“Before the breathin’ air is gone, before the sun is just a bright spot in the nighttime…” are lyrics of which song?

Three Dog Night recorded “Out in the Country” and released it on their 1970 album, “It Ain’t Easy.” The song was moderately successful on Billboard’s North American charts, reaching the top ten in Canada and the top 20 in the United States. It also reached the top 20 on the US Contemporary chart.

Written by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols, “Out in the Country” laments the hugger-mugger of city life. The singers long to travel “out where the rivers like to run,” to “take back something worth remembering.” The song protests air and water pollution.

Canned Heat scored their biggest hit with “Going up the Country. It was first released on “Living the Blues” in October, 1968, and is known as a “rural hippie anthem.”

Guitarist P. F. Sloan wrote “Eve of Destruction” in 1964. It was recorded by three acts before Barry McGuire released a cover with an unintentionally raw vocal track and placed at the top of the US and UK charts. US liberals and conservatives both used it politically.

Elton John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” written with Bernie Taupin, is an apolitical ballad in which the singer asks his lover not to leave. It was first released as a single from John’s “Caribou” album in May of 1974.