Alas, my two loyal readers, this week's post is not a day early...rather last week's is almost a week late. Time and circumstance, friends, time and circumstance....
A few years back this week's tune roared back into my consciousness...and for the life of me, I can't remember why. All I know is I heard it somewhere, added it to my TIDAL (fuck Spotify) playlist, and have been enjoying it ever since. My guess is a movie or TV show (it's been featured in many), but no matter--a great song is a great song however it came into my musical world....
The Chambers Brothers honed their skills in their native Mississippi playing in church choirs before eldest brother George (Lester, Willie, and Joe were the other brothers, with non-brother Brian Keenan joining the band on drums) moved to Los Angeles following a stint in the military. His brothers would join him in L.A. and from 1954 until 1965 they toiled musically in relative obscurity. Originally a folk outfit, they eventually, like many other bands from that era, went electric, and later landed a record deal. They had a modicum of success (and one huge hit single), before disbanding in 1972, and then reuniting in 1974. For their career, the band released six studio albums, seven live albums, ten compilations, and ten singles. Through the years the band has toured intermittently, and all of the brothers continued playing music either solo or in various bands. Sadly drummer Keenan passed away suddenly in 1988, and eldest brother George died in 2019.
Fun Fact: The band recorded an album in 1972 that was never released called Oh, My God! and it remained as such until finally being released last October, over fifty years after its making. And that, folks, is perseverance personified.
"Time Has Come Today" was released in 1967 on their album The Time Has Come. Both would become the biggest hits of their career--the single peaked at #11 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, while the album hit #6 on the Billboard 200.
I've written a time or two (or three or four...) about artists who come together and produce a moment of magic, and this is one of those moments. I've never heard another song by the Chambers Brothers but judging from their short heyday and lack of other high charting singles I'd guess "Time Has Come Today" was their moment of genius. A call to arms (literally), Lester's lead vocals scream of its urgency with the highlight being the band members screaming "Hey!" after each line early in the song and then "Time!" later in the song. Instrumentally it was ahead of its time and may be the first song on Jukebox to feature cowbells. In the end, many consider it to be a watershed song of the psychedelic era and that's much higher praise than any of my words could muster.
Lyric Sheet: "I've been loved and put aside (Time!)/I've been crushed by a tumbling tide (Time!)/And my soul has been psychedelicized (Time!)..."
Enjoy (There are three different lengths to "Time Has Come Today" and in my infinite wisdom I chose the one that was the biggest hit):
Republicans = Nazis
Peace,
emaycee
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