User:Noragiannini/sandbox

Overview
The northern New Jersey Rock band Wild History wrote 28 songs between 1984 and 1989, and recorded 26 of them, nine of which appear on the LP "Guns or Butter?", released independently in 1987 on Breaking Records. The original members were Sean O'Gara on lead guitar & backing vocals; Ed Horton on bass & backing vocals & lead vocals; Joe Florio on lead vocals,backing vocals & rhythm guitar and Joe Reina on drums. Tony Salumbene, a saxophonist and clarinetist Ed and Sean knew, flirted with becoming a member of the group, but in the end only played on various recordings. He appears on 3 songs on "Guns or Butter?". The majority of the band's songs were written as they jammed at practices, and the main staples of their repertoire ("Right Through My Heart", "Dear Mom", "Cousin Danny's in the I.R.A.", "French Bayonet", "When the Bombs Start Falling" and "Forget You") were written  from Wild History's conception to mid-1985, when Sean, who worked as an animal rights activist, left the band due to a career decision that involved moving to Maryland. In December of that same year, Charles Dzugan, who it took many months to find, finally filled in the gap Sean had left behind. This was the line-up with which "Guns Or Butter?" was recorded. Their only LP, it is mainly comprised of the "staple songs" composed with the original members, "2005" "Israel" and "Too Hot to Trotsky" being the exceptions.

The band's sense of humor and political leanings are evident on the back cover of the album, which is a collage of absurd headlines from The National Enquirer arranged in a vortex swirling into an apparent void. The members also adopted stage names: Ed was Vasco da Gamma-Ray; Joe Florio was Jean Jaurès ( a French socialist in the latter half of the 19th century); Charles was Chazugan, but Joe Reina stayed with his given name. Sean, who had moved back to the New York City area during the time the album was being made, played on some songs under the pseudonym Johnny Slash. After the album was made, all except Joe Florio returned to using their own names. Due to the band's association with the New York entertainment lawyer Alfred Goldfield, which began in 1986, Wild History had been garnering record company interest from Columbia Records (Clive Davis),and Orion Entertainment even before the album was made. The band's second line-up performed often in New York City in 1986 and especially in 1987 in support of the album, mostly at The Bitter End in Greenwich Village, as well as at various clubs in New Jersey. But the gigs in New York were the important ones for Wild History as they continued to write new material and record, for these performances were often showcases for A&R representatives from the recording industry. Things were going quite well for the band at this point. According to the CMJ Report, "Guns or Butter?" received considerable airplay for almost 2 months on several college radio stations. "In Our Time", recorded in 1988 after Ed had departed the band in late 1987 and Sean rejoined it as bassist, appeared on the CMJ Report's "Certain Damage, Vol. 15" CD, a compilation of songs by promising new talent that was issued monthly.

As the band's repertoire was virtually second nature to him, and he had remained in contact with all the group's members, Sean's return to the band was a seamless transition. In April 1988 the new and final line-up of Wild History recorded 3 new songs they hoped would cement the record deal the band so longed for: the aforementioned "In Our Time", "How in the World (Would I Know)", and "I Tell the Lies" were put to tape within a month. But despite further intense gigging in New York after submitting the new songs to record company executives, a contract still proved to be elusive.

Undeterred by the disappointment of not being signed, the band continued to write and record quite prolifically. However, the songwriting was more individual during this final period of the band's life. Songs from this stage were "The Savior", "Rule of the Hammer", "Stay Awhile", Whatchya Gonna Do?" "I'm Washin' Away" and "Eye of the Serpent", as well as a singular rendition of Harry Nilsson's 1970 hit "Jump into the Fire", which the band had been playing live almost from the beginning. Though the members of the group did not lose their creativity, interest from the recording industry gradually waned, and had its impact. In the summer of 1989 Wild History disbanded.

Downloadable mp3 versions of all Wild History's studio recordings and some live recordings, along with the lyrics and a more detailed biography of the group can be found at http://dedalus.ch/management/wildhistory.php. An hour-long performance by Wild History from 1988 can be viewed on Youtube.