Chambers Brothers

The Chambers Brothers were four brothers, George, Joseph, Lester and Willie, with blues and gospel roots and a readiness to plug both into the psychedelic storm of the late '60s. George held down the bottom on electric bass and washtub bass, Joseph and Willie played guitar, Lester blew harmonica, and drummer Brian Keenan rounded out the lineup, living proof that the family business welcomed outsiders.

They'd been singing together since 1954, and that deep church-and-juke-joint grounding is what made their turn to psychedelic soul so potent. On the 1967 album The Time Has Come they found the song that would define them, "Time Has Come Today", an eleven-minute freak-out built on a ticking pulse, fuzzed-out guitar and voices that keep circling back and daring the clock to stop. It's a soul record that goes to the far side of the moon and returns without losing its groove.

Hollywood has kept it alive ever since, reaching for it on soundtrack after soundtrack whenever a film needs to announce that the '60s are happening, and rock radio's countdowns have kept making room for all of it.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.