Peter Ivers

Peter Ivers (September 20, 1946 — March 3, 1983) was an American musician and songwriter from Boston who released the 1969 Epic album Knight of the Blue Communion, followed by the 1974–76 Warner albums Terminal Love and Peter Ivers.

As a songwriter, he co-wrote “In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)” for the 1977 David Lynch surreal-horror film Eraserhead. During the early 1980s, Ivers hosted the USA Network music program New Wave Theatre. His second-recorded album (from 1970) appeared posthumously on Wounded Bird Records.

Background

He was born Peter Scott Rose on September 20, 1946, in Chicago; the son of homemaker Merle and physician Jordan Waldemar Rose (1910–1949). When Peter was two, Jordan fell ill with lung cancer. After his death, Merle married Boston businessman Paul Isenstein who, at Merle’s insistence, adopted a new family surname, Ivers, selected from a phone book. Peter and his sister, Erica, grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, with Merle and their new stepfather.

Peter took up harmonica, encouraged by his music-loving mother. He attended Roxbury Latin School and studied classical languages at Harvard. In 1968, he played harmonica with the unsigned Boston band Street Choir (not the Beacon Street Union or the NY band Street, both erroneously cited as Ivers tie-ins).

Meanwhile, Ivers established a songwriting partnership with playwright and lyricist Timothy S. Mayer (1944–1988). Ivers secured a solo contract with Epic Records.

Knight of the Blue Communion

Peter Ivers released his debut album, Knight of the Blue Communion, in November 1969 on Epic.

The album contains ten songs co-written with Tim Mayer, including “Cat Scratch Fever” and “Dark Illumination.” Ivers assembled an eight-piece band for Blue Communion featuring bassoonist Steve Kowarsky, contrabassist Richard Youngstein, saxophonist Paul Balmuth, electronics intermodulator Joe Seale, oboist Harry Shuman, guitarist Tony Ackerman, and veteran jazz percussionist Robert Pozar, formerly of the Bob James Trio. 

Epic co-billed Blue Communion to Sri Lankan jazz singer Yolande Bavan, previously of the RCA Victor trio Lambert, Hendrick & Bavan.

A1. “Cat Scratch Fever” (7:38)
A2. “Water Curtain” (3:45)
A3. “Dark Illumination” (4:18)
A4. “Confession” (2:31)
A5. “Traveling Lightly” (6:15)

B1. “Showroom Model” (4:29)
B2. “Tobacco” (2:22)
B3. “Lord God Love” (5:00)
B4. “Knight of the Blue Communion” (2:45)
B5. “Gentle Jesus” (9:00)

According to the sleeve, Ivers and Mayer wrote the songs between August 1968 and May 1969. In Peter’s words, Tim’s “words deal with themes with which he was vitally concerned [and] don’t mistake themselves for poetry.”

Ackerman also played on one track (“Glossolaloa”) on the sole album by Appaloosa, a Columbia Records one-off produced by Al Kooper. Ivers played harmonica on “Country Road,” a track on Kooper’s 1970 double-album Easy Does It.

Mayer used songs from Knight of the Blue Communion in Jesus, A Passion Play for Americans, a 1970 theatrical production presented on the PBS affiliates WNET (Newark) and WGBH (Boston).

Take It Out On Me

In 1970, Peter Ivers recorded a second album for Epic, which released one single from the project but shelved the remaining contents. The album finally appeared in 2009 as Take It Out On Me, a CD release on Wounded Bird Records.

Take It Out On Me contains eight Ivers originals, including two (“Clarence O’Day” and the title track) with lyrics by Tim Mayer. The set includes one cover, “Our Day Will Come,” a 1962 Billboard No. 1 for the Akron R&B quintet Ruby & The Romantics; written by Canadian composer Mort Garson with Broadway lyricist Bob Hilliard.

Ivers recorded the songs with East Indian vocalist Asha Puthli, a future disco-pop singer. The only song released at the time was “Clarence O’Day,” which Epic placed as the b-side of Ivers 1971 cover of the Marvin Gaye classic “Ain’t That Peculiar” (excluded from this set).

1. “Substitute Teacher” (6:45)
2. “Memphis Sly” (5:08)
3. “Make Me” (2:51)
4. “Total Eclipse-Part 1” (3:35)
5. “Take It Out On Me” (5:47)
6. “Clarence O’Day” (2:28)
7. “Scar Song” (5:18)
8. “Our Day Will Come” (4:29)
9. “Total Eclipse-Part 2” (1:21)

Ivers recorded the album with the former writer/producer for girl group The Toys, Sandy Linzer, who produced Take It Out On Me around the same time as the two 1971 Epic singles by Rufus, who scored subsequent hits on ABC Records.

Ivers secured a subsequent deal with Warner Bros. He played harmonica on one track (“Vaudeville Man”) on Love Has Got Me, the 1973 Warner debut by signer/songwriter Wendy Waldman.

Terminal Love

Peter Ivers released his third-recorded album, Terminal Love, on July 3, 1974, on Warner Bros.

For this album, he formed the Peter Peter Ivers Band, comprised of Fanny drummer Alice DeBuhr, former Far Cry/Natural Food guitarist Pail Lenart, El Monte Art Ensemble saxophonist Marty Krystal, and veteran contrabassist Buell Neidlinger, a longtime Cecil Taylor sideman with recent credits beside Van Dyke Parks and Roderick Taylor. 

Ex-Goldenrod guitarist Ben Benay plays on “Oo Girl,” “Even Stephen Foster,” and the title track. Two songs (“My Grandmother’s Funeral” and “Deborah”) feature Elephant Memory guitarist David Cohen and L.T.D. percussionist Billy Osborne. Early Zappa guitarist Elliot Ingber plays unspecified additional guitar. Terminal Love also features six female backing vocalists, including Sherlie Matthews, a recent sessionist for Bang, Ballin’jack, and Steely Dan.

A1. “Alpha Centauri” (3:10)
A2. “Sweet Enemy” (2:47)
A3. “Terminal Love” (2:50)
A4. “My Grandmother’s Funeral” (2:24)
A5. “Modern Times” (3:10)

B1. “Deborah” (4:01)
B2. “Oo Girl” (2:28)
B3. “Audience of One” (4:49)
B4. “Felladaddio” (1:50)
B5. “Holding The Cobra” (4:27)
B6. “Even Stephen Foster” (2:26)

Ivers and Neidlinger co-produced the album at the Producers Workshop, a Hollywood Boulevard studio that Peter used amid bookings by Fanny, Carly Simon, Martha Reeves, and Phoebe Snow. Politicians soundman Jerry Hall co-engineered Terminal Love with Bart Chiate, who also worked on 1973/74 albums by Michael Franks and Rick Wakeman.

Terminal Love appeared in a cover designed by Can’t Buy a Thrill illustrator Robert Lockart and an arrowed-heart photo by Steven Silverstein, also credited with 1974–76 cover images for Candi Staton, Journey, Joe Cocker, and Charlie & The Pep Boys.

Ivers played harmonica on the 1974 John Klemmer albums Fresh Feathers and Magic and Movement.

In 1975, Ivers wrote lyrics for two songs sung by country singer Jim Connor and one (“Dawn: Eagle Call”) sung by ex-Monkee Michael Nesmith for Blue Angels, composer Fred Myrow’s soundtrack to the film about the U.S. Navy’s flight squadron with narration by sci-fi writer Frank Herbert; read by actor Leslie Nielsen.

Peter Ivers

Peter Ivers released his eponymous fourth-recorded album on July 23, 1976, on Warner Bros.

Gary Wright produced the album and played keyboards and Moog bass as part of Ivers’ backing band, which featured veteran LA session guitarist Waddy Wachtel and emerging session drummer Art Wood, plus ex-Gypsy bassist Willie Weeks, a recent sideman for Stevie Wonder (Innervisions) and David Bowie (Young Americans).

Peter Ivers was the inaugural credit for pianist Steve Porcaro, the eighteen-year-old youngest brother of the Porcaro clan that later formed Toto.

A1. “I’m Sorry Alice” (4:11)
A2. “In Pursuit of Treasure” (3:18)
A3. “Eighteen and Dreaming” (2:49)
A4. “Peter” (2:49)
A5. “Peter and the Wolfe’s” (2:48)

B1. “Send Your Love Over” (3:46)
B2. “You Used to Be Stevie Wonder” (2:54)
B3. “Rock and Roll Embarrassment” (2:31)
B4. “Gilbert and Sylvia” (3:46)
B5. “Child In a Chair” (3:12)

Sessions occurred at three Los Angeles studios: Sunset Sound, Warner Bros. Recording, and Stronghold Sound Recorders, where Wright recorded his recent third solo album, The Dream Weaver, his first since the final breakup of Spooky Tooth.

Peter Ivers features seven backing vocalists, including Gary and his sister, Lorna Wright, plus Carly Simon and Terminal Love bassist Buell Neidlinger. This was among twenty concurrent releases with Wachtel, also heard on 1976 albums by Andrew Gold, Dianne Brooks, Linda Ronstadt, Maria Muldaur, Sammy Walker, Tom Snow, and Warren Zevon. Porcaro played on Wright’s subsequent solo album, The Light of Smiles.

Ivers mixed the album with Dream Weaver soundman Jay Lewis, who also worked on Michel Polnareff‘s soundtrack to the 1976 thriller Lipstick, about an electronic musician turned sex offender.

French photographer Claude Mougin earned his earliest cover credit with Ivers’ mic stand pose. Mougin photographed subsequent covers for Airto Moreira, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Leo Sayer, Olivia Newton-John, Ohio Players, and Rod Stewart. 

Warner lifted “Eighteen and Dreaming” as a single (b/w “Peter”) with the ubiquitous palm tree label (“Burbank, Home of Warner Bros. Records”). “In Pursuit of Treasure” appears on The People’s Record, a 1976 two-record Warner comp with cuts by Alice Cooper (“Go to Hell”), Al Jarreau (“Hold On Me”),  Fleetwood Mac (“Over My Head”), Little Feat (“All That You Dream”), Nazareth (“I Will Not Be Led”), and Tiger (“Suzy Slicker”). The compilation gained notoriety for its gatefold cover, based on poster art of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

1977–1980

In 1977, Peter Ivers produced Victory In Rock City, the third album by Roderick Taylor and his second under the ‘Roderick Falconer’ stagename.

As a film composer, Ivers scored the 1977 Ron Howard vehicle Grand Theft Auto and composed “In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)” for Eraserhead, a surreal-horror film by director David Lynch, who wrote the song’s lyrics. 

In 1978, Ivers demoed material for Nirvana Cuba, an unrealized stage show. The demo consisted of four songs:

“Miraculous Weekend” (3:21)
“Happy On the Grill” (2:18)
“Love Is a Jungle” (3:00)
“Free the Funk” (3:31)

Rod Taylor co-produced the last three tracks. In 1979, Ivers scored the fifth episode of B.J. and the Bear, an NBC action-comedy series starring Greg Evigan.

1981–1983

In 1981, Ivers recorded four songs for his second musical, Vitamin Pink Fantasy Review.

“I’ve Got a Sex Crush” (2:57)
“Saigon Rainstorm” (4:34)
“My Dissonant Mother” (3:36)
“Harmonica Solo” (2:00) 

In 1982, actor Harold Ramus co-produced two performances of Vitamin Pink at Hollywood’s Club Lingerie. 

Meanwhile, Ivers produced Circus Mort, a 1981 EP with Swans drummer Jonathan Kane and Del-Byzanteens brothers Dan Braun (bass) and Josh Braun (keyboards). 

As a songwriter, Ivers collaborated with lyricist John Lewis Parker on “Can’t We Fall In Love Again,” a 1981 R&B Top 10 for Phyllis Hyman and Michael Henderson. Ivers formed a subsequent songwriting partnership with Frannie Golde. They wrote 1982–83 songs for Diana Ross (“Let’s Go Up”), Junko Yagami (“He’s My Kind”), Kimiko Kasai (“Give Me Your Heart Tonight”), and Marty Balin (“All We Really Need”). 

In January 1982, Ivers produced and played harmonica on Swingrass ’83, a collection of jazz standards by Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk performed by Buell Neidlinger and friends. The album (released posthumously) includes a rendition of “Alpha Centauri.”

Between April 1982 and February 1983, Ivers hosted 25 episodes of New Wave Theatre, a half-hour music show aired in Los Angeles on channel 18 (UHF) and seen on the USA Network (cable) as part of the Night Flight variety program. New Wave Theatre featured performances by American punk and new wave acts, including 45 Grave, The Blasters, Dead Kennedys, Fear, Geza X, Plugz, Rayonics, Red Wedding, Wet Picnic, and Zoogz Rift. The series was produced by David Jove, an erratic character with two folk albums to his credit.

Death 

On March 3, 1983, Ivers was found dead in his Los Angeles loft; the victim of a hammer attack. He was 36. LAPD failed to secure the crime scene before friends and visitors dropped by the loft as news spread across the community. Consequently, many items disappeared from the scene, which got contaminated by more than 30 DNA profiles. Ivers’ killer was never identified. 

In March 1985, Warner released Nirvana Peter, a compilation with two tracks each from Terminal Love (“Alpha Centauri,” “Even Stephen Foster”), Peter Ivers (“Eighteen and Dreaming,” “Peter and the Wolfe’s”), and the Nirvana Cuba and Vitamin Pink material.

Discography:

• Knight of the Blue Communion (1969)
• Terminal Love (1974)
• Peter Ivers (1976)
• Swingrass ’83 (1983 • Buell Neidlinger, Peter Erskine, Marty Krystall, Peter Ivers, Andy Statman, Richard Greene & Fred Tackett)
• Take It Out On Me (2009, recorded 1970)
• Becoming Peter Ivers (archival, 2019)