Customer Reviews

Best Of: Time Has Come

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I purchased this disk "Time Has Come Today: The Best Of The Chambers Brothers" to get a copy of the great song "Time Has Come Today" which is a combination of psychedelic rock and soul. I was pleasantly surprised with the rest of the songs on the disk. The Chambers Brothers were one of the first integrated rock groups and their music was a great combination of psychedelic rock, gospel, soul and funk. Besides the memorable "Time Has Come Today" cuts like "A New Time - A New Day" and "Love, Peace and Happiness" emphasize the more psychedelic aspects of the band and contain some nasty distorted guitar work. Cuts like "Uptown" and "I Can't Turn You Loose" are more soulful cuts. "People Get Ready" brings the band's gospel roots to the front with excellent harmony vocals and a touching rendition of this classic song. "All Strung Out Over You", "I Can't Stand It" and "Funky" have infectious danceable funky beats. The music is sort of a cross between Jimi Hendrix, James Brown and Sly & The Family Stone. The compilation from 1966-1970 contains some rare singles and soundtrack cuts as well as an additional alternate version of "Time Has Come Today".

My only regret is that the disk is not longer. It is approximately 63 minutes so a number of additional cuts could have been added including the over 10 minute album version of "Time Has Come Today" rather than the single version included here. Do not let this deter you from purchasing this set. It is better than either of the other compilations listed on this site because it contains more cuts than either "Greatest Hits" or "Time". There are only 3 total songs from these other 2 compilations that do not appear on "Time Has Come:Best Of The Chamber's Brothers". This is a fine representation of how the musicians and bands of the sixties incorporated the influences of other genres of music into their own sound. It is a shame that this band is only known for "Time Has Come Today" because the Chambers Brothers deserve better as evidenced by this anthology.

I recently bought this CD and was disappointed. I have the original album "The Chambers Brothers - The Time has Come" released in 1967 on vinyl (Columbia records, Stereo CS 9522). On vinyl, the song "Time Has Come Today" is approximatley 10 minutes long (as opposed to the track on this CD "Time Has Come: The Best of the Chambers Brothers" which is only 4:51 minutes) The best part of this song was edited out for this CD. For that reason, I give it only 3 stars. I saw the Chambers Brothers live in Hawaii in 1970. They did a performance of "Time Has Come Today" which must have gone on for 20 minutes. It was great.

This is a decent enough collection of the Chambers Brothers best but there are two songs which had great extended album versions: "Time Has Come Today'" and "New Generation." The original album which includes "Time Has Come Today" is still in print and can be ordered in cd form. Unfortunately, the "New Generation" album is not in print. Therefore, the "long" version of that song is hard to get. I loved the Chambers Brothers and I used to buy their albums in vinyl when I was in high school. I also used to see them perform live. I would play the great long versions over and over. Here, the collection is great but the versions included are disappointing. The cd still gets 4 stars for great performances by a great band.

An excellent collection of the songs that helped make the music of the sixty's so great. This CD contains the short and long versions of "Time has come today". Also, who could forget the warm sound of "People get ready". Not all the songs are big hits, but enough good cuts to make this album a worthwhile purchase. Unfortunately, the recording quality is very gritty with a fair amount of distortion. The problem is that the music is so good that it make this selection hard to pass up. I would still recommend it to anyone.

I may have biased opinion, I am a 3rd generation Chambers'. This is the music that shaped a whole generation hungry for change. It ignites true R&B with a song like People Get Ready, and the obvious and possibly the rock anthem of the late sixties Time Has Come Today. Thank You Amazon for making this available to hopefully a whole new audience of listeners.

Soon after purchasing this wonderful collection of soulfully rockin' gems I mentioned it to my old highschool buddy Pat,who's a record collecting fiend. "Dang, I'd forgotten all about them" ,he said. Well, me too,and that was unfortunate because I missed out on hearing some great music for the past thirty years. The Chambers Brothers were arguably the first self contained,songwriting, African American rock band in America.With the addition of British drummer Brian Keenan they were one of the first integrated bands to have success.They pioneered the way for Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone so their historical value would be substantial even if they were mediocre.In fact they're terrific!Great gospel trained voices singing funky rock n' soul over big fat beats.This was the sound that lessers like Rare Earth and Pacific Gas and Electric were trying for,but they just did'nt have the moxie to pull it off.'Time Has Come Today' was the big hit,and the version that appears here benefits from having seven minutes of psychedelic frou-frou edited from the middle.What's left is a tight rockin' tick tockin' postcard from the swinging sixties. Every song on here is fun and swinging.The live "Wade In The Water" provides an excellent example of just how good these guys were in concert.So now I gotta have their live album too.After all I gotta make up for thirty years time.You should get yours now.

The wonderful, multi-racial CHAMBERS BROTHERS are yet another example of the shameful way in which the major companies can treat a great musical heritage: Former band members have been in litigation against Columbia Records and its parent company, Sony for more than two decades now. Like many other artists of the 60s, the CHAMBERS have apparently not seen a dime from Columbia for many, many years.

All the while, Sony/Columbia has been repackaging CHAMBERS BROTHERS product in a bitpiece way since the advent of the cd format: one morsel here, another scrap there! After (commendably, surprisingly) re-releasing "The Time Has Come" with bonus tracks in 2000, no further material has been forthcoming; instead, fans are being treated to shoddy-at-best re-issues that often overlap - this "best of" collection being just another example of such heartless business policy. It is highly doubtful that former band members have seen any of Sony/Columbia`s cd sales profits diverted their way...

Meanwhile, none of the Columbia-era CHAMBERS BROTHERS albums (save the first, as mentioned) are currently in print: Used cd copies of "Love, Peace and Happiness", which was licensed by Columbia to GNP/Crescendo in the 90s sell on the internet for upwards of $100...and all the while, former members of this great psychedelic relic most likely have to scrape together a livelihood.

My personal experience with this fine vocal group BTW contrasts markedly with the stingy corporate policies I just described:
My (then-)girlfriend and I saw the CHAMBERS BROTHERS play a small L.A. club at the very tail-end of their career, in 1984. They performed in front of an audience of perhaps 5-10 patrons (!).
The CHAMBERS BROTHERS worked their way through material spanning their whole (even then!) mighty 25-year career - and they played their hearts out for 90 minutes in a display of pure professionalism: An experience I will not forget.

Oh yeah, right, "hearts": You people at corporate headquarters wouldn`t know what I`m talking about, now would you?

Without the long version of "Time Has Come" how can this be the best of the Cambers Bros. Was very dissapointed. Pass this one up.
Look for the long version.

The Chambers Brothers/ The Time Has Come - The Best of... (16 Track edition): The thing to remember is that The Chambers Brothers are essentially a Gospel Group...a very fine Gospel group! Everything on this album consists of excellent Gospel recordings, except the title track. This Hits CD starts with the Radio Single of "Time has come today" (this CD does NOT have the album length version). This CD concludes with another version of "Time has come today" but this is the odd "rejected" single of the song (a strange and interesting thing to hear). I have both this Hits CD and the original "Time has come" album. Together they make a very fine collection of this wonderful group.

I'm happy cause I've known them for a while and I've been listening many of their records BUT I'm still looking for the reissue of New Time New Day their other excellent album...Keep the faith...