Various Artists - Let Them Eat Jellybeans [1981]

This here humble fucking offering is hardly unique amongst music blogs, but I’ve desperately wanted it to reside here in the Forest for some time now. Granted, Curry once long ago directed that we contributors not be redundant with our seedlings, but we’ve broken that Golden Rule more than once now (ntm the blessed ZZ Top on tap -- and in light of that, too) I’ve started to reconfigure my perceptions of what a music blog post s/be about.

For me, this album (which I didn’t even own, but dubbed on a Maxell 90 offa Processed’s big brother’s vinyl), deserves to be here (and probably more so than any other comp album I experienced in HS), because it blew open a million dozen doors in my head, and not just musically (though granted I bought at least 50 albums because of this single record).

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HISTORY LESSON Pt. Nth:

subtitled "17 Extracts From Americas Darker Side"

Let Them Eat Jellybeans! is a compilation album released by Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles in 1981.

It was one of the earliest compilations of underground music in the United States and its original release included an insert of all of the punk bands known to be playing in the U.S. and Canada at that time.

The first side of the LP features songs by a number of bands that formed the canon of American hardcore punk in the 1980s.

The second side features more of an art rock sound.

The album's title comes from the phrase "Let them eat cake" (supposedly said by Marie Antoinette). The use of the word jellybeans is in reference to Ronald Reagan, who was known to consider them his favorite candy.

At least two of the cuts on the punk side of the album have never been issued in the same form heard on Let Them Eat Jellybeans. The version of Black Flag's "Police Story" heard on ...Jellybeans! was recorded during the sessions for the Six Pack EP and features Dez Cadena on lead vocals, although the album's insert features the then-current Damaged-era lineup with Henry Rollins. Also, the version of Dead Kennedys' "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!" is a wholly different recording than the versions heard on both In God We Trust, Inc. and the "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!" single.

According to Alternative Tentacles, it has not reissued the album because Black Flag would not give permission to use their track and because there has been "a falling out" between Biafra and another unnamed band on the record. Biafra would not re-release the album unless it is in its full, original form. Despite this, the album has been in widespread circulation on peer to peer file sharing networks and on the internet, plus used copies can be found in record stores.

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Side One:

1. "Ha Ha Ha" - Flipper
2. "The Prisoner" - D.O.A.
3. "Police Story" - Black Flag
4. "Pay to Cum" - Bad Brains
5. "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!" - Dead Kennedys
6. "Paid Vacation" - Circle Jerks
7. "Prostitution" - Really Red
8. "Jesus Entering from the Rear" - The Feederz
9. "Slave to My Dick" - Subhumans

Side Two:

1. "Isotope Soap" - Geza X
2. "Persecution" -That's My Song" - BPeople
3. "An Object" - Wounds
4. "Everyone's A Bigot" - The Offs
5. "Corporate Food" - Anonymous
6. "Fun Again" - Half Japanese
7. "Joke's On You" - Christian Lunch
8. "Sleep" - Voice Farm

EAT!