Comments: 25

• J H K from Chicago Since BirthOne of the best songs ever written! My older brother had the album. I was pretty young but knew that I loved this song, “Time Has Come Today”!!!
• Mick Kilburn from Las VegasIf you had been in Vietnam when you first heard this song, you would know exactly what they were singing about, or so we thought...
• Gael from VirginiaFast forward to 2023 - this song is about homelessness. In the 60s when I heard it I was preparing to leave home, start new things. I thought the songs was about that. Like all good poetry, it resonates at the time you are reading it. I saw Chambers Bros live at Fillmore West with Grateful Dead, great show!
• Anonymous from Blirzburgh, PaI first heard the Ramones' cover in the summer between high school and college in 1984 and immediately searchwd for a copy of the Chambers Brothers' original as it came out the year I was born. This song has long spoken to me on a primordial level. I don't know how else to explain the appeal.
• Freewheelinfred from PennsylvaniaI saw the Chamber Brothers perform at Rutgers U. in New Jersey in early 70’s. When they played “Time has come today” they had speakers scattered around auditorium. The result was that the music kind swerled around the audience - it was an amazing experience that I’ll never forget !
• Norman E Anderson from The Middle Of The Pacific Ocean.. Locked In Tight And Out Of Range..Nobody Understood what "Time" the Chambers Brothers were talking about and I would venture to say they did not know either. I don't believe they wrote the song in the first place even if their name is on it. The ticking of Time was .. the waiting for the New Age of Aquarius which we entered a month ago.
  Yes, "The Times they are a-changing".. and soon everything is going down on "Highway 61- (when) REVISITED".. which equals 88.. as in Carbondale, Illinois, and the New Madrid..
  Vietnam was merely one of the War Zones.. America has always been the Target labeled The British Invasion.. and we are just about finished. Now, listen to the song again, listen to the Horror we/they in Chicago down to New Orleans.. listen to Dylan's Highway 61-Revisited single... we have been played since Day One... and the Time has Come..
• Mike Barrios from Oklahoma CityI was 13 in '68 and remember this song played often on AM radio at night before I went to sleep. Haven't heard it in years and forgot the title or who wrote it. Was looking through my YouTube play list a few days ago and listening to The Zombies, Time of the Season. The clock ticking came to me first then the guitar intro. After a few days of searching Songfacts with different word groupings the lyrics started to come back and now I have my oldest favourite tune in my playlist and know the history of it as well as the Chamber's Brother's. Many a good artist and song have been lost by Clive Davis and his kind of thinking. God bless Willie and Joe for confronting Clive. Kudos to David Robinson for setting up the recording. Truly a bold move at the time for a timeless song!!!!
• Tim Robertson from Brunswick Ohio I can't find the version where he says "we blew your mind's huh " at the end.
  But i remember it..
• Sue from HomeAs Kinky Friedman sang about charles whittman "there was a rumor of a tumor nestled at the base of hia brain" funny
• Chris Merchant from New EnglandShesh people! Try Google before you tip someone else apart for being wrong. The Charles Whitman mass shooting, which IS what Elana is talking about, happened in 1966. The only thing she got wrong was when that happened. The song wasn't released until late 1967, so she could very well be RIGHT.
• Stephen from PaElena, are you talking about this?
  Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 – August 1, 1966) was an American engineering student at the University of Texas, former U.S. Marine and mass murderer who killed 16 people.
  
  In the early morning hours of August 1, 1966, Whitman murdered his wife and mother in their homes. Later that day, he brought a number of guns, including rifles, a shotgun, and handguns, to the campus of the University of Texas at Austin where, over an approximate 90- to 95-minute period, he killed 14 people and wounded 32 others in a mass shooting in and around the Tower. Whitman shot and killed three people inside the university's tower and eleven others after firing at random from the 28th-floor observation deck of the Main Building. Whitman was shot and killed by Austin police officer Houston McCoy.
• Stephen from PaOne of this old man's favorites!
• Doug from MaineElena--If the mass murder you refer to took place "in the early 70's" and the album The Time Has Come was released in November '67, what would be the connection to this song? Actually the earliest release date I can find for the very first version of "Time Has Come Today" is Sept. 12, 1966. It would have been written "sometime prior" to the release date. The "Texas Tower Massacre" (University of Texas clock tower) took place on August 1, 1966. The 1966 "THCT" version is very different from the 1968 "hit version." There are two of those "hit version" singles from '68, either 3:05 or 4:45 long, edits of the 11:06 LP version in some of the videos linked above. I think the "single drum beat" you refer to is the cowbell (or two) that was/were played (sometimes through reverb and and echo, with changes in tempo) throughout the song. I don't think that sounds anything like someone "slowly climbing the tower," but opinions can always differ.
• Ricky from Ohsweken, Ontario CanadaAn anthem in every sense of the word; GREAT song!
• Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn January 12th 1969 the Chambers Brothers performed "Time Has Come Today" on the CBS-TV program 'The Ed Sullivan Show'...
  Five months earlier on August 10th, 1968 it entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart; and on September 15th it peaked at #11 and spent 14 weeks on the Top 100...
  As stated above it was #11 for five weeks; in its 1st at #11 Aretha Franklin's "The House That Jack Built" was at #10 and in the 3rd week at #11 the #10 record was "I Say A Little Prayer" by Aretha Franklin...
  Four of the five members were actually brothers; Lester, Joe, Willie, and George Chambers. The fifth member was drummer Brian Keenan...
  On the Sullivan show the song was performed within medley of their #37 hit "I Can't Turn You Loose" and "People Get Ready".
• Gary from Seattle, WaHaving interviewed Lester several times, he reminded me that there were many versions of Time Has Come Today. The LP Long version 11.06. The first Single version at 2:37. The Hit Single version at 3:05 and finally, the Hit Single #2 version at 4:45. a real testament to a song that still rings true today. Be safe, Crowski KZOK Seattle's One and Only Classic Rock Station.
• Elena from Westerville, OhI love this song but it wasn't written about Vietnam. Sorry. In the early 70's, a young man went nuts, climbed a tower on a university campus ( in Texas?) with a rifle and killed a bunch of students. Thus 'time has come today'. The single drum beat is him slowly climbing the tower. You hear rapid drum beats depicting gun shots as well as shot people screaming and him laughing in the background! Check and see!
• John from Missoula, MtIf memory serves me well the song was part of the movie Looking For Mr. Goodbar. It plays somewhat toward the end of the film complimenting the scene.
• Skip from Jiaxing, ChinaObviously this is a great song. What must be said about the Chambers Brothers,as unpopular it might be..., is that the solid Christian background of this band indirectly or directly gave them the forward thinking ability to create their music and emboldened them to face the issues before them. Great band great and great music.
• Dave from Easton, PaInteresting to note that The Chambers Bros. was one of the first racially mintegrated bands of the 60's. The four Chambers Brothers, who are black, and their white drummer, Brian Keenan.
• Karen from Manchester, NhKeith, I am SO jealous! So what if I was only 4 in 1968...I love ALL of those bands. I used to bug my older sister (she's 13 years older than me) to play "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" (the ALBUM cut) and "Time Has Come Today" to death.
• Keith from Downey, CaChambers Brothers didn't get the recognition for the quality of music they produced. Awesome concert (1968) with Chambers Brothers, Sly and the Family Stone and Iron Butterfly at Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan.
• Steve Dotstar from Los Angeles, CaDominic, I remember it also , blaring out of a lot of apratments on Friday and Saturday nights...
  parties I went to...during the summer of love or
  perhaps the year after that..can't remember the exact date..
• Cameron from Irvine, CaI F@#$ING LOVE THIS SONG!
• Dominick from New York, NyGreat song. While growing up, I remember spending many nights in the basement of my parents' house with my friends with the blacklight and Day-Glo paint, listening to this song.
  

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