The Chambers Brothers – The Time Has Come

I lived it...Had this Columbia LP on my Garrad turntable and watched as it flopped down on the table and starting spinning...My apartment was ablaze in black-light and the strobe was a strobin'...it was without a doubt one of the top outings of that miraculous year, 1967...The Chambers Bros. funk was infectious and earth shattering...We all know about THE cut on the album..."Time Has Come", penned by Joe and Willie Chambers, seems to never end as it takes you up, down, and up again for the thundering finish...Sadly the chaps didn't score any bread for this audio jewel as their recording rights were ed on to others who profit on this CLASSIC for ever and ever...BUT we have it...have it blasting right now on my TT...The 60's...I'll take it again ONLY if you throw in this Chamber Bros. gift of musical heaven on wax...

Soulful & invigorating music that speaks to the adventurous nature of the moment - psychedelic soul or soulful psychedelia? Powerful & impressive LP.

One of the greatest albums of this time. Extremely underrated group and album. Nothing quite fills the skull and soul like the 11 minute version of Time has come Today.

Few bands during 1967, during the Summer of Love and the fledgling FM progressive radio, where more suited and positioned to hypnotically psychedela-cized the nation, and nearly single handedly place psychedelic music squarely on the map with their to this day blisteringly emancipated vision of the social and musical scene, captured in a single profound moment … well, actually eleven minutes and six seconds to be exact. Rising from a gospel and folk background, even singing with Dylan on his unreleased 1965 sessions, the band was poised to see the world through the eyes and ears of the folk and gospel scene, yet with the backing of David Rubinson [late of Moby Grape], the Chambers brothers would sanctify the world with a heady funky blues laden track that ushered in one of the crowning achievements in psychedelic music, one that to this day is nearly unequaled.

Unlike other psych bands who simply fleshed out their music with trippy sounds and effects, the Chambers Brothers actually intuitively incorporated these sounds to not simply create an effect, but affect the totality of the song, using considered unpretentious lines and measured structures, featuring two lead guitars, one clean and the other fuzzed out, musical effects that were almost visual with stellar achievements with reverb, time sequencing, and echoes that felt as if the song was physically drawing the listener in, down, around, yet ever centered and in the moment, all presented with a sense of urgency, yet not forgetting that music was supposed to be a lot of fun.

But the fun does not begin and end with the track “Time Has Come Today,” the rest of the album also has it’s far share of psychedela-cized tunes, but it also contains some brilliant R&B that’s laced with rock n’ roll, the blues and funk … songs that have been overlooked for far too long.

The fun facts: Consider the lines from the song,

Time has come today, young hearts go their way …
-Meaning that kids were free to love whom they choose, that they were free to make their own decisions, and conduct their own lives.
They can’t put it off another day …
-Meaning that now was the time to take a stand, as this was a politically active song about society and the war in Viet Nam.
I don’t care what others say, they say we don’t listen anyway …
-Meaning that it was time to step off of the corporate tread, take chances, think outside of the box, and what’s it matter if the establishment didn’t like what the kids were thinking and doing, their elders never listened to them, so why should they think that their kids were listening.
The room has changed today, I have no place to stay …
-The room can be thought of as many things, perhaps most aptly as “the mind,” because once a persona had tried a bit of the lysergic, their room / mind, has profoundly changed.
I’m thinking about the subway, my love has blown away …
-Consider the subway to be a modern version of the underground railroad, spiriting young men to Canada to avoid the draft, with everything they’ve ever known or loved to be forever left behind.
My tears have come and gone, oh Lord I gotta run
I got no home, no I have no home …
-There was so much loss in the 60’s, the war, assassinations, cities in flames, and protest marches turning violent, that kids felt that they had no home, no country, nothing they’d be taught to recognize when push came to shove.
Now the time has come, no place to run …
-Where could anyone really run or hide, better to stake a stand.
Might get burned up by the sun, but I’ll have my fun …
-This line has several references, one is to the space race and the fear that space craft could drawn into the sun [as could we all], meaning life is uncertain. The sun was also a reference to Viet Nam and the unrelenting sun. The sun is also an implication suggestion of having fun, while tripping on the Owsley acid Orange Sunshine.
I’ve been loved and put aside, I’ve been crushed
by the tumbling tide, and my soul’s been psychedela-cized …
-Take this as meaning that kids felt that they were loved, yet put on a shelf, never to be sincerely touched, with the “tide” suggesting that so many get crushed by a wave of people doing the exact same thing. The notion that they’ve tried everything, but that true peace comes from within.
Now the time has come, there are things to realize …
-Probably the most profound line, meaning that simply because kids realize that it’s time to make a change, that the time is now, that they should be acutely aware not to simply another community, that they must realize or understand the things that implicitly matter, and do those things in spite of their elders or their contemporaries.

Review by Jenell Kesler

Did anyone else get a pressing with the B side label being Blank? cs 9522 stereo version.

Floor rattling. Stunning album, front-to-back.

From the first song to the last, this is a surprising, gorgeous piece of work. Whether one comes to it for the unabashed, aggressive psychedelia of the title track, or for traditional soul ballads like 'Romeo and Juliet,' a listener can't really go away unsatisfied. There is a soulfulness to these vocals that is hard to beat and an innovation of sound that I find hard to compare. One thing is certain: no record collection should be without one.