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CHAMBERS BROTHERS: The Time Has Come Again!

pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
edited February 2007 in Strut Central
Soul fans dismiss them for being too "rock." Rock fans think of them as being a soul band. And some clueless retro-funk fan is probably wondering, "damn, where the breakbeats at?" Joe, Willie, Lester & George Chambers (plus drummer Brian Keenan) did have that "neither here nor there" affliction that also hit Mother's Finest and Buddy Miles. Even their own record label (Columbia) kept pressuring them to do something more traditionally black-oriented, even as Sly Stone was selling records for the same label with a similar sound (to be truthful, Sly was funkier, which ensured him a huge black following, which the Chambers didn't have). But hey, rockish soul (or soulish rock?) was their sound, and in that light, they tore shit up. These firebrands deserve an "appreciation thread" (never quite liked that term, it sounded too stiff and formal, but may as well call it what it is), so I figured I'd put it out there...

  Comments

  • holmesholmes 3,532 Posts
    Yes, huge co-sign. Chambers Bros are great.
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    Most slept-on Chambers Brothers album: 1975's Right Move, which featured the hellaciously funky "Stealin' Watermelons." Their heyday was well over by this time, but there's no air of desperation here; these guys are grooving as hard here as on their older Columbia and Vault albums.
  • motown67motown67 4,513 Posts
    Great great group. I'd known about them for years but only had 2 of their records, one of which was a Greatest Hits. Wasn't until the summer of 06 that I started tracking down all of their titles.
  • rocco2nrrocco2nr 530 Posts
    their "people get ready" cover is
  • JRootJRoot 861 Posts
    I love it when they stretch it out real slow on "Time has come today" .......TIME!
  • flatblackplasticflatblackplastic 1,209 Posts
    TIME!
  • johmbolayajohmbolaya 4,472 Posts
    T I M E !
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    Once I heard an oldies DJ (Chicago's legendary Dick Biondi!) play "Time Has Come Today." He didn't have the edited version on him, so he just faded it down right when George Chambers starts hitting the one note on the bass, just before the freakout, but after the brothers stop chanting "T I M E !"...sounded better that way, to me...to this day, I usually remove the needle at right about that time of the song...sounds blasphemous, I know, but it sounds more mysterious that way.

    (The actual single edit extracts the freakout, but picks up where it ends.)
  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    pickwick33 coming with the killer threads lately!

  • DrWuDrWu 4,021 Posts
    One of the first bands that got me out of the classic rock rut and into the funk and soul 20 years ago. "People get ready", probably the baddest version of "midnight hour" and the terminally funky "FUNKY". Breaks for days. Dudes, are just an all around awesome group of artists.
  • dayday 9,611 Posts
    Pickwick is all up in my brain

    I pulled this out the other day and that's what prompted my Mati Klarwein thread.



    I am definitley feeling the "common but overlooked" threads lately. That record has some gems on it
  • dayday 9,611 Posts
    and thank you for bringing record talk back
  • CraigCraig 269 Posts
    Most slept-on Chambers Brothers album: 1975's Right Move, which featured the hellaciously funky "Stealin' Watermelons." Their heyday was well over by this time, but there's no air of desperation here; these guys are grooving as hard here as on their older Columbia and Vault albums.

    great thread i love the chamber brothers. agreed the above album is slept on. i like "who wants to listen" the most on that lp. im also feelin' "are you ready" off "new generation" lp.....
  • JuniorJunior 4,853 Posts
    Yes! I can't believe people are still sleeping on these guys. Apart from Time....(one of my favourite songs of all time and a great album) the New Generation is a killer album with both the title track and Funky.

    Think people forget that when they weren't tearing it up they could deliver a ballad as well as anyone though. When The Evening Comes and their cover of People Get Ready are both awe inspiringly brilliant.
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    They even had a Folkways album! The ultra-rare Groovin' Time was issued in 1968, to cash in on their Columbia fame, and basically follows the same format as their pre-psych albums on Vault...raw versions of old rock/R&B standards with the occasional spiritual (plus the paralyzing civil rights anthem, "Who Lives By The Law").
  • DocMcCoyDocMcCoy "Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,915 Posts
    I love it when they stretch it out real slow on "Time has come today" .......TIME!

    The short trip-out sequence in "Crooklyn", with that part playing in the background, is great. It's also one of the best and most inspired Scorsese bites in Spike Lee's cinematic canon.
  • prof_rockwellprof_rockwell 2,867 Posts
    Pickwick is all up in my brain

    I pulled this out the other day and that's what prompted my Mati Klarwein thread.



    I am definitley feeling the "common but overlooked" threads lately. That record has some gems on it



    I heard this on your "Gone Bad"
  • Big_StacksBig_Stacks "I don't worry about hittin' power, cause I don't give 'em nuttin' to hit." 4,670 Posts
    Hey,

    I have "Time Has Come Today", "A New Time-A New Day", and one more I'm blanking on (lost in the pile near the sampler-related). I'm a big fan of their stuff, different, and I like the soul/rock mixture.

    Peace,

    Big Stacks from Kakalak
  • bassiebassie 11,710 Posts
    .


    great record! i enjoy Funky a lot...a little slowed down even.
  • white_teawhite_tea 3,262 Posts
    One of the favorite record I got from my mom, alongside, not coincidentally... Buddy Miles.

    Right when I started getting into Zep and Jimi as a young pup, she was like: "Check this out. I think you're going to like it..."

    TIME! Great sense of urgency.
  • GenePontecorvoGenePontecorvo 5,612 Posts
    I love the Chambers Brothers. "All Strung Out over You" is a fantastic song.
  • CousinLarryCousinLarry 4,618 Posts



    I like this one.
  • gruntgravelgruntgravel 559 Posts



    I like this one.

    Let's do it (Do it together)
  • CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
    Chambers Brothers are the shit. That's that old Vietnam-beat jumping off.
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