Peter Ivers
Encyclopedia
Peter Scott Ivers was an American
musician
, best known as the host of New Wave Theatre
.
Ivers was born in Illinois
, but raised in Brookline
, a suburb of Boston
, Massachusetts
. He attended the Roxbury Latin School
and then Harvard University
, majoring in classical languages, but chose a career in music. He started playing harmonica
with the Boston-based Street Choir. He embarked on a solo career in 1969 with the Epic
release of his debut, Knight of the Blue Communion (also featuring Sri Lanka
n jazz
diva Yolande Bavan
, who many erroneously believe was married to Ivers).
on Take It Out On Me, his second album for Epic. The single from this second album, a cover of the Marvin Gaye
number, Ain't That Peculiar, backed by Ivers' original, Clarence O' Day, was released and briefly entered the Top 100 Singles Billboard charts but the album was shelved by Epic (only finally seeing the light of day in 2009). Subsequently, Peter signed with Warner Bros.
, where he recorded two more albums.
In 1971 and 1972, WNET
and WGBH
presented Jesus, A Passion Play for Americans, a play produced by Jac Venza
, Christopher Sarson and written and directed by Timothy Mayer. The music and lyrics were Ivers' from Knight of the Blue Communion. Other important roles are played by Andreas Teuber
, Asha Puthli
, Steve Kaplan
and Laura Esterman
. The work was broadcast as part of the WNET American Playhouse
series. As a rock retelling of the story of Jesus, the work was a precursor to classics of that genre, such as Godspell
and Jesus Christ Superstar
.
In 1976, Ivers was asked by David Lynch
to write a song for his movie, Eraserhead
. Ivers penned In Heaven (The Lady in the Radiator Song), which became the most well-known composition from the film.
Ivers' best friend was Harvard classmate Douglas Kenney
, founder of the National Lampoon. Ivers was also close friends with John Belushi
. Both men preceded Ivers in death.
In 1981 Ivers was tapped by David Jove
to host New Wave Theatre
on Los Angeles
TV station KSCI
which was shown irregularly as part of the weekend program Night Flight
on the fledgling USA Network
. The program was a frantic cacophony of music, theater and comedy, lorded over by Ivers with his manic presentation. Using a method of filming known as "live taped", the show was the first opportunity for many alternative musicians to receive nationwide exposure. Notable bands who appeared on the show included The Angry Samoans, The Dead Kennedys, 45 Grave
, Fear
and The Plugz
.
In 1983, he performed on the Antilles Records
release Swingrass '83
.
apartment. Harvard established the Peter Ivers Visiting Artist Program in his memory.
Josh Frank and Charlie Buckholtz have written a book about Ivers' life, art and mysterious death, In Heaven Everything Is Fine: The Unsolved Life of Peter Ivers and the Lost History of New Wave Theatre. On the basis of new information unearthed during the creation of this book, the Los Angeles Police Department
has reopened their investigation into Ivers' death.
* Compilation of previous Warner recordings with bonus tracks
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, best known as the host of New Wave Theatre
New Wave Theatre
New Wave Theatre was a television program broadcast locally in the Los Angeles area on UHF channel 18 and eventually on the USA Network as part of the late night variety show Night Flight during the early 1980s. The show was created and produced by David Jove, who also wrote the program with...
.
Ivers was born in Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, but raised in Brookline
Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, which borders on the cities of Boston and Newton. As of the 2010 census, the population of the town was 58,732.-Etymology:...
, a suburb of Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. He attended the Roxbury Latin School
Roxbury Latin School
The Roxbury Latin School is the oldest school in continuous operation in North America. The school was founded in Roxbury, Massachusetts by the Rev. John Eliot under a charter received from King Charles I of England. Since its founding in 1645, it has educated boys on a continuous basis.Located...
and then Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, majoring in classical languages, but chose a career in music. He started playing harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
with the Boston-based Street Choir. He embarked on a solo career in 1969 with the Epic
Epic Records
Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...
release of his debut, Knight of the Blue Communion (also featuring Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
n jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
diva Yolande Bavan
Yolande Bavan
Yolande Bavan is a singer and actress. Born in Ceylon , she toured Australia and Asia as a performer with Graeme Bell's band early in her career. She is best known for replacing Annie Ross in the legendary vocal group Lambert, Hendricks & Ross after Ross was forced to leave the group due to poor...
, who many erroneously believe was married to Ivers).
Early career
In 1971 Ivers replaced Yolande with Asha PuthliAsha Puthli
Asha Puthli is an Indian-born singer-songwriter, producer and actress.Best recognized for her daredevil vocals on the "Science Fiction" album by jazz iconoclast Ornette Coleman, Asha Puthli has recorded ten solo albums for labels like EMI, CBS/Sony, and RCA...
on Take It Out On Me, his second album for Epic. The single from this second album, a cover of the Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
number, Ain't That Peculiar, backed by Ivers' original, Clarence O' Day, was released and briefly entered the Top 100 Singles Billboard charts but the album was shelved by Epic (only finally seeing the light of day in 2009). Subsequently, Peter signed with Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
, where he recorded two more albums.
In 1971 and 1972, WNET
WNET
WNET, channel 13 is a non-commercial educational public television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey. With its signal covering the New York metropolitan area, WNET is a primary station of the Public Broadcasting Service and a primary provider of PBS programming...
and WGBH
WGBH-TV
WGBH-TV, channel 2, is a non-commercial educational public television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. WGBH-TV is a member station of the Public Broadcasting Service , and produces more than two-thirds of PBS's national prime time television programming...
presented Jesus, A Passion Play for Americans, a play produced by Jac Venza
Jac Venza
Jac Venza is a public television producer who is directly responsible for most of the theatre and music programs that have been seen on PBS since its creation in 1970...
, Christopher Sarson and written and directed by Timothy Mayer. The music and lyrics were Ivers' from Knight of the Blue Communion. Other important roles are played by Andreas Teuber
Andreas Teuber
Andreas Teuber is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Brandeis University. He studied under Paul Grice at Oxford University and at Harvard University with philosophers John Rawls and Robert Nozick. Teuber is also a Member and Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ.In an...
, Asha Puthli
Asha Puthli
Asha Puthli is an Indian-born singer-songwriter, producer and actress.Best recognized for her daredevil vocals on the "Science Fiction" album by jazz iconoclast Ornette Coleman, Asha Puthli has recorded ten solo albums for labels like EMI, CBS/Sony, and RCA...
, Steve Kaplan
Steve Kaplan
Steven Kaplan is a professor of African studies and comparative religion at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is one of the leading modern scholars on the origins of the Beta Israel, or Ethiopian Jews. He was the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Hebrew University from 2004-2006.-External...
and Laura Esterman
Laura Esterman
Laura Esterman is an American actress known for portraying Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe in contemporary radio dramas and for her Drama Desk Award and Obie Award winning performance in the 1992 original stage production of Scott McPherson's Marvin's Room.-Life and career:Esterman was born in New York...
. The work was broadcast as part of the WNET American Playhouse
American Playhouse
American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.It premiered on January 12, 1982 with The Shady Hill Kidnapping, written and narrated by John Cheever and directed by Paul Bogart...
series. As a rock retelling of the story of Jesus, the work was a precursor to classics of that genre, such as Godspell
Godspell
Godspell is a musical by Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak. It opened off Broadway on May 17, 1971, and has played in various touring companies and revivals many times since, including a 2011 revival now playing on Broadway...
and Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Tim Rice. The musical started off as a rock opera concept recording before its first staging on Broadway in 1971...
.
In 1976, Ivers was asked by David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
to write a song for his movie, Eraserhead
Eraserhead
Eraserhead is a 1977 American surrealist film and the first feature film of David Lynch, who wrote, produced and directed. Lynch began working on the film at the AFI Conservatory, which gave him a $10,000 grant to make the film after he had begun working there following his 1971 move to Los Angeles...
. Ivers penned In Heaven (The Lady in the Radiator Song), which became the most well-known composition from the film.
Ivers' best friend was Harvard classmate Douglas Kenney
Douglas Kenney
Douglas C. Kenney was an American writer and actor who co-founded National Lampoon magazine in 1970. Kenney edited the magazine and wrote much of its early material.-Childhood:...
, founder of the National Lampoon. Ivers was also close friends with John Belushi
John Belushi
John Adam Belushi was an American comedian, actor, and musician, best known as one of the original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, The Star of the Films National Lampoon's Animal House and the The Blues Brothers and for fronting the American blues and soul...
. Both men preceded Ivers in death.
In 1981 Ivers was tapped by David Jove
David Jove
David Jove was a Canadian director, producer, and writer, particularly of underground and alternative music-themed films...
to host New Wave Theatre
New Wave Theatre
New Wave Theatre was a television program broadcast locally in the Los Angeles area on UHF channel 18 and eventually on the USA Network as part of the late night variety show Night Flight during the early 1980s. The show was created and produced by David Jove, who also wrote the program with...
on Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
TV station KSCI
KSCI
KSCI is an independent television station operating in Los Angeles and on KUAN-LP channel 48 in Poway, California, serving the San Diego area. It targets Asian Americans, and most of its programming is in Asian languages....
which was shown irregularly as part of the weekend program Night Flight
Night Flight (TV series)
Night Flight is a variety show that originated on the USA Network. An eclectic mix of short films, cartoons, B movies, stand up comedy, documentaries, music videos and more, Night Flight was broadcast, in various incarnations, from 1981 to 1996....
on the fledgling USA Network
USA Network
USA Network is an American cable television channel launched in 1971. Once a minor player in basic cable, the network has steadily gained popularity because of breakout hits like Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, White Collar, Monday Night RAW, Suits, and reruns of the various...
. The program was a frantic cacophony of music, theater and comedy, lorded over by Ivers with his manic presentation. Using a method of filming known as "live taped", the show was the first opportunity for many alternative musicians to receive nationwide exposure. Notable bands who appeared on the show included The Angry Samoans, The Dead Kennedys, 45 Grave
45 Grave
45 Grave are an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California formed in 1979. The original group broke up in 1985 but vocalist Dinah Cancer subsequently revived the band. 45 Grave are noted as one of the first bands to mix punk rock with horror-themed lyrics, thereby positioning them as...
, Fear
Fear (band)
Fear is an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1977. The band is credited for helping to shape the sound and style of American hardcore punk, the group started out as part of the early California punk rock scene, and gained national prominence after an infamous 1981...
and The Plugz
The Plugz
The Plugz were a Mexican-American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California that formed in 1977. They and The Zeros were among the first Chicano punk bands, although several Latino garage rock bands, such as Thee Midniters and Question Mark & the Mysterians, predated them...
.
In 1983, he performed on the Antilles Records
Antilles Records
Antilles Records was an American record label that was a subsidiary of Island Records.Its jazz catalog is now managed by Verve Records.-Discography:*1001 Joanne Brackeen - Special Identity 1981*1002 Biréli Lagrène- Routes To Django 1980...
release Swingrass '83
Swingrass '83
Swingrass '83 was a jazz and folk music ensemble which recorded one eponymous album for Antilles Records.Members Andy Statman, Richard Greene, Marty Crystal, Peter Ivers, Fred Tackett, Peter Erskine and Buell Neidlinger crafted the album in studio but with no overdubbing.The album consists of...
.
Death and biography
In 1983, Peter Ivers was found bludgeoned to death with a hammer in his Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
apartment. Harvard established the Peter Ivers Visiting Artist Program in his memory.
Josh Frank and Charlie Buckholtz have written a book about Ivers' life, art and mysterious death, In Heaven Everything Is Fine: The Unsolved Life of Peter Ivers and the Lost History of New Wave Theatre. On the basis of new information unearthed during the creation of this book, the Los Angeles Police Department
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
has reopened their investigation into Ivers' death.
Discography
- Knight of the Blue Communion (Epic, 1969)
- Take It Out on Me (recorded for Epic in 1971 but not released until 2009, by Wounded Bird Records)
- Terminal Love (Warner Bros., 1974)
- Peter Ivers (also known as Peter Peter Ivers) (Warner Bros., 1976)
- Nirvana Peter (Warner Bros., 1985)*
- The Untold Stories (K2B2 Records, 2008)
Other appearances
- Buellgrass - Big Night at Ojai (K2B2 Records, 1983); released on CD as Buellgrass - Across the Tracks