A combination of touring obligations and personal feuding between band members made it difficult to arrange dedicated recording sessions for the band's follow-up to 1980's "Emotional Rescue". As a result, the band's production team combed through unused recordings from prior sessions, some dating back almost a decade. While a few of the songs were used essentially as-is in their original form, most of these earlier recordings were not complete, consisting of song fragments requiring much work. Studio time was booked throughout 1980 and 1981 and band members came in when available to finish off the tracks.