Time Has Come Today!

The Chambers Brothers - The Time Has Come
COLUMBIA Records - CL 2722 - 1967

Side A
All Strung Out Over You
People Get Ready
I Can't Stand It
Romeo And Juliet
In The Midnight Hour
So Tired

Side B
Uptown
Please Don't Leave Me
What The World Needs Now Is Love
Time Has Come Today

By 1967 when the Chambers Brothers recorded this, their third album, they had been performing together for twelve years. Up until this point their music was mostly gospel based and they enjoyed a lot of popularity on the folk circuit and had recorded two albums for Vault Records (blog post to come). However, when they signed to Columbia their music shifted away from the folk scene to land smack in the middle of the burgeoning psychedelic scene of the 'Summer Of Love'.

The album is a fantastic mix of soul and psychedelic rock with covers of soul and pop hits as well as their own tunes. Storming soul tracks, such as 'All Strung Out Over You', 'The Midnight Hour' and 'I Can't Stand It' are interspersed with tracks that hark back to their gospel roots, including a beautiful version of 'People Get Ready'. But it is the last track on the album, the epic 'Time Has Come Today', that this album is most remembered for. At just over 11 minutes long this psychedelic opus has everything you could possibly want in a psychedelic record. The alternate striking of cowbells creates a tick-tock effect running through the whole track, with the edition of phasing, distortion, echo, fuzz guitars, screaming, manic laughing and a widely varying tempo it's quite disconcerting. There's even a few bars of 'Little Drummer Boy' in there. There are few records more psychedelic.

'The Time Has Come' is much more than just a vehicle for 'Time Has Come Today' though, it works very well as an album and stands many, many listens. It remains one of my all time favourites. So marvel at the beauty of 'People Get Ready', groove to 'I Can't Stand It' then prepare to have your soul psychedelicised by 'Time Has Come Today'........

Galactic Zoo Dossier

Kingdom Come - Galactic Zoo Dossier - 1971
POLYDOR Records - 2310 130 - Including Poster/Lyric Sheet

Included Poster

Side A
Internal Messenger
Space Plucks
Galactic Zoo
Metal Monster
Simple Man
Night of The Pigs
Sunrise

Side B
Trouble
Brains
Galactic Zoo (continued)
Space Plucks (continued)
Galactic Zoo (continued)
Creep
Creation
Gypsy Escape
No Time


When The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown imploded in 1969, Arthur retreated to rural Dorset dismayed at the commercial trappings of pop success. During this time he made experimental free form music, none of which was released at the time. But in 1971 he was back and offered the record buying public his latest creation 'Galactic Zoo Dossier' with his new band Kingdom Come. Unlike The Crazy World, Kingdom Come used guitars and were much heavier in sound and content. The music is very dark indeed, with Arthur taking inspiration from the political world around him, the failure of the 'peace & love' philosophy and the cracking down on counter culture by the establishment.

On stage Arthur kept the make up and theatrics of The Crazy World but took them further. Often appearing on stage on a crucifix (see poster above) and I've heard tales of him being lowered on to the stage on the cross from a helicopter! The God Of Hellfire had truly returned.

Witness Arthur and Kingdom Come blow the minds of the crowd at Glastonbury Fayre in 1971 with 'Internal Messenger'.....

Witchcraft Destroys Minds And Reaps Souls

Coven - Witchcraft Destroys Minds And Reaps Souls
AKARMA Records - 2003 - Original Release MERCURY Records - 1969

Side A
Black Sabbath
White Witch Of Rose Hall
Coven In Charing Cross
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
Pact With Lucifer
Choke, Thirst, Die

Side B
Wicked Woman
Dignitaries Of Hell
Portrait
Satanic Mass

Since the 1970's black magic and occult themes are commonplace in rock music, but in the late 60's, Chicago's Coven were pioneers. 'Witchcraft Destroys Minds And Reaps Souls' was their debut album and contains many firsts. It is claimed that this is the first album to depict the sign of the devil horns and inverted crosses and to use the phrase "Hail, Satan" (how many metal bands owe them a debt?). While many bands of the era would use occult and black magic themes as an image it would appear Coven were the real deal. The album and their stage act courted controversy causing tours to be cancelled and the record banned in many places. The album came with a poster depicting the band conducting Satanic rites over a naked woman (lead singer Jinx?) on an alter with the lyrics to the songs and occult symbols on the reverse. The B side of the album features a 13 minute Satanic mass, another first I think, the words to which are on the lyric sheet should you want to join in.

An in-depth interview with lead singer Jinx Dawson can be found here, it's an interesting read.

The music is great, not early heavy metal as you might expect, but good psychedelic rock albeit with rather different subject matter. That said the Satanic Mass doesn't stand too many listenings. The full album can be heard on Spotify here and here's a YouTube clip of 'Black Sabbath:.......

Their Satanic Majesties Request

The Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesties Request - 1967

Tracks:
01 - Sing This All Together
02 - Citadel
03 - In Another Land
04 - 2000 Man
05 - Sing This All Together (See What Happens)
06 - She's A Rainbow
07 - The Lantern
08 - Gomper
09 - 2000 Light Years From Home
10 - On With The Show

If ever there was an underrated album this is it. For some reason this album is almost universally considered the Rolling Stones misguided venture into psychedelia and best forgotten about. Even Keith Richards in his autobiography dismisses it. As much as I hate to disagree with Keith, the album's detractors are wrong this is a great album far better than a lot of it's contemporaries, Sgt. Pepper's included. It's long been one of my favourites and when DJing psychedelic nights I always took it along and played 'Citadel' and '2000 Light Years From Home' and they never emptied a dance floor. Rather than being an album cashing in on the latest fad, this is the Stones bending psychedelia to suit their style. If you remove the studio trickery (not that there's much) it's not that different from anything else they were releasing at the time, which are considered classics. I would go so far as to say that '2000 Light Years From Home' is one of the best songs they ever wrote.

So it's time to ignore any preconceptions and give this album another listen and the credit it's due. Listened to it on Spotify here, play loud!

Escalator

Sam Gopal - Escalator - STABLE - 1969

Tracks:
01 - Cold Embrace
02 - The Dark Lord
03 - The Sky Is Burning
04 - You're Alone Now
05 - Grass
06 - It's Only Love
07 - Escalator
08 - Angry Faces
09 - Midsummer Nights Dream
10 - Season Of The Witch
11 - Yesterlove

Bonus Tracks:
12 - Horse (A-side STABLE STA 5602)
13 - Back Door Man (B-side STABLE STA 5602)

Sam Gopal was a British underground psychedelic band that featured Lemmy (billed as Ian Willis) on lead guitar and vocals. The band were unique in that instead of traditional drums they had a tabla, played by Sam Gopal who the band was named after. Only this album, one single and a very rare EP were released before they spilt up. Lemmy then went one to form very the short lived Opal Butterfly before joining Hawkwind.

The tabla gives the the album an Eastern flavour but the dark lyrics of many of the songs (mostly penned by Lemmy) give it a very 'heavy' feel. It also contains a very good version of Donovan's 'Season Of The Witch'. Listen to the full album on Spotify here and enjoy the promo video for 'Sky Is Burning' below......