Message from Barry McGuire and Todd Smallwood
by Todd & the others
"Eve of Destruction" was really just pointing out the hypocrisy of our society; the spiritual, political, military, industrial and social hypocrisy. "You hate your next door neighbor...You're old enough to kill, but not for voting." Nobody was asking any questions and the song was filled with questions. No answers, just questions. Well, it was labeled a 'protest song', and I thought, "Well, that's silly. It's not a protest song, it's a diagnostic song." If you go to a doctor and he tells you that you have cancer, do you call him a 'protest doctor'? That's what "Eve of Destruction" was, a diagnostic of societal hypocrisy. - B. McGuire
BARRY WRITES:
“Barry McGuire here. Todd Smallwood and I have just re-recorded Eve of Destruction along with Roger McGuinn, (The Byrds) and Mick Fleetwood, (Fleetwood Mac).
Our new title for the tune is Eve 2.1 (Eve of Destruction).
Today, July 21st, marks the 43rd anniversary of the original release date, and tragically the song seems to be more valid today than it was back in ’65 when I first recorded it.
We want to thank Vic Frederick at KKZX in Spokane and Jim Ladd and Wesley Roberts at KLOS as well as Alex and his team at iTunes for helping us get this musical statement to the world once again.
Barry
TODD WRITES:
I received a call from my web designer Marc Blake, in July of 2007, suggesting I record this song with Barry McGuire, who he had just met.
This production took almost a year due to Barry, Roger, Mick and my schedules. It has been a labor of love for us fueled purely by faith and the belief in goodness for mankind. All of us worked gratis for one common goal - it's wake-up time for our fragile world.
The story is beyond amazing. On July 21st 1965 the one-take recording shot up to #1 and replaced the Beatles, "Help", then went on to be played in congressional sessions effectively lowering the voting age to 18 so that young boys who were sent off to war at least had some say as to their own government and its leadership.
The song is now credited today as being "the single most effective musical statement in history" and helped bring an end to the atrocities of the Viet Nam War.
I would like to extend special thanks to Mick and Roger for joining us, P.F. Sloan for writing this anthem in the first place, and Tony at Peace Thru Music for all of his support. And extra special thanks to Shae, age 6 for the amazing cover art! The forthcoming album entitled “PEACE THRU MUSIC”, includes songs from many more of our friends and will soon follow...
Peace to all,
Todd Smallwood
