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Time Has Come Today

1966 single by The Chambers Brothers From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Time Has Come Today
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This article is about the song. For the episode of Grey's Anatomy, see Time Has Come Today (Grey's Anatomy).

"Time Has Come Today" is a hit single by the American psychedelic soul group the Chambers Brothers, written by Willie & Joe Chambers. The song was recorded and released as a single in 1966 by Columbia Records.[1] It was then featured on the album The Time Has Come in November 1967, and released again as a single in December 1967. The 1967 single was a Top 10 near-miss in America, spending five weeks at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the fall of 1968.[2] In Canada, the song reached No. 9.[3] It is now considered one of the landmark rock songs of the psychedelic era.[4]

Quick facts Single by The Chambers Brothers, from the album The Time Has Come ...
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Background

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"Time Has Come Today" was performed by The Chambers Brothers with Joe Chambers on lead vocal.[5]

The song has been described as psychedelic rock,[6][7] psychedelic soul[8][9] and acid rock,[10] and features a fuzz guitar twinned with a clean one.[11] Various other effects were employed in its recording and production, including the alternate striking of two cow bells producing a "tick-tock" sound, warped throughout most of the song by reverb, echo and changes in tempo. The long version quotes several bars from "The Little Drummer Boy" at 5:40.

Writer Chuck Eddy includes the song in a list of examples of "pre-dub dub-metal",[12] and comments on its "feedback-drenched" sound.[13] Eddy names it "probably the most outlandish ball of rock-mucus ever expectorated: voluminous Blue Cheer boomthud quoting 'Little Drummer Boy', cuckoo clocks, tick-tocks, 'shroom-groomed cackles, echodrum hypnotics that beat everybody 'cept maybe Dr. John to the dub/acid-house game, plus some of the most despairing anxiety-of-displacement in the American songwrite archives, all about homeless and loveless gape-generation subway-strife."[14]

The publisher for the song, future original compositions was Chambro Music which was handled by E. E. Prager of 185 East 85th Street, New York.[15]

Earlier version

The original version of the song, hastily recorded in late 1966,[16][17] was rejected by Columbia.[18][19] Instead, the more orthodox single "All Strung Out Over You" b/w "Falling In Love" (Columbia 4-43957) was released on December 19, 1966, and became a regional hit. The success of "All Strung Out Over You" gave them the opportunity to re-record "The Time Has Come Today" in 1967.[17]

Recording the song

Oldest brother George Chambers originally wanted no part of the song. According to brother Willie, he didn't like playing the song live and thought it was silly and ridiculous.[20]

Editing

For the week of 17 August, in his Record World Money Music column, Kal Rudman wrote that Columbia should use the "Time Has Come Today" edit that KFRC in San Francisco had made just as Atlantic Records had done with the edit WKNR in Detroit had made with "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" by Iron Butterfly. He said that they predicted a no. 1 for the Chambers Brothers when the single is "re-serviced". He also said that the LP would soon be the biggest that Columbia has on the market.[21] Rudman wrote in the 28 Sepetmber issue of Record World that "Time Has Come Today" was the hottest national smash from the underground and they told the reader that the eleven-minute cut was a monster at the discos. He said "Thank Les Turpin for doing the right edit that enabled Columbia to get the proper vehicle to bring it in. Top 5".[22]

According to Kal Rudman of Money Music in Record World, 5 October 1968, Columbia Records had credited them for the suggestion of using the edit of the eleven-minute album cut that KFRC in San Francisco had made. This was the same as Atlantic Records had done with the edit that WKNR in Detroit had made with "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" by Iron Butterfly.[23]

A more in-depth look at the editing of this song is in the March 2013 issue of Mix magazine.[24]

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Reception

The single was a Cash Box Sure Shot for the week of 24 August.[25]

The single was a four star pick in the 7 September 1968 issue of Record World. The reviewer said that the album cut had been making it with the deejays, and here it was "single-like".[26]

Airplay

As recorded in the 24 August issue of Cash Box, "Time Has Come Today" had been added to 25% of radio station program schedules that week. To date it had been added to 41% of stations schedules.[27]

Charts

United States

Record World

The single debuted at no. 98 in the Record World 100 Top Pops chart for the week of 17 August 1968.[28] At week seven, the single peaked at no. 11 on the 100 Top Pops chart for the week of 28 September.[29] It held that position for another three weeks.[30][31] For the week of 9 November and in its thirteenth charting week, the single had dropped down from 26 to no. 57.[32]

The single made its debut at no. 23 in the Record World Juke Box Top 23 for the week of 12 October.[33][34]

Cash Box

"Time Has Come Today" debuted at no. 88 in the Cash Box Top 100 chart for the week of 24 August.[35] It peaked at no. 11 for the week of 19 October and held that position for another week.[36][37]

Canada

The single debuted at no. 83 in the RPM 100 chart for the week of 2 September 1968.[38] The single peaked at no. 9 for the week of 7 October.[39]

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Album version

  • 1967 released on the LP The Time Has Come - Columbia CK 63984–11:07, includes an extended "freak out" in the middle

Released single versions

  • 1966 original version – Columbia 43816 - the original recording, 2:37 in length, which is completely different from the widely known 1968 "hit version".
  • 1968 "hit version" #1 – Columbia 44414 – 3:05 edit of the LP version. Fades out at the beginning of the "A" chord instrumental break with no other edits within the track. The label does not refer to the album The Time Has Come.
  • 1968 "hit version" #2 – Columbia 44414 – 4:45 edit. The beginning of the "A" chord instrumental break is overlapped with its ending, followed by the third-verse reprise. There are also several other edits within this version. The label now mentions the album The Time Has Come. (Some copies with the 4:45 version were mispressed with the 3:05 labels.)
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Album credits

Musicians

[41][42]

Other

[43]

Cover versions

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In popular culture

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Film

The song has appeared in many films. Director Hal Ashby used the full 11-minute track as the backdrop to the climactic scene when Captain Robert Hyde (Bruce Dern) "comes home" to an unfaithful wife (Jane Fonda) in the 1978 Academy Award–winning film Coming Home.

It has also been used in the following films:[49]

Television

The song has also appeared in the following television episodes:[49]

In TV commercials:

Other

Anthony Bourdain said, in 2010, that this song "saved his life".[50]

The song was also featured in the trailer for the 1995 film Kiss of Death and the 2017 science fiction film Geostorm.

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Further reading

References

External links

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