ONE MAN DEAD (Saugus, MA)

Randy Long, 1967

My initial thought was that the rather odd band name One Man Dead was in reference to casualties of the Vietnam War, this being 1971 and stemming from the song title "Politician's War." While that may have been partly the case, the real meaning proved to be much more clever — it was a One Man Band! 

One Man Dead was the brainchild of talented musician Randy Long, who in fact performed all of the instruments and vocals himself: keyboards, bass and drums. Sadly, in a case of life imitating art (well, band name), Randy passed away in 2004. Any background information about the making of this record was unfortunately lost with Randy, and also his brother Ronald, who passed away in 2014. And the lyricist for the a-side, Doug Vigneaux, is currently missing in action — possibly either deceased or unreachable due to grave circumstances.

But Randy's musical ventures actually started back in the mid-1960s, when he was in a high school band called Constant Change (1966-67), playing rock and roll covers of the day with classmates and neighborhood pals. A 1967 graduate of Saugus High School, Randy recorded and released his solo single four years later at the age of 22. Take that high school yearbook photo, pencil in a beard and shoulder-length hair, and that's probably a good idea of what Randy looked like in 1971.

That's about all we've got to say about this mysterious disc. Just crank up the psychedelic organ freakouts and, if you're so inclined, follow the opening line of side 2: "I smoked a jay!"

Thanks to Barry Russo, and extra special thanks to Randy and Ronald's sister, Veronica!

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ONE MAN DEAD
Who Can It Be? / Politician's War
St. George International (203,076/077)
© September 1971