“Time Has Come Today” is a hit single by the American soul group the Chambers Brothers, written by Willie & Joe Chambers. The single was released in 1968, recorded in 1966 and released on the album The Time Has Come in November 1967. It is now considered one of the landmark rock songs of the psychedelic era. Various 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. It also quotes several bars from “The Little Drummer Boy” at 5:40 in the long version. The song blends a fusion of psychedelic rock, soul and acid rock with its use of the guitar’s fuzz/distortion. (More from Wikipedia)
At the time of the British Invasion that began in late 1963, it wasn’t so hip to be American. Thus, many bands and recording artists in that period feigned Englishness in hopes of improving their changes of making the charts.
Sometimes though, they were just dressing in the fashions of the day. As an African-American group, the Chambers Brothers certainly weren’t fooling anyone on the cover of their most successful album, The Time Has Come, though their white drummer Brian Keenan had lived in England and Ireland for a time. This album featured the band’s 1968 psychedelic hit song “Time Has Come Today”; the extended version of this song runs for 11 minutes, and Keenan’s distinctive drumming is one of the reasons it has remained so popular.
(April 2013)
Using several of these sound tricks can be enough to completely change a song. I am up to mid-2013 in loading up my Facebook posts into my website, and one song that I wrote about then is a long-time favorite called “Time Has Come Today” by the Chambers Brothers, which started out as an African-American gospel group. The song was originally recorded in 1966 but had a completely different sound; it was next released on the band’s album The Time Has Come in November 1967 and became a hit single in 1968. Wikipedia notes that it is “one of the landmark rock songs of the psychedelic era” and continues: “Various 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.”
(July 2015)
