“Eve of Destruction” A Love Song? Hardly! “Eve of Destruction began as a 19 year olds musings on the state of the world and the mood in the country after John Kennedy assassination in late 1963. Phillip Schlein(Known professionally as PF Sloan) loved to write poetry which he used like a diary of sorts to chronicle his feelings on any particular day. Sloan was prone to vast mood swings which had a profound effect on his interpersonal relationships, especially with the people he worked with in his role as a songwriter, musician, and record producer. As he read through his poem: “The eastern world, it is exploding Violence flarin, bullets loadin Youre old enough to kill, but not for votin You dont believe in war, but whats that gun youre totin And even the Jordan River has bodies floatin While he read the descriptive words he also heard a melody in his head; picking up his old Gibson flattop that never left his 2 room apartment, he played his favorite (D) chord and the poem magically transformed into a song complete with a middle 8(Chorus). He was excited about what he had just created and picked up the phone to call his sometime writing partner, Steve Barri. Barri answered after about 10 rings, “Steve, man listen to this. I just wrote it tonight.” Barri rubbed his eyes, “Man, its 4:30AM. Couldnt this wait till tomorrow?” Sloan began the chords and sang the song all the way through then asked, “What do ya think?” Steve said that it was a pretty radical change from what they were doing with the surf thing. Phillip was excited saying that it was a true representation of the world at that moment. He exclaimed, “ Its gonna wake a lot of people up to whats going on in this country. Kennedy dead, Blacks beat up by cops because they want to go to school. Itll bring the country to its senses.” Steve Barri yawned and hung up the phone. As he walked back to his cot in the corner of the West Hollywood apartment he shared with 2 strangers he said to himself, “ Jesus....now that I think of it, this is going to be trouble. I hope he forgets about the whole thing before tomorrow.” Steve Barri was right, the song “Eve of Destruction would be just that. Trouble. The story of the song, Eve of Destruction cannot be told without telling the story of the two people involved in putting it out to the public at large. Those two musicians, at differing points in their career, would be forever connected by this “Protest Song” that stirred up a backlash that is still talked about to this day. Enter the characters: PF Sloan and Barry McGuire. The songs creator, PF Sloan was a child prodigy. Philip was born in New York on September 18, 1945, but his parents moved the family to Los Angeles during the summer of 1957. Philip was a quiet kid with a tendency to mood swings which seemed to be dependent on what was going on in his life. His father wanted to give him something to occupy his time at home, so it was off to the Sears Roebuck to buy him a guitar. The boy taught himself to play, learned all the complex chords, then at 13 years old he was writing complete songs. Everyone who heard him play was amazed at the depth of his talents. When he turned 15 he was hired by a music publisher in LA to record demos for them...plete demos. It was during this period that he met his future collaborator, Steve Barri. Barri and Sloan began working as session musicians and landed a gig with Jan and Dean as backup singers in the studio. It is Sloans high voice on their hit, “Little Old Lady From Pasadena”. The duo started their own surf group they called, The Fantastic Baggys, and had a few minor hits like “Tell Em Im Surfin” and “Summer Means Fun”. The two young songwriters also worked on their own. Barri wrote pop/love songs while Sloan s work was a bit more introspective. Not that Philip couldnt write in a lighter vein, he preferred to use his own emotions as a base or theme to write from. The poem turned protest song he wrote in late 1964 was something he was especially proud of back then. But he was profoundly disappointed in the response he received when he tried to get it recorded. The group he felt would jump on it, The Byrds, passed on it right away saying it wasnt commercial enough. The second group, a converted surf group called the Crossfires who now went by the name, The Turtles, felt it was a bit radical and chose to record a watered down version leaning more to pop than the hard edge Sloan was looking for. Finally in early 1965 PF did find someone who would record it as he wanted it recorded....ex- New Christy Minstrel, Barry McGuire. Barry McGuire like PF Sloan was not a native Californian, he was actually born in Oklahoma on October 15, 1935. When he was just 2 years old, his family relocated to Pasadena and Barry grew up a tough kid with a fascination for music. As a teenager he started singing his own brand of Folk songs in the many clubs in Pasadena then progressed up to LA. While singing in a duo at the famous Troubadour club he was invited to join the established, New Christy Minstrels. While McGuire was a part of the Minstrels, he co-wrote their first and only universal hit, “Green Green”. But Barry soon tired of the folk crowd and wanted to do something more meaningful; it was around this time that he signed on with Dunhill Records and met the dark young genius, PF Sloan. Sloan was to be involved in Barrys first records for the label and suggested that McGuire try his protest song. The track was recorded on July 15, 1965 at Goldstar in Hollywood. Barry did one take on the vocal, reading the lyrics from crumpled piece of paper. The song was released a week later and the result was both great and a disaster. “Eve of Destruction” with its dark message and brooding lyrics touched a nerve in Americas teen population. It was a time of civil unrest in some of the major cities and the Vietnam War was starting to take young people from their homes to fight a war they felt detached from. The McGuire single flew up the charts to a solid #1, but the Conservative backlash started immediately. Many patriotic radio stations in the South refused to play the song, and McGuire and PF Sloan were threatened with law suits and physical abuse. “So much for free speech!” Sloan relied in an interview that turned out to be the last on the subject. Both PF Sloan and Barry McGuire were damaged career-wise from the songs success. Both became outsiders and both eventually retreated from the firestorm and put their musical careers aside. PF went back with Steve Barri to work on pop songs for the Grassroots and Turtles while Barry McGuire went on to Christian music and left “Eve of Destruction “ and all it represented behind. “Eve of Destruction” is still a special song that predicted the horrors of not only Vietnam but the Black Mans fight for equality in the supposed, “Land of The Free”. For some people back in the 60s; they didnt want the mistakes of government visited on the kids they might want to draft in the near future.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 06:01:10 +0000
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