Let Them Eat Jellybeans

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Let Them Eat Jellybeans

Studio album by various artists
Released	1981
Recorded	???
Genre	Hardcore punk
Length	???
Label	Alternative Tentacles
All Music Guide link

Let Them Eat Jellybeans is a compilation album released by 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, while 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.

The album has been in high demand for reissue from fans who have either worn out their original vinyl copies, or never got to hear the original compilation. However, Alternative Tentacles Records were forced to admit in their website's FAQ section in 1999 that they were unable to reissue the full original album due to licensing issues with Black Flag and what is referred to as "a falling out" between Jello Biafra and one of the other acts on the record, although no names are given. Likely possibilities for the unnamed act in question are said to be either Biafra's former band Dead Kennedys, with whom he was in a protracted copyright and royalty dispute with for several years, or The Feederz, whose lead singer had run off with Biafra's wife in 1986.