Psychic Tomato

(This double review originally appeared in April 2007.)

And now, a record review for this Palm Sunday, exploring the roots of one of the biggest heavy metal bands of all time:

Psychic Tomato: Live at Debbie DiMarco's Seventh Birthday Party (1973)

Not too many people are aware of this, but when the heavy metal band Kiss first formed, their act was completely different from the fire-breathing, blood-spitting stage show they would later perfect. Before they were Kiss, they went around in clown suits and performed kiddie songs under the name "Psychic Tomato."

This early bootleg from a 1973 birthday party in Queens features Gene Simmons, Peter Criss, Paul Stanley, and Strom Thurmond (as Ace Frehley was known then) performing songs that would disappear from their metal repertoire. Their signature song "Sponge Cake," about trying to find a sponge cake and eat it, is performed here with passion and meaning by Stanley as he tries to make little Debbie DiMarco laugh. "Long Song," a twenty-minute jam built around the lyric "This . . . is . . . a . . . long . . . song. . . ", exudes some tense playing from Thurmond on his ukulele. Although, for my money, nothing can top their performance of "Cream Pie Baby," where the group members do Indian war chants and throw cream pies in each other's faces.

Sadly, this incarnation of the band did not last long.

(Psychic Tomato, circa 1973. From left: Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss, Strom Thurmond [now Ace Frehley].)

Kiss: Live at the St. Cloud Benihana (1974)

To understand how Psychic Tomato became Kiss, it's worth providing some context. The group's manager, Freddy DeMint, was able to get them an audition with Neil Bogert's Casablanca Records in 1974. Bogert liked Psychic Tomato's sloppy playing, but he knew they had to change their act if they were going to get anywhere. He knew just what to do. First, he had DeMint stripped naked, dipped in chocolate syrup, and dropped by helicopter over an active volcano in Hawaii. Once that was done, Bogert suggested to Strom Thurmond that taking a racist senator's name as his stage name wasn't a smart idea. Thurmond explained that his real name was Paul Frehley, but that he had to take a new name because there was already a Paul in the band, and his first choice - Elton John - was already taken. Immediately, Bogert knew he was dealing with a bunch of idiots. But he took a chance.

Bogert got Psychic Tomato to write misogynistic metal songs, had Thurmond change his name to Ace Frehley, and got them to work out meatier, louder playing on their songs. He then got the band a gig at a restaurant out in the Midwest where they were to work out a new stage act. When Simmons asked Bogert for advice, Bogert replied, "Keep it simple, stupid." Realizing that the acrostic in Bogert's reply spelled out "Kiss," Paul Stanley suggested that it be the band's new name. "Kiss" was selected in a three-to-one vote, with Simmons voting for his choice, "Wet Dog Food."

Kiss then played a one-month engagement at the Benihana of Tokyo restaurant in Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where they alternated with a local Kabuki repertory company that did interpretations of Hollywood movies. One night, Simmons and Stanley caught the Kabuki actors in their performance of their version of The Curse of Frankenstein. They both jumped up. That was it - their new stage act!

A live bootleg from this engagement, Live at the St. Cloud Benihana, has finally been released, after only one copy in existence had been in the possession of one of the Lennon Sisters for so many years. An early version of "Strutter" still finds Frehley adjusting to a real guitar, but he still plays a mean uke solo on "Black Diamond." Paul Stanley's moment is his piano solo on "Rock and Roll All Nite," although Neil Bogert would have the group take the piano out of the arrangement later on. Simmons shows some real fire on his cover of "When You Wish Upon A Star," a song he would record on his 1978 solo LP. This record is interesting to a point, but the slicing and dicing from Japanese chefs and the oohs and ahhs from the customers for the chefs are not mixed out entirely, so it can be a sonic distraction. My advice: Stick with Alive II.

APRIL FOOL!

Oh, is it April Fool's Day as well as Palm Sunday? :-D

I have made all of this up! (Except for the part about Gene Simmons covering "When You Wish Upon A Star" on his 1978 solo LP - that part's true! :-O)