“Pioneer: I’d like to think of it as cultural learning.
PBS-5 reporter: Is that so?
Pioneer: The Quarrymen were raised in the hardscrabble streets of Liverpool. Their music represents the raw working class power of the Franco-British Union.
Reporter: So that’s why you wanted to bring your cadre today to the concert.
Pioneer: I’d say so, yes. We need a reminder that there are still proletarians worldwide who are still struggling, and we need to celebrate their art.”
- Local W2XAB coverage of the Quarrymen concert at Marcantonio Stadium, March 3rd, 1964
“Tonight’s featured act came directly from the taverns of Liverpool to become a national phenomenon in the Franco-British Union. Now, they’ve decided to take their act over here to the Republics. So, without further ado, comrades, please welcome the Quarrymen!”
- Paul Robeson, The Paul Robeson Show , March 4th, 1964
“.... Our analysis of the so-called “Quarrymania” in the Franco-British Union has indicated that it is driven by a marketing campaign, led by band manager Brian Epstein and their record label EMI. The band’s songs are often rough and angry, but still with enough polish to appeal to a wide audience. This and the simplicity of the lyrics around it suggests a possible use of subliminal messaging within the seemingly innocuous songs to ensure compliance with bourgeois capitalist norms…”
- Memo sent from Section 1 Cultural Analysis Center to J. Edgar Hoover, c. 1964
“I didn’t serve the proletariat in the Revolution and the Great Revolutionary War, only to have these bougie boys with mop top hair come in and sway our children!”
- Older union politico interviewed by Debs television, March 4th, 1964
“At their performance at DAR Constitution Hall, the one-time home of the Congress of Soviet, the Quarrymen sold out, bringing in over 4000 to see their performance. For those who could fit into the building, the performance was made a special broadcast for PBS-6, called The Quarrymen: Live at Constitution Hall.
- The Quarrymen in America, Eugene Debs Harmony, 2008
“What was it again? John, Paul, George, and… Peter? No. Pete. Okay, got it. I got a call from [Georges] Pompidou. He met with these boys a couple months ago, when they were big in the Entente. He gave me some pointers. Lets see if that bougie son of a bitch wasn’t just fucking with me.”
- Premier Richard Nixon, conversing with aides before his meeting with the Quarrymen.
“Alright, now on our next act, Dick Starkey and the Mars Bars!”
- Top of the Pops, EBC-1 March 15, 1964
“We are a dying breed, Comrade Foreign Secretary. Foster, Reed, Sinclair, even old General MacArthur are all gone. Now, the children read more Stan Lee than Marx. Watch more StateSec than Ronald Reagan. They despise King Baudoin and Queen Elizabeth, and love Chubby Checkers and the Quarrymen. The times are, indeed, changing.”
- Former Central Executive Council member John Williamson in a letter to former Foreign Secretary Earl Browder, April, 1964
“I mean, Frank Sinatra has wild orgies at his Reno dacha all the time, and he flies to DeLeon-Debs the next day to have dinner with the Supreme Revolutionary Tribunal. Why should these boys be held to a different standard?”
- Nevada farmer Jenny Chang on rumors of the Quarrymen having wild parties at their hotel room, The Daily Worker, May,1964
“And now, from our cross-Atlantic rivals, here’s Herve Villard with ‘Capri c'est fini’”
- Denver rock DJ Harry Walsh, June 1964.
“Indeed, the fervour around these four young men has something of a religious flavor to it in their native Britain. Indeed, one could say, at this very moment, they are bigger than Jesus Christ himself amongst the youth in Great Britain and France. In stark contrast, our youth regard Quarrymen with more detached fascination. Much as one would appreciate an orchestra or an innovator in the vain of Stravinsky or Theremin, the large crowds have a definite appreciation of their musical skills, but unlike the British youth, they don’t worship them. Lead Paul McCartney noted how calm the crowds are in the United Republics compared to Britain. How they tend to be respectful and distant.”
- Ronald Reagan, The 5 O’Clock News, PBS-5, July 5th, 1964
“The success of the Quarrymen beget acts like Hoochie Coochie, the Zombies, The Group, The Animals, Johnny Halliday, Claude Francois, the Go-Go Boys and many others from the capitalist sphere, inspired by Blues and Folk, coming to the United Republics. The “Franco-British Invasion” became a defining part of the 1960’s music scene, bringing a newer, rougher sound that would influence groups for generations, on both sides of the Atlantic.”
- The Decades:The 1960’s, 1998