Jealous Again - History of The EP

History of The EP

Although eventually released as a 12" extended-play 45 RPM single, Jealous Again was initially intended to be Black Flag's first full-length album.

Spurred on by the reception to their first release, the EP Nervous Breakdown, Black Flag entered the studio in late 1979 with new drummer ROBO and original singer Keith Morris to begin recording their first LP. Basic tracks for all of the songs were cut live in the studio with Morris singing temporary vocal parts. Almost without warning, however, according to bassist Chuck Dukowski, Morris "smashed his records and guitar and walked out screaming for a week," quitting the band and refusing to complete the album.

The band then recruited former Redd Kross member Ron Reyes, (credited on the record as "Chavo Pederast" after a falling out with the band) to be their new vocalist; however, guitarist and band leader Greg Ginn felt he was not yet ready to record, and the tapes were put aside for several months. After several shows with Reyes, one of which was filmed for the movie The Decline of Western Civilization, the sessions resumed, first with Ginn overdubbing new guitar parts and then Reyes doing his vocals. However, the initial attempts to record with Reyes proved fruitless when he started walking out of the vocal booth, and sometimes the studio entirely, in the middle of takes. Reyes later quit the band in the middle of a live performance, derailing the sessions entirely for a second time.

Ginn and Dukowski were already talking with another former Redd Kross member, Dez Cadena, about joining the band as a second guitarist; when Reyes quit the group, Cadena was invited to take his place. The band's producer/engineer Spot took an incentive and brought Cadena into the studio to record his own vocals for the album. Several tracks were done in one night with Cadena, but were shelved when Reyes agreed to complete the project. These new vocal sessions, according to Spot, went so smoothly that he could not resist jokingly asking Reyes, "Why didn't you quit the band before this?"

Ginn and Dukowski decided to release five tracks from the finished Reyes sessions as the 12" EP known to Black Flag fans today, and elected to make a second attempt at a debut album with Cadena as lead vocalist.