Search - Peter Ivers :: Peter Ivers

When brilliantly inventive artists 'go commercial'...

Ferrara Brain Pan | San Francisco CA | 09/02/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This is what you get. It's an old, familiar story. Witness the careers of Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart, both of whom built reputations as uncompromisingly inventive rock musicians in the 1960s with a string of fantastic and groundbreaking albums, only to start releasing watered-down crap in the mid-1970s in an effort to finally achieve the commercial success that had eluded them for so long. This album by Peter Ivers fits into that pattern of creative suicide and compromise of artistic integrity. At least Zappa got a big chunk of the financial success he was chasing after, this album (like Beefheart's two horrible Mercury label albums in 1973-74) was another big dud for Peter. He had a two-album deal with Warner Bros and after his weirdly wonderful Terminal Love album (with its very imaginative production by Peter's bassist and musical mentor Buell Neidlinger) died a commercial death, the label twisted his arm to get Gary Wright to produce his followup (remember the saccarine chartbuster "Dream Weaver" that was infecting the airwaves back in 1976 and you'll remember Gary Wright's smarmy greatness). This sorry album was the result. Peter got to keep his clever and amusing lyric style, endearingly high-pitched voice and authoritative harmonica playing, but the production and arrangements here make the whole thing pretty unlistenable, in my opinion. It's not that I can't stand commercial mainstream pop music (I love ABBA or Bananarama as much as anyone). It's just that when you take a true oddball like Peter Ivers and try to make him into a run-of-the-mill middle-of-the-road pop star, it's bound to fall flat and unconvincing. It's sad to think that it didn't necessarily have to turn out this way, either. Peter was a good friend of Van Dyke Parks - why didn't he enlist Parks to produce this album, now there's a man with production stripes and clout to have molded his eccentricities into something palatable to a wider audience. Nope. This record is a sad letdown. Recommended only for diehard Peter Ivers completists."