Are you ready (The Chambers Brothers) (LP 4245 - 4247)

The Chambers Brothers   New Generation (Vinyl, Columbia Records, 1971) ****   

The Chambers Brothers   The Chambers Brothers' Greatest Hits (Vinyl, Columbia Records, 1971) ****  

The Chambers Brothers  Unbonded (Vinyl, Avco Records, 1974) ****  

Genre: Soul, Psychedelic soul 

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Are You Ready (New Generation)

Gear costume: Time Has Come Today (Greatest Hits)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7

Active compensatory factors: I fell for The Chambers Brothers when I spied the cover to New Generation while working at Marbecks Records. A new shipment of American imports had arrived and needed shelving. New Generation stood out and so did Are You Ready? when I played it.

It comes across like a soul band wanting to be The Allman Brothers Band. I was sold! Funky, soulful, rocking - that's The Chambers Brothers.

The band had a history that I was initially unaware of which is why I've included a compilation - The Chambers Brothers' Greatest Hits.

The four Chambers brothers - George (bass), Joe (guitar), Lester (harp), Willie (guitar) were joined in the band by pakeha drummer Brian Keenan. The Greatest Hits album includes their first 'hit' - an edited version of the eleven-minute version of Time Has Come Today - an extraordinary song from 1968 which is on Greatest Hits in its full form.

Unbonded is an excellent covers album, with some surprising pop/rock selections like The Weight, Good Vibrations, and Do You Believe In Magic? adding to the R&B/ soul covers.

Where do they all belong? Always keen to add to my Chambers Brothers collection.