Peter Ivers

Peter Scott Ivers (September 20, 1946 - March 3, 1983) 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 Lankan jazz diva Yolande Bavan, who many erroneously believe was married to Ivers). 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; he played Beautiful Dreamer on the harmonica at Kenney's funeral. Ivers was also close friends with John Belushi. Both men preceded Ivers in death. In 1983, Peter Ivers was found bludgeoned to death with a hammer in his Los Angeles apartment. The murderer was never identified. Harvard established the Peter Ivers Visiting Artist Program in his memory. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.