Eve Of Destruction

For a 13 year old living in Canada the Viet Nam war was not something top of mind for me. But I was into music and in 1965 a guy named Barry McGuire began to climb the charts with a tune called Eve of Destruction.

The song was everywhere. It was on the radio. My buds and I used to sing it. And McGuire performed it on every television music show beamed into my rec room.

McGuire was a member of the New Christy Minstrels, an American folk-singing outfit, and had co-written their hit Green, Green. He left the group in 1965, laid down the vocal track to the P.F. Sloan written Eve of Destruction and before the record producers had a chance to clean the track up it was leaked and started to get airplay.

McGuire was fortunate. The song was first offered to the Byrds, who turned it down.

Funnily enough, in the 70s McGuire became a born-again Christian and for the longest time refused to sing the song again. In the 60s, however, it was the anthem of a generation.

Barry McGuire - Eve Of Destruction
par scootaway