RAUDELUNAS MARCHING BANDS
The Raudelunas Marching Vegetable band debut in the University of Alabama Homecoming Parade in 1973. Clipping from The Tuscaloosa News.
The Raudelunas Marching Vegetable band debuted in the University of Alabama Homecoming Parade in 1973. Clipping from The Tuscaloosa News.
The Raudelunas Marching Vegetable Band was "organized" in 1973 to bring art and improvised music to the football crowd. Rehearsal was held the morning of the parade while queuing up. The band punctuated its free improvisation with choruses of Don Cherry's "March of the Hobbits," pausing briefly at the reviewing stand for vegetables to smash up some human mannequins (retribution for countless indignities heaped upon vegetables by mankind) to the confusion of University of Alabama dignitaries, including Governor George C. Wallace.
The parade goers seemed delighted if confused by the band, however the group was not universally well-loved. The person pulling a wagon containing Anne LeBaron's concert harp ran out of the steam about halfway through the parade route. When he, Anne, and Craig Nutt stopped at Nutt's apartment on the route to lock up the harp, they were followed by the whole band. The band returned to the parade in time to join the float of perennial Alabama gubernatorial candidate, Birmingham barber "Shorty" Price and a group of drunken law students. The landlady, who was on her lawn next door watching the parade was so humiliated by the spectacle that the apartment tenants were asked to vacate within 30 days and the house was torn down.
On a more positive note, the Raudelunas Marching Vegetable Band was invited to perform a fanfare in celebration of Randy Newman's 30th birthday during during a concert in Tuscaloosa on November 30, 1973. Hearsay, was that Newman thought the band was "weird."
The Raudelunas mounted four more marching bands in subsequent years, three of which were documented by Janice Hathaway and posted on Fresh Dirt (see linked photos below).
The Raudelunas Marching Vegetable Band was "organized" in 1973 to bring art and improvised music to the football crowd. Rehearsal was held the morning of the parade while queuing up. The band punctuated its free improvisation with choruses of Don Cherry's "March of the Hobbits," pausing briefly at the reviewing stand for vegetables to smash up some human mannequins (retribution for countless indignities heaped upon vegetables by mankind) to the confusion of University of Alabama dignitaries, including Governor George C. Wallace.
The parade goers seemed delighted if confused by the band, however the group was not universally well-loved. The person pulling a wagon containing Anne LeBaron's concert harp ran out of the steam about halfway through the parade route. When he, Anne, and Craig Nutt stopped at Nutt's apartment on the route to lock up the harp, they were followed by the whole band. The band returned to the parade in time to join the float of perennial Alabama gubernatorial candidate, Birmingham barber "Shorty" Price and a group of drunken law students. The landlady, who was on her lawn next door watching the parade was so humiliated by the spectacle that the apartment tenants were asked to vacate within 30 days and the house was torn down.
On a more positive note, the Raudelunas Marching Vegetable Band was invited to perform a fanfare in celebration of Randy Newman's 30th birthday during during a concert in Tuscaloosa on November 30, 1973. Hearsay, was that Newman thought the band was "weird."
The Raudelunas mounted four more marching bands in subsequent years, three of which were documented by Janice Hathaway and posted on Fresh Dirt (see linked photos below).
November 17, 1973
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November 2, 1974
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November 15, 1975
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October 23, 1976
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October 22, 1977