FOUNTAIN, FIVE BLIND BOYS SPOUT THE GOSPEL

“Acting? It’s nothing complicated. All you have to do is remember your lines,” Clarence Fountain was saying. “I can talk--that’s my job, talkin’, and I’ve stood up and talked before thousands and thousands, so I wasn’t afraid.”

There’s probably never been an Oedipus quite like the flamboyant, white-suited Fountain--imagine Ray Charles as the accursed king of Greek tragedy and you’ll get the picture.

Of course, there’s never been a show quite like “The Gospel at Colonus,” which transforms “Oedipus at Colonus,” the final episode of Sophocles’ Oedipus trilogy, into a roof-lifting black Pentecostal church service.

Lofty theatrical ambitions aside, the musical (at the Doolittle Theatre through Jan. 5) is notable for introducing to mainstream audiences superb gospel singers like the young Willie Rogers, who now occupies Sam Cooke’s chair in the long-lived Soul Stirrers. The J.D. Steele Singers and the West Los Angeles Philharmonic Choir also shine, but the real find is Fountain and his group, the Five Blind Boys of Alabama.

“We were in a school for the blind in Talladega, Alabama, and we started singing in the chorus,” recalled Fountain, 42, during an interview in his dressing room at the Doolittle this week. “From that, we formed the group. We didn’t really think we were going to be professional. We just got out and that’s what developed.

“We were young and didn’t know nothin’,” continued Fountain, who lost his sight at age 2 from what he calls “sore eyes.”

“We sang all types of gospel. We sang Golden Gate (Quartet) style, which was old, and we sang gospel-spiritual music. Then we sang semi-classicals--’Deep River’ and ‘Never Walk Alone,’ things of that nature.”

The Five Blind Boys signed with Los Angeles-based Specialty Records in the early ‘50s and became one of that prominent blues/R&B; label’s established gospel acts. Then the gospel world got all shook up.

“Rock ‘n’ roll definitely hurt gospel,” Fountain said. “Before rock ‘n’ roll we could come to Los Angeles and pack out the Shrine (Auditorium) any time we got ready.”

Unlike such colleagues as Sam Cooke and Lou Rawls, though, Fountain chose not to make the move to secular music.

“We had the opportunity to go rock ‘n’ roll,” the gravel-voiced singer said. “We had a couple of offers, but that was not our desire, so we stayed with what we were doing. But we knew how to sing rock ‘n’ roll. We made up tunes--just for our own benefit.”

It wasn’t just that rock ‘n’ roll was non-religious. The worst thing was that it actually used the gospel sound for its worldly messages.

“I felt like it was wrong, but what could I do?” Fountain said. “I think everybody should stay on their own turf, but they took the gospel and put it into rock ‘n’ roll and made money.”

Fountain, who now lives in Detroit, has some opinions about today’s singers too. On Al Green, who pulled a reverse move when he switched from soul to religious music: “Al Green didn’t change nothin’ but from ‘baby’ to ‘Lord.’ That’s all he changed. The music is the same.”

And on young, gospel-sounding singers like Jeffrey Osborne: “You can say one thing: He’s been to church, that’s for sure.”

The Five Blind Boys have released more than 30 albums, and though they’re currently looking for a record deal, their “Colonus” work is available on Warner Bros.’ original cast album.

It might seem strange that someone whose principles wouldn’t let him go rock ‘n’ roll would take a role in a pagan play, but Fountain sees no conflict.

The story of Oedipus’ final days, he observed, “is something similar, basically, to what a Christian could go through.”

As for the music: “We made sure it would have the gospel beat. . . . (Composer-arranger) Bob Telson had the songs, and we put everything in the right perspective.”

Has Fountain heard any criticism from his gospel colleagues about his participation?

“No,” Fountain said. “They all wish they could do it.”