Songwriter and musician PF Sloan was a successful figure in 1960s Los Angeles pop before writing ‘Eve of Destruction’, a protest song that became a number one hit for Barry McGuire in 1965. Its success brought political controversy and suspicion that Sloan was exploiting protest music, while his reputation made record labels wary of working with him.

Sloan had already written or contributed to songs including ‘Secret Agent Man’ and ‘You Baby’, and played on ‘California Dreamin’’. By 1967, work had dried up; he struggled with addiction, poverty and mental and physical health problems, and spent years in blue-collar jobs. He released no new music for nearly two decades, then made a comeback in the late 1980s; in 2006, he reflected that the song’s success had been followed by decades of hardship.