Photo courtesy of Red Light Management

Eventually I‰’ll shut up about alt-country and southern rock. But today is not that day. Late in 2017, southern rock bank The Drive-By Truckers released a single entitled “The Perilous Night,‰” and, as a fan of theirs, I was very excited and sat down to listen to it while also watching the accompanying lyric video. I was initially expecting a Southern Gothic story about the danger that lies in the woods with some social commentary through parallelism. And while what I heard was definitely within the dark imagery that the Drive-By Truckers are known for, it was a bit more directly comprised of social commentary.

The song‰’s first verse firmly places it as a protest song, but is a bit less direct in its references than what comes later. They make references to the “fake news‰” phenomenon, global warming, Russian sleepers, violent nationalism, among other things. In just the first verse. So it definitely makes the listened aware that more is to come later.

We needed warming from the cold hard facts
Unheeded warnings ‰bout the broken tracks
All hope is fading and it‰’s not coming back again
Uniting forces may be calling fast
Changing courses to some Stalin past
Melting faces through the looking glass, my friend

And then the band rollicks into the chorus which continues the general negative feeling that pervades the song—and a large bit of general American society in general:

Something‰’s got a hold of your feel alright
Out of control in the appetite
We‰’re moving into The Perilous Night,
Amen

Moving forward with the track, the references get even more direct and damning and it comes to a climax in the bridge and the verse that follows, where the band makes some of the most explicit statements about current events:

Why‰’s that drone looking through my window?
World keeps turning by the torch light‰’s shadow
Fourth Reich in khakis is beckoning
Both ends burning to the reckoning

Ronnie Reagan must be spinning in his grave
Putin‰’s on the rise, Ukraine‰’s under siege
Fascism‰’s knocking and Trump says “Let them in.‰Û

While some of it may sound a bit fear-mongering, it is not too far off from the way protest music always has sounded, and is definitely more accurate than not—at least in the sentiment it puts forth.

The explicit nature of the song definitely reminded me of Barry McGuire‰’s “Eve Of Destruction,‰” a 1965 folk-rock protest song written by pop-songster P.F. Sloan. The Drive-By Truckers song generally follows a similar story arc as “Eve of Destruction‰Û—it‰’s just about the issues those in the 1960s were facing—including the Vietnam War, race relations, nuclear proliferation, authoritarianism—oh wait that‰’s not too far off from the 2010‰’s.

However, I believe that the kind of update that The Drve-By Truckers provided was absolutely critical to provide a modern context to the same issues. While the last verse of “Eve Of Destruction‰” is one of the most powerful verses on pop music, its dated references can make many assume that the issues McGuire is singing about were left in the 1960s.

Think of all the hate there is is Red China
Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama
You may leave here for four days in space
But when you return it‰’s the same old place
The poundin‰’ of drums, the pride and disgrace
You can bury your dead, but don‰’t leave a trace
Hate your next door neighbor, but don‰’t forget to say grace

And you tell me over and over and over and over again my friend
You don‰’t believe we‰’re on the Eve of Destruction

For some context: this song was a #1 hit on the Billboard chart in 1965. Given that southern rock and this style of protest music is not part of the cultural zeitgeist as it was back then, it‰’s unlikely that “The Perilous Night‰” will achieve the same level of success. However, it‰’s just as an important song, whether you agree with the sentiment of not, to at least hear.