Book: All’s Well in Heaven: The Unsettled Life of Peter Ivers and the Lost History of New Wave Theatre
authors: josh frank with charlie buckholtz
You are reading: I read odd books
book type: non-fiction, biography, true crime
why do i find this book weird? because it made me feel sorry for chevy chase for a minute or so.
availability: published by soft skull in 2010, you can get a copy here:
Comments: I bought this book in my typical hoarder fashion. I was at the annual new year’s day sale on bookpeople and the title caught my eye because, like all the slightly weird girls in the 80’s, I really liked the draft. It took me a couple of years to read it and I should have read it by the time I brought it home because it’s a very readable and entertaining true crime biography hybrid. The prologue to this book is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read. ten pages of utter chaos that should have humbled chevy chase forever. The prologue is the price of admission to this book, the reason you should read it, but after those ten hilarious and raucous pages, the rest of the book is deeply fascinating.
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I had never heard of peter ivers before this book, which means I had never heard of new wave theater either. he was a man who needed a book to help people like me know who he was and why he was so important and influential, even though his name is not remembered to the extent that his influence should dictate. The book as a whole is a look at how the ivy league drama departments and national satire magazine spawned saturday night live, a bunch of hilarious 70s movies like caddyshack, and how peter ivers was a member of all those specific tribes. In addition to being a pioneer who introduced punk and new wave music in the United States in one of the first cable stations.
Peter Ivers was one of those people who was always ahead of the curve, knowing instinctively what the next big thing was going to be. Educated at Harvard, Ivers was primarily a musician and songwriter, but his influence extended to much of the entertainment industry. however, despite having the finger on many a pulse, he never really achieved the level of fame that his talent and insight deserved. Worse yet, he was assassinated just when it seemed he was about to become as famous as the people in his circle, like Harold Ramis, John Belushi, and Chevy Chase. this is a very sad story in many ways but at the same time the overwhelming sadness was not apparent to me until i started writing this discussion because this book is really such an engaging and fun read that the sheer entertainment value of the book mitigates the injustice of ivers’ murder. that’s not a flaw either, because eventually the reality of life’s waste hits you, but it’s also a testament to the interesting nature of ivers’ life and the interesting nature of those around him that this isn’t an entirely sad book. /p>
It’s actually maddening to realize how interesting ivers was and to know that he’s been under the radar for all these years, and the reason he wasn’t even a soft spot on the main radar is because he was actually very ahead of others. curve that the public did not appreciate the efforts of him until the moment was gone. Muddy Waters once said that Ivers, who never missed an opportunity to get on stage and play with big-name bluesmen, was the best blues harmonica player in the world, but Ivers’s band’s New Wave album was released and received poorly. fanfare. However, David Lynch listened to Ivers’ album and decided that Ivers’s sound was just what he needed for his weird film school project, Eraserhead.
Typical of Ivers’ career, being recognized by Lynch and working with the filmmaker didn’t really do much for Ivers’ career, even though Ivers was responsible for one of the most iconic scenes and songs in film history. : cheeks with mumps. little girl on the radiator singing “all is well in heaven”.
that creepy voice? that’s ivers. how the hell did i not know this all these years?
Well, I didn’t know that because ivers’ influence and talent were often part of someone else’s dream and goal.
ivers seems to be best known for his work on new wave theater, one of the first live cable shows with a format that introduced audiences to various new wave and punk bands and popular comedians. host peter played the provocative harvard weirdo of many rough gangs. Ivers was a small man but he never failed in his role, often angering gangs, sometimes being threatened by them while interviewing them. the fact that he often assumed a slightly homosexual persona only caused some of the more macho gangs to channel their sense of unease from him into potential violence. However, many bands realized what was happening, understood the purpose of Ivers’s veiled thumps and shiny appearance, and befriended him, notably members of the bands Fear, 45 Grave, and The Dead Kennedys. .
after a couple of years of presenting new wave theatre, ivers began to chafe under the pressure put on him by show producer david jove, a crazy drug addict who surrounded himself with even crazier crazies. Ivers had found a songwriting partner and together they were creating great songs that were selling well and he was ready to take his career in a new direction. Diana Ross and the Pointer Sisters ended up performing songs that he and his partner wrote. With a burgeoning songwriting career ahead of him, he finally gave a jubilant notice in New Wave theater. Shortly after giving notice, Ivers was found in his apartment, beaten to death with a hammer.
The way the police handled the case will leave anyone with the most basic knowledge of crime scene containment and murder investigation in disbelief. even before the investigation began, while the bloody sheets were still on the bed where ivers died, people were allowed to enter ivers’ apartment and search his belongings, take out items, bring in new items, and ultimately the Police considered Ivers to be just some freak who was probably picked up by one of the punks he hung out with. The influence of celebrities advocating for Ivers — an ex-girlfriend who was a studio executive and Harold Ramis among them — wasn’t enough to overcome the horrific way the police handled the investigation. he was killed in 1983 and the most likely suspect died of cancer so there will never be much in the way of justice for ivers outside of this book that shows us how important ivers was and how he was the kind of person that anticipated to mtv several years in advance, who understood the importance of david lynch before anyone else, who was able to preach with harvard graduates, street punks, hollywood executives, pop stars, bluesmen and film vanguard.
The book details all of the relationships Ivers had with rich and powerful people, as well as giving the reader a look at his personal and romantic relationships. the former are quite interesting, the latter not so much (I found his longtime girlfriend so insufferable that I found myself skipping all the passages involving her – she was the kind of woman who considered herself counter-cultural, taking a job with a major study in defiance of his personal beliefs, then spent weeks crying over it, bleah), but even the least interesting passages don’t really diminish what an interesting person said he was and how interesting this book is. I navigated it in two readings. seldom do biographies or true crime books demand my attention in this way.
best line in the book:
for peter, underutilized potential was a tear in the fabric of the cosmos.
The bad thing is that peter’s potential was never wasted. many people used it. it just didn’t get much benefit from all that use.
this is one of my shorter reviews because the scope of this book is such that one goes long and barely scratches the surface or one mentions the best parts and barely scratches the surface. for once I decided to err on the side of word conservation.
But I can’t stress enough how funny, really hilarious, the prologue is. seriously i read it out loud to mr oddbooks and we both laughed until we couldn’t breathe. chevy chase, in a mohawk wig, trying to introduce a successor to new wave theater while completely drunk, unfamiliar with punk culture, yelling at bewildered punks, “is there anyone else who thinks they can take me down? ” while Cyndi Lauper waits backstage, presumably wondering if he should fire his manager. highly recommended.
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