Chambers Brothers - Funky

Happy mid week people. Things have been very busy for the good ol' devil here lately so i haven't had as much time to be a posting as much I'd like but please be sure to keep checking back often as i have a bunch of nice treats lined up!

I'm sending this one out to my man DJ Prestige over at Flea Market Funk for his most excellent post on another of one of my all time fave groovy funker's! When your done over here head over and check out Donny Hathaway's - The Slums. DJ Pres is LEGEND!

I'm going with a "funky" little cut by The Chambers Brothers. When I was a wee lad "time has come today" was one of my favorite songs back then. My Mom's had one of those Columbia records box set things from being in the record "club" and i must have played that song a thousand times, of course it was the edited version and i wouldn't hear the original LONG version for many years but i loved that song, still do. But way back then who knew these were some funky bothers bringing the psychedelic rock!

Like their West Coast contemporaries Sly and the Family Stone, the Chambers Brothers shattered racial and musical divides to forge an incendiary fusion of funk, gospel, blues, and psychedelia which reached its apex with the perennial 1968 song "Time Has Come Today."

The Chambers siblings — bassist George, guitarist Willie, harpist Lester, and guitarist Joe, all of whom contributed vocals — were born and raised in Lee County, MS; the products of an impoverished sharecropping family, the brothers first polished their vocal harmonies in the choir of their Baptist church, a collaboration which ended after George was drafted into the army in 1952. Following his discharge he relocated to Los Angeles, where the other Chambers brothers soon settled as well; the foursome began performing gospel and folk throughout Southern California in 1954, but remained virtually unknown until appearing in New York City in 1965. The addition of white drummer Brian Keenan not only made the Chambers Brothers an interracial group, but pushed their music closer to rock & roll; a well-received appearance at the Newport Folk Festival further enhanced their growing reputation, and they soon recorded their debut LP, People Get Ready.

As the Chambers Brothers toured rock clubs (including the famed Fillmore in San Francisco) and R&B venues (most notably the Apollo Theatre) alike, their music increasingly embraced elements of both; after recording 1968's Shout! for the Vault label, the group signed to Columbia to issue Time Has Come Today, scoring a major pop hit with the title track, an 11-minute psychedelic soul epic in its original album incarnation. The follow-up, A New Time—A New Day, yielded another Top 40 hit, a cover of the Otis Redding's classic "I Can't Turn You Loose," but subsequent efforts including 1969's Love, Peace and Happiness and 1970's Live at Fillmore East failed to maintain the commercial momentum. Upon completing 1972's Oh My God!, the Chambers Brothers disbanded, only to reunite two years later for Unbonded. Right Move appeared in 1975, and although no new studio records were forthcoming, the group regularly performed live in the decades to follow, with the brothers also pursuing individual projects; the Chambers Family Choir, a gospel group including the siblings' own children, remained a priority as well.

While this cut is no "time has come today" it is a nice funky little nugget from their 1970 album called "New Generation".

Enjoy!

Chambers Brothers - Funky