Phil Ochs , one of the leading protest singers of the decade ( or , as he preferred , a " topical singer " ) , performed at many political events , including anti-Vietnam War and civil rights rallies , student events , and organized labor events over the course of his career , in addition to many concert appearances at such venues as New York City 's The Town Hall and Carnegie Hall . Politically , Ochs described himself as a " left social democrat " who turned into an " early revolutionary " after the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago , which had a profound effect on his state of mind . Some of his best known protest songs include " Power and the Glory " , " Draft Dodger Rag " , " There but for Fortune " , " Changes " , " Crucifixion " , " When I 'm Gone " , " Love Me , I 'm a Liberal " , " Links on the Chain " , " Ringing of Revolution " , and " I Ai n't Marching Anymore " . Other notable voices of protest from the period included Joan Baez , Buffy Sainte-Marie ( whose anti-war song " Universal Soldier " was later made famous by Donovan ) , and Tom Paxton ( " Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation " - about the escalation of the war in Vietnam , " Jimmy Newman " – the story of a dying soldier , and " My Son John " – about a soldier who returns from war unable to describe what he 's been through ) , among others . The first protest song to reach number one in the United States was P.F. Sloan 's " Eve Of Destruction " , performed by Barry McGuire in 1965
1968 Democratic National Convention
1968 Democratic National Convention
Protest songs in the United States