It was called the biggest protest song ever.
It was performed by Barry McGuire and written by P.F. Sloan who said this about it: “a prayer to God in the form of a poem, begging for clarity and understanding about the state of the world, teetering on the edge. I didn’t want to live in this world where hatred and hypocrisy overruled love and beauty. The music came as an afterthought.”
It was released as a shocker to the world in 1965. It was called “Eve of Destruction.”
If you’re not familiar with it, you can listen to an early form of the song, long before MTV, captured with the original raw chart here.
Here are the first few lyrics:
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.
All the lyrics are available here.
What were people worried about in 1965? A year earlier, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law, with the help nearly all Republicans, a bill that prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal. It was the most sweeping pieces civil rights legislation since Reconstruction.
We were amazed at the New York’s World’s Fair that had attracted some 51,607,307 people from all over the globe for an event called “Peace through Understanding.”
Yes, we had a war we were fighting in Vietnam, but when did America not have one?
Why were we, in 1965, on the “the eve of destruction”?
Did we still uphold the First Amendment in 1965? Yes.
Did we still uphold the Second Amendment in 1965? Yes.
Did government honor at least most of the of our rights delineated in 1965? Yes.
Did you ever think we would live without free elections in America?
Now it’s beginning to look like the Lord Himself may have to do something.
I was just a kid growing up in 1965. That was the best time of our lives. Now, this is survival time. I fear for the lives of my children and grandchildren. When are we going to wake up? Will we ever wake up?
I’m fearful for what is coming. Even so, I trust in the Lord. Come, Jesus, come quickly.
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