Perhaps I missed earlier slime-devel message traffic on this issue.

I have recently switched to using the recent (checked out cvs version of slime on Dec 30)
with sbcl-1.0.54-x86-64-linux-binary.

The CVS/Entries file shows:
   /slime.el/1.1392/Sat Dec 24 17:45:23 2011//


When I start sbcl using slime everything looks good, except Lisp-Mode buffers do not have
  "SLIME" "REPL"  ... entries in the Emacs main menu-bar.  The *slime-repl buffer has these entries.

I am using the slime-fancy:

  (defvar slime-default-contribs '(slime-fancy))

 
I have started emacs without my normal .emacs initialization in an attempt to diagnose the problem,
and supplying the bare minimum commands to start slime.  Same problem.

Any suggestions?