Let Them Eat Jellybeans!
1981 compilation album
Let Them Eat Jellybeans!, subtitled "17 Extracts From America's Darker Side", 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, 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.
“Let Them Eat Jellybeans!” enters the record as 1981 compilation album. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Them, Jellybeans and compilation can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Let Them Eat Jellybeans!” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Them, Jellybeans and compilation provides the most credible route into that argument.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1946904. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1981.
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This entry incorporates text from “Let Them Eat Jellybeans!” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.