‘An Aid to the Enemy’: Barry McGuire’s ‘Eve of Destruction’
‘200 Greatest 60s Rock Songs’ Book Excerpt
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“Eve of Destruction,” written by P. F. Sloan, is a protest song that indicted the country for the Vietnam War abroad and racism at home. The song was offered to the Byrds, who turned it down, and then recorded by the Turtles for their 1965 debut album It Ain’t Me Babe.
Sloan explained on his website that Barry McGuire of the folk group The New Christy Minstrels was next to record “Eve of Destruction” later in 1965.
Barry McGuire had just left the group and was on his own and looking for material to record. He wound up at my publishing company and he was told there was a quirky songwriter he might want to listen to. Now, Barry didn’t like the song ‘Eve of Destruction’ that much. He liked a few other songs of mine better. One in particular called ‘What’s Exactly the Matter With Me,’ which originally was the A-side of the record.
When he was ready to record he picked four songs and ‘Eve’ was the fourth to be recorded, if there was time. If you listen to the recording he’s rushing singing through the lyric because of the time constraints and he was reading it for the first time off a piece of paper I had written the lyric on!
Okay. McGuire’s record is released but ‘Eve’ is the B-side. Somewhere in the Great Midwest of America a DJ played the wrong side by mistake! So as you can see, when people had written that this song was some calculated idea on how to capitalize on the emerging folk scene, it’s simply BS. Honest to God that’s what happened and how the song got played.
Some radio stations forbid playing the song as “an aid to the enemy in Vietnam.” ABC Radio banned the record from its network stations; WIND-AM Chicago program director Jack Williams called the lyrics “sick . . . not the sort of record we want to play for our audience.
The media headlined the song as everything that is wrong with the youth culture,” wrote Sloan. “The United States felt under threat. So any positive press on me or Barry was considered unpatriotic.
The song inspired a response song from the Spokesmen, a conservative group that released “The Dawn of Correction.”
Despite the censorship, “Eve of Destruction” reached №1 in 1965, but it would be the last record of McGuire’s to make the Top 40.
“Some report said, ‘Whatever McGuire comes up with next, don’t play it,’ the singer told Classic Bands. “‘We can’t have this anymore. He’s a loose cannon in the music business, so don’t play whatever he comes out with.’”
“It’s just as well I didn’t get another hit tune,” McGuire said on his website. “I would have gone the way of Jim Morrison, Hendrix, or Joplin. I say ‘Thank God,’ and I do thank God for that, too, because I wouldn’t have survived.
“I came up with some great tunes after ‘Eve of Destruction,’ and none of them happened, and I couldn’t figure out what was going on. But I’m sure glad nothing did because I would have been history by now.”
Frank Mastropolo is the author of the 200 Greatest Rock Songs series and Fillmore East: The Venue That Changed Rock Music Forever.
