Been May Find 2nd Calling With Movie Role

Michael Been’s first part in a movie didn’t require him to step too far out of character from his customary role as lead singer of the Call.

In his film debut, Been plays a disciple of Jesus in Martin Scorsese’s controversial, fictionalized Gospel tale, “The Last Temptation of Christ.” In the Call, Been is the fervent, booming voice of one of the most insistently spiritual bands in rock.

The Bay Area band’s two most recent albums, “Reconciled” and “Into the Woods,” are fundamentally religious yet devoid of the dogma of religious fundamentalism. At the core of the religious impulse, before such trappings as ritual and theology are laid on, is a feeling of incompleteness within the individual who yearns to be fulfilled through a connection with the divine. That yearning is the theme of a good deal of the Call’s music.

Virtually all of the band’s songs are rock played on an epic scale, with Been howling--not so much like a preacher in a pulpit but as a naked soul crying on a mountaintop. It is risky footing: Anything less than full-hearted intensity and the kinds of songs the Call plays could sound like a horrible, blustery sham. But the Call (which plays Friday and Monday at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano) brings an authentic ring to its heavily symbolized narratives of inner struggle.

“I consider myself a Christian by my own standard, by my own definition of what that means,” Been said over the phone earlier this week from his home near Berkeley. “I don’t think it would match up well with the going trend of Christianity today. The way it’s used institutionally (by) the loudmouthed ones who get all the attention, Christianity looks to me like a big club to join and say: ‘We’re better than somebody else.’ I don’t like segregation of any kind.”

If the spiritual battle lines are properly drawn, in Been’s view, the true Christian soldier should be waging war within the self rather than putting on a righteous pose for the rest of the world to admire.

When he sang on “Reconciled” about “the angry mob . . . trying to steal my heart from me, trying to steal my love for God,” Been said he wasn’t lashing out at non-believers ridiculing his spirituality but at his own lapses of faith.

“If there’s a mob, it’s a mob inside my head, constantly challenging me,” he said. “I went through a time of hating the fact it was so difficult” to wage an inner spiritual struggle. “Now, I realize that is what it’s all about. The challenge of this life, if we’re spiritual beings,” he said, is to keep on struggling, rather than to find some placid state of permanent rectitude and bliss.

If the Call ranks near U2 in giving intelligent, powerful play to things spiritual, it also suffers from the same basic and serious shortcoming as the much-lauded Irish band: Rock ‘n’ roll can plumb the deepest depths, but it also, at some point, should be about letting go and having fun.

Been doesn’t deny that the Call’s records have been almost unremittingly serious and that the band is limited insofar as it hasn’t been able to draw on the fertile, fun side of rock. “I have ideas for songs all the time that are just good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll songs. I love pop music, all that stuff that is light and fun about rock ‘n’ roll. I do write songs in that (vein). The trouble is, I can’t seem to play ‘em myself. Somewhere in my personality I can write them, but I can’t feel right singing them. We’ve tried it in the Call. We’ve played ‘em, and then we look around and say ‘no.’ ”

In January, during the Call’s last show at the Coach House, singer-actor Harry Dean Stanton fronted the band for a playful romp through Chuck Berry’s “C’est la Vie.”

“It was terrific,” Been said. “Harry up there singin’ it, it made it legitimate. He’s that way. He’s got a wide range he can draw from. With us backing him up, it felt totally natural. But if he wasn’t there and I sang ‘C’est la Vie’ with the Call, it wouldn’t have worked.”

Been said he is thinking of offering his lighter songs to other performers. He also cited “Walk Walk,” from “Into the Woods,” as an example of an ability to range beyond the band’s trademark epic style. Musically, the song draws upon a Creedence-flavored swampy blues that suggests a playful side, but lyrically it is yet another plea for enlightenment.

“Same Old Story,” a song being recorded for the next Call album, goes further in that direction, Been said. “It’s light. There’s still something said in it but not overbearing. That’s the intent of the song, to provide relief and show a bit of humor.”

The Call is using its current Southern California swing, which includes a show Sunday night at Bogart’s in Long Beach, to try out material for its next album.

“We’re hardly playing any of the old material--maybe a couple of songs,” Been said. “We didn’t want to go in and play those same songs that everybody expects to hear. We’ve never done this before. That’s why it’s kind of exciting to do. I want to see how it goes over without the familiarity.”

Been’s nascent acting career doesn’t take him into completely unfamiliar territory--he did some acting during college at the University of Illinois’ Chicago campus, and at one time considered becoming a professional actor or comedian. Scorsese, a fan of the Call since 1983, cast Been as the disciple John, and the rock singer played his scenes from “The Last Temptation of Christ” on location in Morocco last October. The film, scheduled for September release, already has drawn criticism in some conservative religious quarters that take offense at the unorthodox portrayal of Jesus in the Nikos Kazantzakis novel on which the movie is based.

Been said he is waiting to see how he comes off on screen before deciding whether to go after other movie parts.

“I have to see if I’ve got it. I love doing it; I hope I do it well.”

The Call will play Friday and Monday at 9 p.m. at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. Tickets: $17.50. Information: (714) 496-8930.

MOM GETS JAZZED: Mothers get in free Sunday night when Dan Siegel and his band play a jazz show at the Coach House. Why? It’s Mother’s Day--better get cracking if you have forgotten. Those not so privileged pay $13.50. . . . Tickets go on sale Monday for George Michael’s Oct. 7-8 stand at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. Newly added to the Irvine Meadows schedule is an Aug. 19 show by Earth, Wind & Fire. . . . The Coach House has added Ann De Jarnett as the opening act for Jonathan Richman’s May 17 appearance.