Barry's incoming emails Barry receives an amazing amount of emails. He does read everyone and tries to answer where he can. On this page we're going to start publishing some of the emails Barry has received. There are many many stories from around the world that amaze you and that touch your heart we just wanted to share them with you.
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Incoming emails from you that touched our hearts. Hey, Barry! We are so exhausted and insulted from the wall-to-wall garbage that's being pumped into popular culture that it's simply natural magic that your delivery of that song still has so much power. His mother told me just now that our son had said last night that he "can't accept anything done after 1970, whether in music or in literature." He's a big fan of Yukio Mishima and has excellent taste in books. He is now one more young man with a deep desire for knowledge. We've won one back for humanity. But it's so important for people to discriminate. Don't hurt the economy, as if it were a sentient creature, capable of feeling pain. As far as I recall, when Rolling Stone magazine moved its offices from the East Coast to the West Coast (or maybe the other way around, I don't really give a rat's ass anymore!) popular culture died, in terms of its ability to separate the wheat from the chaff. Now just about everything is deemed to be 'good,' right out of the box. Consumer confidence. I hope you won't misunderstand this next statement, especially as you talk about the Love of Jesus, but it seems to us here that there's not enough hate in the world, not enough negativity, directed at tasteless, spirit-killing junk. It wasn't always that way. I keenly recall that, in the 60s, my friends and I (millions of us, one might say) had utter contempt for certain kinds of popular culture dross. That spirit has taken a dreadful hit; it's been atomized into countless genres and subgroups, just as the masters like it: keeping us down, dumb, and ineffectual. And we go along with it. Fat, dumb, happy campers; nibbling, gorging, guzzling on every front, running on the heavy fuel of sugar, booze, pharmaceuticals; brain-addled with work and debt, in cheap Chinese clothing to the shuffle of even cheaper talk from both sides of the mouths of our great leaders. But to get back to my son. He sometimes asks me, 'Did you hear from Barry? So, I just wanted to make this connection between you two guys official' too! Isn't that extraordinary? A guy like that, with his name in the darn dictionary itself, taking the time to respond privately? Can you imagine? The busiest man on the planet, and still he opens that door every day, takes on the world. Try that with Bill Gates or any of the captains of industry, eh? Now we know who the men of straw are. One has to check things out for oneself; whatever can be shaken shall be shaken and, if nothing remains ofthe myths we've come pre-loaded with, let it be so. I can not top the honor Stephen King gave you by recognizing your song in his novel \'The Stand\'. I can only tell you that your message and the melody of \'Eve of Destruction\' resonates in the heart of my grandchild, born in 2001. Good job! You tried, which is more than most did.From time to time I\'ve always been drawn back to your music, it has tied the loose ends of my life. Thanks Barry - Rick Nebeker I was just reading emails about "Eve Of Destruction", and I had to make my comment. I was young teen when this song came out and I remember thinking it was so great the first time I heard it. I was at a friends house and I can remember to this day my girlfreinds father was in the kitchen ranting about he song and calling the radio station WCAT and having it removed!!!
Being very young, so didn`t understand why the song bothered him so much. He had been in the Service and it offended him somehow as did alot of the "rebel music" as they referred to it back then.
So my recollection of Eve of Destruction was that it was the first "Banned song" on our local radio station.......way to go Barry!!!
I play the song all the time and its one of my "gym songs' on my ipod. Its timeless and wonderful.
God bless you and your ongoing ministry to the world,
Sue Dennis - Wheelwright, MA
This was posted by a fan at an Irish Folk Music Newsgroup.... BARRY MCGUIRE GIG:
An Incoming Review from a Fan of 40 years HI Guys,
Last Friday 1st, August 2008 I went to Rosslare to a gig I've been looking forward to for a very long time. I've been in touch with Barry McGuire for a while now and when he told me he was coming to Ireland.
I got to the hotel about 3:30 p.m.and I was told he was rehearsing. I popped my head around the door and he said for me to come on in.We shook hands and had a quick chat he said if I wasn't busy did I want to sit in while they rehearsed.I sat there for about an hour while they ran through the set for that evening. John York has just started to play with Barry. They were just brushing up some things. We parted and said we would meet later. At around 9:30 p.m. The gig started. It's called Trippin'The Sixties, which is exactly what it is: A fantastic journey through The Sixties and Barry's stories of the singers, groups,writers and events during that great time. He sang songs by Bob Dylan, The Byrds, The Mamas and The Papas, The Lovin' Spoonful, Arlo Guthrie, Tim Hardin, Fred Neil, and Joni Mitchell. Barry asked the audience to sing along and they did.John York, who played with The Byrds many years ago, was magnificent. He is such a fine musician with a unique voice. They played for an hour, had a break and returned to play for almost another hour. The energy this guy has is incredible. The music and stories are great. At the age of 73 I don't know how Barry does it. I almost forgot to say he sang "The Eve of Destruction. " The crowd demanded another and Barry finished off with one of his own songs "Callin' Me Home." Just before that he sang "In My Life, " which for me is the next best version to John Lennon's. The audience loved him. We sat and chatted, signed autographs, photos etc. We met Barry and his wife, Mari, for breakfast in the morning and agreed to keep in touch. He's hoping to come back to Ireland next May 2009. If and when he returns Trippin'The Sixties is a must. It's such a great fun night. Barry is playing this month in Norway, Switzerland, Germany and then back to The U.S. I'll keep you posted about his possible return to Ireland. That's all Folks. Regards Pat M. Spinin' the 60's My "Eve of Destruction" Barry, Dee DeLoy When I was in elementary school in Amarillo, Texas, my mom got me a transistor radio fully equipped with the little ear piece. i loved that little transistor.... it went everywhere with me...especially when I smuggled it to bed every night. It was those nights the music of the day was forever written on my brain. I distinctly remember songs by Chad and Jeremy, Peter and Gordon, the Mamas and Papas, the Beach Boys, the New Christy Minstrels, the Kingston Trio and, of course.... Barry Mcguire.
When I got older in college my mind went to those great tunes again; When I found so many of them in the radio station record racks, I couldn't resist pulling them out and getting the okay by the station manager to start an oldies show I called the Screaming Blue Meanie Show I wrote my own material for the most part and ran the show like a mid 60's radio show....I was playing 45s and albums on the air, so in addition to "Eve of Destruction" I played the song "This Precious Time", "Green, Green," "Sloop John B" and a few others I loved every minute of it. I guess that could be why I now have a record collection of over 8000 albums.... and that's right.... Barry's albums are a part of this. I will tell you the comments I received for the few years I did this show were great. Listeners loved the style of music played. I remember "Eve of Destruction" was a popular song with this demographic of listeners... probably because it spoke the minds of many of the students and professors at my university. God bless....I think I need to go spin an album ... Dee DeLoy
Florida
What Would You Say
If You Met The King? Ask Janice Mahon and She'll Tell You  In 1955, when I was twelve years old, living in West Hempstead, Long Island, New York, I fell in love with Elvis Presley, bought my first Elvis album. I think I paid $2.00 for it. My family lived in a bungalow my father built. In the basement was a recreation room and there was a built-in record player where I played Elvis day and night.
In August of 1956, my parents relocated the family to Buena Park, California. I was so in love with Elvis, I told my parents that I would run away unless we went through Memphis, Tennessee so I could see where Elvis lived. So, my dear old dad rerouted the trip so we could see Memphis. Did I see Graceland? No, but I knew I was close by. I bought Elvis salt and pepper shakers and an Elvis key chain. I was in heaven!
It was a hard time for me. Here I was a Long Islander, with my New York accent, living in Buena Park. We lived a few blocks from Knotts Berry Farm. At night I could hear the seals barking. This was before it became a massive amusement park.
I found some really good friends and settled in. I went to Western High School in Anaheim. One of my closest friends there was Stormie Shirk [ed..she later became known as Stormie O'Martian]. A few years after I graduated from college I went to Knotts Berry Farm to see her. She was working at the Bird Cage Theater. She introduced me to her boyfriend, Steve Martin! Yes, THAT Steve Martin!
When I was in my first year of college, my parents bought a resort cabin in Idlewyld, California, a small town in the mountains above Palm Springs. This was around 1962. I think they paid $7,000 for the cottage, completely furnished. Our next door neighbor was Marjorie Main. She was the old time MGM star of the"Ma and Pa Kettle" series. At the time we lived there, she was completely nuts, totally senile. My mother still has pictures of her, boobs down to there, dressed in shorts and an old shirt. Whenever we pulled into the drive into our cabin, there she was yelling at the top of her lungs "MATTHEW, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" Matthew was my dad. So, where do my rock and roll memories begin here, sort of? Well, when we had our cabin up in Idyllwild, Elvis Presley made a movie up there "Kid Galahad." The entire town of Idlewyld was taken over by the movie studio, the shops in the town were repainted, with new signs put. There was an abandoned camp right in back of our cabin and that is where they set up their makeup headquarters.
So, where do I come in? Miss-little-pissed-off-surfer-chick? At the time I was doing my thing down at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa, doing the "Surfer Stomp" to Dick Dale and the Deltones. I really resented being dragged up to the cabin every weekend. Anyway, one weekend we drove up to Idlewyld, I was only 18 years old, and mad as hell that I couldn't be with my friends at the Rendezvous. My mother said, "Oh look, there is Elvis down the road, let's go say 'hi' to him." So, she dragged me down the road where Elvis was filming, Kid Galahad. So many years later, I could kick myself in the ass. The filming had stopped and my mother said hi to Elvis and I just glared at him! And that is when I met the King! And that is when I met Elvis Presley! Oh lordy, what a fool! So, what happened after that? I still went down to the Rendezvous, but it wasn't the same after that. My Dad, Matthew Mahon, died just a few months after the cabin was sold in 1961. We still don't know why. He was 50. Marjorie Main died of senility. She left an estate of over $10 million with no heirs. One of the reasons my parents sold the cabin off was that she drove them crazy. I told my parents, they should have been kinder to her! LOL And they sold the cabin for $7,000. About 30 years or so ago, I went up to Idlewyld and saw our old cabin, totally restored, probably worth a half million today. My memories at that time revolve around the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa. How much fun we had all those years ago, no alcohol, no drugs, just pure fun! And with regard to Elvis Presley, I am still kicking myself! But who knew?!
"This Summer We Hear the Drumming…." Dennis Doyle Describes This Eye-Witness Account of Kent State
About Kent State: It happened on May 4th 1970, I was attending Kent State Trumbull County Branch in Warren, Ohio. Kent was a party place back then. My birthday was May 3rd. We decided to go there to celebrate. When we arrived, the streets were blocked off. We knew something had to be very wrong.
We went out to my buddy Tom's place in the country. We made a bonfire, sat around, drank beers and talked about what was going on at Kent.
The next day we decided to go back to find out what was happening. We found a place where people were gathered together, so we hung with them. Suddenly, I heard someone in the crowd shouting something about 'off-campus pigs.' I saw this young couple with revolutionary patches wrapped around their arms. They were standing on top of this huge red brick outdoor fireplace that could have been used for a major cook-out. They were exciting the crowd with shouts and calls. "Pigs!" They'd yell. Most of us had no clue what was going on.
Next, we heard the National Guard's call to disperse. Rocks were being thrown back and forth by the National Guard and the crowd. Then the Guard shot tear gas into the crowd. We all just stayed together. We acted like sheep, following each other through the fog and haze. Then, they followed us, walked up a hill, turned and fired. We thought it was tear gas so we didn't jump, but we heard someone yell that they were using real guns. We ran at a very high speed, we did not see the people go down because we were at least 20 rows back. As we ran through the parking lot, bullets were being fired into the window of the cars next to us. We were in shock. What just happened? We said," They can't get away with this." But they did. "Four Dead in Ohio" Neil Young
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Let us Know! We'd love to hear your story! Where were you when JFK was Shot, The Lunar landing, do you have an eye witness account of something? We'd love to hear how 'Eve' or Barry's music has touched your life. Contact Barry direct:
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