Background
"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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