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The Raudelunas
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." 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 landlady, who was on her lawn next door watching the parade was so humiliated 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." Raudelunas mounted marching bands for the parade for 5 years:
Film footage of the Marching Vegetable Band was shot by Fletcher Paul Hayes. Paul assures us that the film of both the parade and Randy Newman concert is not lost, but merely buried or misplaced. Perhaps it will surface in time to help Skizz Cyzyk with his Raudelunas/Lane documentary!
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