Stone Free
~ The Jimi Hendrix Experience ~
The song “Eve of Destruction” was written in the early morning hours between midnight and dawn in mid 1964... I was 19 years old. The most outstanding experience I had in writing this song was hearing an inner voice inside of myself for only the second time. It seemed to have information no one else could’ve had. For example, I was writing down this line in pencil, “Think of all the hate there is in Red Russia.” This inner voice said, “No, no, it’s Red China!” I began to argue and wrestle with that until near exhaustion. I thought Red Russia was the most outstanding enemy to freedom in the world, but this inner voice said the Soviet Union will fall before the end of the century, and Red China will endure in crimes against humanity well into the new century! This inner voice that is inside of each and every one of us but is drowned out by the roar of our minds! The song contained a number of issues that were unbearable for me at the time. I wrote it as a prayer to God for an answer...
I put a melody to the words and played it for my then writing partner Steve. He listened but I could tell he didn’t like it much. He wasn’t much interested. The same response followed when I played it for the publishing company people. Their response was stronger. UNPUBLISHABLE! I was told not to write any more songs like that...
Barry McGuire was the lead singer for a popular folk group at the time called the New Christy Minstrels. Writing and singing his own Number One hit, “Green, Green”. He had just left the group and was on his own and looking for material to record. He wound up at my publishing company, and he was told there was a quirky songwriter he might want to listen to. Now, Barry didn’t like the song “Eve of Destruction” that much. He liked a few other songs of mine better. One in particular called “What’s Exactly the Matter With Me”, which originally was the A-side of the record. When he was ready to record, he picked four songs and “Eve” was the fourth to be recorded, if there was time. If you listen to the recording, he’s rushing singing through the lyric because of the time constraints, and he was reading it for the first time off a piece of paper I had written the lyric on! Okay. McGuire’s record is released, but “Eve” is the B-side. Somewhere in the Great Midwest of America, a DJ played the wrong side by mistake! So as you can see, when people had written that this song was some calculated idea on how to capitalize on the emerging folk scene, it’s simply BS...
The media frenzy over the song tore me up and seemed to tear the country apart. I was an enemy of the people to some and a hero to others, but I was still only 20 years old and nobody really was looking. I have felt it was a love song and written as a prayer... In my youthful zeal I hadn’t realized that this would be taken as an attack on the System! The media headlined the song as everything that is wrong with the youth culture... The media banned me from all national television shows. Oddly enough they didn’t ban Barry. The United States felt under threat. So any positive press on me or Barry was considered unpatriotic... It ruined Barry’s career as an artist, and in a year I would be driven out of the music business too.