In any case, both Sloan and McGuire were chasing Bob Dylan, whoвЂ™d emerged as a ferocious cultural force. Six years after вЂњEve Of Destruction,вЂќ McGuire became a born-again Christian and helped to pioneer the then-underground Christian rock phenomenon. McGuire sang on a couple of that groupвЂ™s hits before going solo in 1965. Soon enough, he joined the New Christy Minstrels, the folk institution that also helped launch the careers of Kenny Rogers, the ByrdsвЂ™ Gene Clark, and the вЂњBette Davis EyesвЂќ singer Kim Carnes. Born in Oklahoma and raised in California, McGuire had worked as a commercial fisherman and a pipe-fitter before falling into the coffeehouse scene. McGuire, on the other hand, had come from folk-music circles - but folk-pop circles, the kind that produced some deeply cheesy early-вЂ™60s pop music. He was trying to wrote hits, and with вЂњEve Of Destruction,вЂќ he had one. Sloan later complained that вЂњEve Of DestructionвЂќ ruined both his career and that of McGuire, but he was a career cog in the pop-music machine. Later on, Sloan wrote вЂњSecret Agent ManвЂќ for Johnny Rivers and вЂњA Must To AvoidвЂќ for HermanвЂ™s Hermits. They did record a version of the song, but McGuireвЂ™s take on it, recorded soon afterward, turned out to be the one that stuck. He also offered it to the Turtles, who recorded a lot of the songs that the Byrds rejected. (Sloan plays guitar on McGuireвЂ™s version of вЂњEve Of Destruction,вЂќ and Hal Blaine, the Wrecking CrewвЂ™s ace drummer, also plays.) Sloan had offered вЂњEve Of DestructionвЂќ to the Byrds, who passed. Sloan was a former sideman for surf-pop stars Jan & Dean and a minor member of the LA session-musician collective who later became known as the Wrecking Crew. Looking at the songвЂ™s context today, though, itвЂ™s pretty striking to realize that this thing was a pop product the whole time. ItвЂ™s more of a world-is-fucked-up song - a litany of ills, some of them entirely timeless: вЂњHate your next-door neighbor, but donвЂ™t forget to say grace.вЂќ In a world that was changing faster than anyone could comprehend, itвЂ™s a cathartic venting of grievances. McGuire never actively calls for change, for marching in the streets. вЂњEve Of DestructionвЂќ isnвЂ™t exactly a protest song.

The song compares вЂњSelma, AlabamaвЂќ to вЂњall the hate that there is in Red ChinaвЂќ and puts forward the idea that вЂњmarches alone canвЂ™t bring integration.вЂќ ItвЂ™s directed at the young people who were becoming victims of the war: вЂњYouвЂ™re old enough to kill, but not for votinвЂ™ / You donвЂ™t believe in war, whatвЂ™s that gun youвЂ™re totinвЂ™?вЂќ (At the time, the voting age was 21 the 26th Amendment changed that in 1971.) The song also extends that lament of cruelty to the Civil Rights struggle in America, something that no #1 song had done explicitly. In a strained and raw voice, Barry McGuire surveys a climate where nothing made sense, where it looked like the world was falling apart: вЂњThe human world is disintegratinвЂ™ / This whole crazy world is just too frustratinвЂ™.вЂќ He never mentions Vietnam by name, but the whole song is clearly informed by it.

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