.

It’s with this information in hand that we enter the scholarly embrace of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, where Cream performed a rowdy, wah-wah version of the song in front of a live studio audience.

Happy Friday, all you purple fishes.