Divine Harmonies : Harry Dean Stanton and Michael Been First Teamed Up on Set of Movie ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ : By CHRIS WILLMAN

The Apostle John and Saul of Tarsus--together again, live at the Coach House this Sunday . . .

Singer-turned-actor Michael Been and actor-turned-singer Harry Dean Stanton, essaying those respective biblical roles in “The Last Temptation of Christ,” started jamming on the film’s Moroccan set and decided to team up for more rock ‘n’ roll sets (pun hesitatingly intended) back home in America. Thursday night at the Palomino in North Hollywood--the first of several Southland dates--the only protests were from a rabid Palomino audience demanding encores.

Stanton and Been had never met before arriving at the “Temptation” shooting locale. Since Been is fairly well-known as the singer/songwriter of the rock group the Call, it wasn’t long before Stanton--who takes an acoustic guitar almost everywhere he goes--hooked up with him. Not long at all.

“Morocco is a desperate, dangerous, weird kind of place, and we spent a lot of time isolated together, and all we had was each other,” Been said backstage at the Palomino before Thursday’s show, chowing down with Stanton and bandmates. “There were a lot of musical people involved. When we weren’t filming, we were singing.

“I’d been there about a month when Harry came, and he wanted to show me his Martin (guitar), so we went up to his room and we sang three songs within the first 15 minutes of meeting. It just sounded good, the voices together--it’s a good blend.”

The only plan upon wrapping the film was to not take the musical collaboration too seriously, but to explore. The dynamic duo made its debut at the Santa Monica folk club McCabe’s about six weeks ago.

The reviews were good, Stanton announced with pride, “and in San Francisco when we did it there, too.” He insists that film people are putting pressure on him not to start singing full time: “It’s like believers; it’s blatantly a religion. If you’re an actor, if you get out of that, you’re a heretic . . . but I don’t believe in beliefs. (Because) you don’t question beliefs--and I’m constantly questioning.”

Playing mostly acoustically at the Palomino, and backed by two members of the Call, the duo at times suggested a dustier version of the Everly Brothers (an impression reinforced by a lovely encore rendition of the brothers’ 1960 hit “Let It Be Me”).

Though he found the occasional flat note, Stanton is usually smooth enough and could well be the country singer he pretended to be in “The Rose.” Been is a more emotive crooner--and a passionate guitarist to boot--but in overly sacrificial fashion let Stanton take most of the lead vocals, reserving his angelic falsetto for the upper end of surprisingly well-matched, two-part harmonies.

Been isn’t ashamed of handing the spotlight over to Stanton.

“You know, when you think of an actor wanting to sing, usually I kind of tighten up,” Been admitted. “But if Harry had chosen to go into music, it would’ve been just as legitimate. Beautiful voice, very impressive.

“I’m not used to singing harmonies with people. I mean, I do it, but I don’t really like it. Sometimes when you blend voices, you lose the character, you can’t hear the individual voices coming out. Your harmony sounds like CSNY, or worse, Journey--that kind of faceless generic harmonies where you can replace any guy and still sound about the same. And we sang, and there was a blend that I liked. . . .”

A case of divine intervention bringing the duo together? Been (a liberally minded Christian) and Stanton (a loose sort of Buddhist) might agree on most--but not all--points of divinity.

Been, in defense of the vision of director Martin Scorsese (whom he describes as the only other avowed Christian involved in the Moroccan shoot), said: “When the old authors first wrote the Bible, they had this guy Jesus: he’s a man, everybody knew he was a man, everybody knew where he was born, they knew he died, they knew he had followers, he had a reputation as being demonic and revolutionary and every other word at the time that they called heretic. And then these guys who wrote the New Testament had this massive job of proving to everybody that this man was God.

“So the emphasis of what they did was on (the man’s) God qualities, divine qualities--which are all accurate, all true, to me.”

“So is everybody else, potentially,” chimed in Stanton.

“Yeah, potentially, which is what I think he said,” Been continued. “But 2000 years later, the job’s reversed. You have to remember he was a man because if he wasn’t a man and didn’t go through everything we went through, it wouldn’t mean anything to me.

“I remember at one point in my particular life, somebody saying to me if I was in a lot of pain or struggling or doubting, questioning my life, in that kind of turmoil, and somebody would say, ‘Well, Jesus knows what you’re going through,’ I would’ve said, ‘No way does he know what I’m going through. Not if he’s God. Not if at any time he can call upon His God side and rise above the problem. He wouldn’t really know it. If he did know it, it would be patronizing, condescending. . . .’ ” Stanton and Been are unlikely to discuss theology at the Coach House show.

As they undertake a six-week, cross-country tour together, they only semi-facetiously admit to being a wee bit wary about running into any anti-”Temptation” forces in the heartland who might have traded in their petitions for weaponry.

Been would just as soon deal by mail with the folks peeved at him for playing the Apostle John in the movie. One recent missive to Been from an evangelical fan explained at length how much the Call’s records had meant to him during several emotional crises--followed by an addendum that, after the fan had learned of Been’s role in the movie, he had felt compelled to destroy all his beloved Call records.

Well, there is one more empty seat now available at the Coach House.

Harry Dean Stanton and Michael Been appear at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano, Sunday at 8 p.m. Tickets: $13.50. Information: (714) 496-8930. Stanton and Been also play Sept. 29 at Bogart’s in Long Beach and Sept. 30 at McCabe’s in Santa Monica.