Eve of Destruction

"Eve of Destructionwas recorded in the last 20 minutes of a three-hour recording session.  We’d already done two songs and Lou said the third one sounded too much like the first one, so he wanted to do something else .

Phil had given me a page from his songbook, with his hand-written lyrics to Eve. I’d been carrying it around in my back pocket for the last two weeks and the paper was all folded and wrinkly.  I pulled it out of my pocket and said, “Hey, how about we do this song, I really like what it has to say.”  I smoothed out all the folds and wrinkles and put Phil’s lyric sheet on my little music stand over in the corner.

The musicians ran through the tune, (4 chords), a couple of times.  Our engineer, Bones Howe said, “OK, we’re recording.”   He hit the red button and history happened.  One take, that’s all we got, we were out of time.  We listened to the playback; I had missed the last note in the song.  We did a quick fix and we were done.  I wanted to redo the whole vocal track but there was a band out in the hall waiting to get into the studio, so that was it.  If you listen to the third verse you will hear me going, “Aaaah you can’t twist the truth,” (one of my favorite lines in the song) and the reason I’m going “aaaah” is because I had lost my place on the wrinkly paper.  I thought we could come back next week and re-record the vocal but it never happened". -Barry

Some Triva about Eve

The accompanying musicians were top-tier LA session men: P.F. Sloan on guitar, Hal Blain on Drums and Larry Knechtel on bass. The vocal track was thrown on as a rough mix and was not intended to be the final version, but a copy of the recording "leaked" out to a DJ, who began playing it. The song was an instant hit and as a result the more polished vocal track that was at first envisioned was never recorded.

In the first week of its release, the single was at number thirty on thecharts. Within 3 weeks the song was Number One around the world.

  

 

Barry McGuire
"When world events collide with 'Rock & Roll' you get Barry McGuire" - Dick Clark

Barry McGuire stepped into the public eye in 1962 on the Andy Williams Show as the gravelly voiced lead singer of The New Christy Minstrels.  He launched his musical career with the million-sellers “Green Green” and “Green Back Dollar".

In 1965, at the heart of the peace movement, McGuire went solo.  His growing awareness of social hypocrisy was expressed in his third hit “Eve of Destruction” which echoed around the world as an anthem of the times.
Three years later, Barry was cast as the male lead in the original Broadway production of  “Hair.”  Once again his voice was heard proclaiming the ideals of a radical generation.  Dick Clark says, “When world events collide with “Rock & Roll”, you get Barry McGuire.”

In the early ’70s Barry’s life took a new direction.  Having found the answer to his own personal  “Eve of Destruction”, as he describes it, “by stumbling into the fullness of truth”, he left Hollywood and set out to do whatever he could to bring about positive change.

In the ‘80s Barry answering a call from World Vision in New Zealand, sang with more than twenty thousand children from over four hundred elementary schools in 57 different cities.  These concerts generated nearly two thousand sponsors for third-world children.

Over the last 57 years Barry has averaged around a 100 shows a year sharing the stage with everyone from Sammy Davis Jr., Andy Williams, Al Hirt, Jonathan Winters, Andy Griffith and Pete Fountain to Roger McGuinn, John and Michelle Phillips, Cass Elliott, Denny Doherty, Bob Gibson, The Rolling Stones, David Crosby, Gene Clark and Kenny Rogers…., the list goes on and on.  During these years Barry recorded more than 40 albums.

Barry is currently touring his Trippin' the 60's show around the world. A new album, DVD and Television Special are also in the making.

 

 

  

John York joins Barry McGuire on Trippin' the 60s

John was a member of The Byrds, well known for "Turn Turn Turn" and "Mr. Tamborine Man".

John has played with a host of musicians and bands and brings a unique influence and humour to the Trippin' the 60's shows.

Check John's music and web site