Willie Chambers (born March 3, 1938) – Love, Peace and Happiness (1969)

The great Chambers Brothers guitarist co-wrote their 1968 classic Time Has Come Today and this epic unity anthem that should have been another hit for them.

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Willie Chambers is one of the founding members of the Chambers Brothers, and co-wrote their 1968 classic “Time Has Come Today.”

Born and raised in Mississippi, the four Chambers brothers learned to sing in the choir at their Baptist church. After George was drafted in 1952, he moved to Los Angeles after his discharge and his brothers followed him. There, they formed their own group featuring George (on bass), Lester (harmonica and lead vocals), and Willie and Joe (both on guitar). In 1965 they added drummer Brian Keenan.

They started out playing the gospel circuit around Southern California, and eventually coffeehouses and clubs in Los Angeles where folk music was gaining popularity. When they toured with Barbara Dane, she introduced them to Pete Seeger, who got them onto the lineup of the July, 1965 Newport Folk Festival. That weekend is best remembered for the mixed reception Bob Dylan received when he performed for the first time with a fully electric backing band, and was booed by some folk purists.

But the crowd reacted differently to the Chambers Brothers who also performed with electric guitars. According to Joe in a 1994 interview, people broke down fences and rushed to the stage once they began playing. “Newport had never seen or heard anything like that.” One of their songs, “I Got It” was included on the festival’s live LP from that year, released on Vanguard.

The group’s debut LP was released in early 1966 on Los Angeles-based Vault Records. People Get Ready was recorded live at the Ash Grove in L.A. and the Unicorn in Boston. “Call Me,” which Willie and Joe co-wrote, was released as the B-side to their haunting non-LP single “Seventeen,” written by Joe.

Their appearance at Newport got them signed to Columbia Records. The first single they released on that label in 1966 was an early version of “Time Has Come Today.” Co-written by Willie and Joe and produced by Dave Rubinson, it had a raw, powerful sound.

Two years later, the version they re-recorded for their first Columbia album would prove to be a massive hit, spending six weeks in the fall of 1968 at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming one of the decade’s iconic songs.

According to West Coast drummer Bill Forbes, however, the true original version of the song was recorded without the psychedelic touches that made it so memorable. In 2022, he posted the following comment on YouTube:

“There was an even earlier version of the song that had none of the psychedelic vibe. Willie Chambers gave a copy of it to a friend named Brett McMichael, who in turn played it for a band of his friends…Terry Turner (keys, guitar), Bill Forbes (drums - me), Michael Oakley (bass), and Dale Griffin (guitar). They liked the psychedelic stuff we were jamming, and wanted to see if we could improve the song. So actually, we did, and the result was similar to what they later recorded. We spent some time at the Chambers Brothers house in LA's Crenshaw District, listening to Lester Chambers do his Wolfman Jack (a popular pirate radio DJ at the time) impressions through the house-wide speaker system, and trying to see if banana peels actually could be smoked to get high! We had no clue, because it was probably the interspersed pot that did it! We never got credit for our contribution to the song, but we were fans and didn't care. We were just happy to be a part of it. This is a true story that has never been publicly told. I wish I could find that pre 1966 45 record that we first heard!”

On their second Columbia single “All Strung Out Over You” (1966), Willie wrote the B-side’s rockin’ jam “Falling In Love.”

As they were recording their debut Columbia album Time Has Come Today during 1966-67, they kept up a steady touring schedule. One of their sets at New York’s Bitter End was taped during 1967, including the album’s upcoming track “Uptown (to Harlem).”

It written by the great singer/songwriter Betty Davis, her first major songwriting credit. Two years later, they performed it live at the legendary Harlem Cultural Festival in the summer of 1969, as featured in the trailer for Questlove’s Oscar-winning 2021 documentary Summer of Soul.

The Time Has Come Today LP came out in November, 1967. Airplay of its title track sent the album steadily climbing the charts, peaking in the top ten by the end of 1968. Sometime around 1967-68, they taped a stellar live performance of “People Get Ready” that was distributed to local TV stations as a promotional video.

For their follow up album A New Time, A New Day (1968), Willie wrote two songs, one of which was the superb bluesy jam “You Got The Power - To Turn Me On.” The LP hit #16 on the Billboard 200.

The next year they released the double album Love, Peace and Happiness (1969), one side of which was recorded live. The title track was an epic, three part, 16-minute long socially conscious unity jam, co-written by the entire group. Issued as a single with an edited version on January 20, 1970, this phenomenal track inexplicably stalled out at #96 on the Hot 100.

It may have been a victim of bad timing, dropping barely a month after the violence-plagued Altamont Speedway festival and the arrest of Charles Manson and his followers for the Tate-LaBianca murders. Both events dominated headlines at the time and were widely seen as nails in the coffin for the counterculture’s peace and love ethos. The LP itself peaked at #58 on the the Billboard 200, although it did hit #17 on the R&B album charts.

Lester Chambers and his son Dylan joined the rock group Moonalice in 2021, featuring former Jefferson Starship member Pete Sears and former members of the San Francisco band the Flying Other Brothers. Last year they released a new version of “Love, Peace and Happiness.”

Happy Birthday to the living legend Willie Chambers.

Further info:

“Willie Chambers of The Chambers Brothers,” interview, Songfacts, January 3, 2018.

“Interview: Willie Chambers of the Chambers Brothers,” Psychedelic Scene, November 17, 2022.

#soul #funk #TheChambersBrothers #WillieChambers