Day 5 - "The Eve of Destruction" by Barry McGuire (1965)

You're old enough to kill, but not for votin'/ You don't believe in war, but what's that gun you're totin'/And even the Jordan River has bodies floatin'...

 

If the 1950s saw a mixture of righteous “Americanism” and increasing Evangelical influence over popular American culture, the 1960s saw the start of a sea-change as the first stirrings of the counter-culture and protest movements began to make themselves evident in the early 1960s. With the rise of the Civil Rights movement it became increasingly common for the Left to openly critique the oppression which formed a central part of much of white American life, while the brinkmanship of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis had focused minds on the possibility that governments would plunge the world into nuclear war. At the cinema, movies like the satirical Dr Strangelove and straight-laced Fail Safe (bother 1964) portrayed the insanity of worlds in which the madness of human beings, or the malfunctioning of machines led to accidental nuclear destruction. 

This trend for criticism was also expressed in popular music. Bob Dylan’s “Talkin’ World War III Blues” (1963) was a darkly satirical take on the possibly of a war that “started at 3 O’Clock fast/ It was all over by quarter past”. Having had a dream about such a war, Dylan goes to visit his Doctor, where he is promptly declared insane. The punchline comes after Dylan has explained the nightmare post-apocalyptic scenario he faces in his dream (including being mistaken for a Communist) to the medic: 

Well, the doctor interrupted me just about then
Sayin’, “Hey I’ve been havin’ the same old dreams
But mine was a little different you see
I dreamt that the only person left after the war was me
I didn’t see you around"

Well, now time passed and now it seems
Everybody’s having them dreams
Everybody sees themselves
Walkin’ around with no one else

In a society driven mad by the prospect of nuclear war, Dylan implies, we’re all caught up with the fantasy that we’ll be the “last man”. 

Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction” is more upfront in its criticism of mid-sixties America. Originally conceived as a song in the “Dylan style” for the Byrds, it was recorded by a number of artists in 1965 before it was given to Barry McGuire, a folk rocker (and once of the fantastically named duo “Barry and Barry”), who made it a number one hit. P.F. Sloan’s lyrics, which don’t pull their punches, attack an America which was making soldiers of its young men, staring nuclear destruction in the face, and condemning other countries for injustice while indulging in blatant racism (Think of all the hate there is in Red China/ Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama). Despite its controversial material, the song was hugely popular in the US, but it proved to be McGuire's only hit. Despite later work with the Mamas and Papas, he nearly dropped out of the industry, before converting to Evangelical Christianity and becoming one of the pioneers of Christian rock. 

The lyrics to "Eve of Destruction" might suggest that Americans were ready to take a sudden left turn in their politics. But as we’ll see tomorrow, the right wing were ready to strike back, with their very own folk crusaders...

Eve of Destruction (P.F. Sloan, 1965)

The eastern world, it is exploding
Violence flarin', bullets loadin'
You're old enough to kill, but not for votin'
You don't believe in war, but what's that gun you're totin'
And even the Jordan River has bodies floatin'

But you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don't believe
We're on the eve
of destruction.

Don't you understand what I'm tryin' to say
Can't you feel the fears I'm feelin' today?
If the button is pushed, there's no runnin' away
There'll be no one to save, with the world in a grave
(Take a look around ya boy, it's bound to scare ya boy)

And you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don't believe
We're on the eve
of destruction.

Yeah, my blood's so mad feels like coagulatin'
I'm sitting here just contemplatin'
I can't twist the truth, it knows no regulation.
Handful of senators don't pass legislation
And marches alone can't bring integration
When human respect is disintegratin'
This whole crazy world is just too frustratin'

And you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don't believe
We're on the eve
of destruction.

Think of all the hate there is in Red China
Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama
You may leave here for 4 days in space
But when you return, it's the same old place
The poundin' of the drums, the pride and disgrace
You can bury your dead, but don't leave a trace
Hate your next-door neighbour, but don't forget to say grace
And, tell me over and over and over and over again, my friend
You don't believe
We're on the eve
Of destruction
Mmm, no no, you don't believe
We're on the eve
of destruction.

Listen on Spotify: Apopalypse: Apocalyptic Advent Calendar

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