STEWART TO SING FOR THE HOMELESS

There is a scene that singer/songwriter John Stewart will never forget.

“I saw a 5-year-old riding a tricycle through human waste,” he recalls, his usually rich, clear voice cracking with emotion. “He and his mom and dad were living on the street at 5th and Gladys in downtown L.A.” With that picture firmly in his mind, Stewart will take the stage at McCabe’s tonight to raise money for Los Angeles’ homeless.

Calling the issue of the homeless the “cause of the ‘80s, where civil rights was the cause of the ‘60s,” Stewart organized the benefit through his Homecoming Records label under the banner “Homecoming for the Homeless.” Joining him for the two performances will be label mates Kate Heriza and Buffy Ford (Stewart’s wife), Celtic guitarist Bruce Abrams and Margo Jones, whose music Stewart describes as Afro-Appalachian.

Making music for a cause is nothing new for Stewart. A self-described “ ‘60s unbearable white liberal” who marched for civil rights at Selma, Ala., he was a member of the Kingston Trio from 1961 until the group’s dissolution in 1967, singing on such hits as “Greenback Dollar.” Then, having achieved some measure of fame and wealth as the writer of the Monkees’ 5-million-seller “Daydream Believer,” he signed on to Robert Kennedy’s ill-fated 1968 presidential campaign. Stewart and Ford performed in front of crowds waiting for the candidate to speak.

After Kennedy was assassinated, Stewart opted for a more conventional career. However, despite such artistic successes as that perennial critics’ favorite, the “California Bloodlines” album, he was unable to break through to a mass audience.

Finally, with the help of friends Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, Stewart had a hit in 1979--ironically with “Gold,” a biting comment on the music industry. “It was totally unsatisfying, because it was a manufactured hit,” he says bitterly, claiming he was “ordered to have a hit” by RSO records. Unable--or unwilling--to follow it with another, he quickly returned to semi-obscurity, supported by a loyal but small international audience but left with an inner void and “the dubious distinction of being a has-been.”

Then he became aware of the work being done by Ted Hayes, a minister who had left his family and home in Riverside to live with L.A.’s homeless. Hayes was one of the key figures in the Tent City and Justiceville shelter projects established on empty lots downtown. Ultimately the projects were terminated by city and county authorities, their residents back on the streets. “I don’t think they wanted them that visible,” Stewart says of the governmental actions.

The scenes Stewart witnessed in working with Hayes have had a deep effect. “It was right out of ‘The Grapes of Wrath’; Woody Guthrie revisited,” he says. He saw the expected stereotypic transients, but he also saw “people who believed in the American Dream but who lost their jobs and found themselves living in their cars.”

To Stewart, the situation is a powder keg of frustration that he believes soon could explode. But the 46-year-old singer, who has a 5-year-old son of his own, is fueled by an unflagging sense of optimism. “It’s solvable, that’s the good part,” he says. “Let’s just get the homeless out of the gutter; then brighter people can decide how to get them back in society. If it comes down to it, I’ll take the money from the shows to Skid Row and give $50 to each family.

“I don’t have the backbone or tenacity of Bob Geldof,” he confesses, adding that he also doesn’t have the reach of some others whom he’d like to attract to the cause. “I could yell for 20 years. Bruce Springsteen could whisper it once and everybody would hear.”

Still, Stewart wants to use star power judiciously. “There’s been talk about a homeless ‘We Are the World,’ but we’ve got to be more original,” he says. More and bigger concerts, however, may be in the offing.

As to potential charges that he’s just another musician hopping on the charity bandwagon, Stewart is unconcerned. “If people think I’m doing this to revive my career, that’s fine,” he says. “Just send a check.”

He is troubled, though, that a hometown tragedy may be lost among other worthy causes. But “if people think that the homeless is a minor cause, that’s fine too. Just send a check.”

PALACE POLYRHYTHMS: “World Beat” will be at the Palace Oct. 2 (the event was rescheduled from Wednesday because of a conflict), with four bands that play “cross-cultural, multi-ethnic, grass-roots” music. The beat may be worldwide, but the groups--Looters, Big City, Freaky Executives and Mapenzi--are all from the Bay Area, where the danceable combination of African, Latin, Caribbean and American styles has been catching on big. Showtime is 8:30. Information: (213) 462-6031.

LIVE ACTION: Foreigner has scheduled shows at three Southland venues. Tickets go on sale Monday for the Oct. 25 date at the Los Angeles Sports Arena and Oct. 26 at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, Sunday for Oct. 30 at San Diego Sports Arena. Also appearing at all three shows is John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band. . . . Tickets go on sale Sunday for these shows: Jimmy Cliff on Oct. 20, X on Nov. 1 and Simple Minds on Nov. 24. . . . Shriekback will be at the Palace on Oct. 18. . . . ADX, Bad Brains and Major Accident will be at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on Oct. 11. . . . Brian Brain will be at Charley’s Obsession on Sunday night.