Time Has Come Today

Infobox Single
Name = Time Has Come Today


Cover size =
Caption =
Artist = The Chambers Brothers
Album = The Time Has Come
A-side = Time Has Come Today
B-side = Dinah (original single)
People Get Ready ("hit" single)
Released = November 1967
Format = Lp & single
Recorded =
Genre = Soul-funk
Length = 11:09 (Lp)
2:37 (original single version)
3:05 ("hit" single version #1)
4:45 ("hit" single version #2)
Label = (Columbia/Legacy)
Writer = Joe & Willie Chambers
Producer = David Rubinson
Certification =
Last single =
This single =
Next single =
Misc =

"Time Has Come Today" is a song recorded by The Chambers Brothers in 1968. It was produced by Vault. It spent five weeks at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100.

This song was very much ahead of its time. This song used many different effects in its recording. One big stand-out characteristic of this song is the constant presence of the cow bell that is present during the entire song. It is used in a manner which produces a "tick-tock" sound through the entire song.

Effects used

For the echo effect, most likely an Echoplex was used, as these were the days before digital delay. There was quite a large amount of reverb used in this song. On the song's guitar solo there was most likely a fuzz face distortion unit used.

Most of the strange psychedelic sounds are heard on the long version of this song and not on the short. The purpose of all the strange effects and the vocal effects, (i.e. yelling made to sound like bombs being dropped, screams, and misc.) were to replicate the sounds of war (in this case, the Vietnam War in which the United States was then involved, much to the dismay of the generation of the time).

Released single versions

*Original 1966 version -- Columbia 43816 -- completely different version than the common 1967 "hit version"
*1967 "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. There is no mention of the "The Time Has Come" album on the label.
*1967 "hit version" #2 -- Columbia 44414 -- 4:45 edit. The beginning of the "A" chord climax is "overlapped" with the ending of the instrumental break and reprise of the third verse. There are also three "inner edits" in this version. The label now mentions the "The Time Has Come" album.

Cover versions

*Punk band the Ramones recorded a cover version of this song in 1983, which also was released as a single. This version is available on the band's album "Subterranean Jungle".
*The song was covered in much changed way by Angry Samoans and included on their 1982 album "Back from Samoa".
*Joan Jett from her album "The Hit List" (1990).
*Willy DeVille recorded the song for his "Loup Garou" album.
*American Idol finalist Bo Bice has recently released a cover of this song.
*Punk band Die' Hunns covered this song as a "7 single and again on their 2004 album "Long Legs, Die Hunns LP".

In other media

The song has appeared in many films. Director Hal Ashby used all 11:06 as the backdrop to the climactic scene when Captain Robert Hyde "comes home" to an unfaithful wife in the 1978 Acadamy Award winning film "Coming Home".

Other films it has also been used in include:cite web|title=Imdb: The Chambers Brothers|url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2043900/]
*Bad Dreams (1988)
*Casualties of War (1989)
*The Doors (1991)
*Crooklyn (1994)
*Girl, Interrupted (1999)
*Remember the Titans (2000)
*Riding the Bullet (2004)
*The Zodiac (2005)
*Edison Force (2005)
*Neal Cassady (2007)
*Talk to Me (2007)

The song has also appeared on television episodes:
*Theme tune used for the time-travel series Seven Days produced by UPN from 1998-2001
* - Ellie (2001)
*Supernatural - Everybody loves a clown (2006)
*My Name Is Earl - Monkeys in Space (2006)

It was also featured in the thirteen-episode miniseries by Stephen King titled Kingdom Hospital.

A shorted version was used as a theme song for the fourth season of Early Edition.

References