Time Has Come Today  

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"Time Has Come Today" is a song recorded by The Chambers Brothers in 1966. It spent five weeks at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the fall of 1968.

This song was very much ahead of its time and used many different effects in its recording. The most notable characteristic of this work is the constant presence of the cow bell which produces a "tick-tock" sound throughout the entire song.

Effects used

For the echo effect, most likely an Echoplex was used. There was quite a large amount of reverb used in this song. For the guitar solo, a fuzz face distortion unit was most likely 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).

Released single versions

• Original 1966 version -- Columbia 43816 -- completely different version than the common 1968 "hit version"
• 1968 "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.
• 1968 "hit version" #2 -- Columbia 44414 -- 4:45 edit. The beginning of the "A" chord climax is "overlapped" with the ending of the long instrumental break and reprise of the third verse. There are also several other edits within 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.
• Mark Edwards, of My Dad Is Dead, released a version on Homestead Records Comp, HUMAN MUSIC, in 1989.
• 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.
• Lords of Altamont covered the song on their 2005 album "Lords Have Mercy".
• Steve Earle covered song on the SideTracks release.

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 Academy Award winning film Coming Home.

Other films it has also been used in include:

• Babylon Pink (X-rated film) (1979)
• Bad Dreams (1988)
• Casualties of War (1989)
• The Doors (1991)
• Crooklyn (1994)
• Girl, Interrupted (1999)
• Remember the Titans (2000)
• Riding the Bullet (2004)
• Edison Force (2005)
• Nearing Grace (2005)
• The Zodiac (2006)
• 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
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - "Ellie" (2001)
• Supernatural - "Everybody Loves a Clown" (2006)
• My Name Is Earl - "Monkeys in Space" (2006)

The song was also the title of the first episode of the third season of Grey's Anatomy

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.

It is the current theme song for the PBS series American Experience.