Music legends sing praises of icon in ‘Peter Asher’
I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to live in a world without Peter Asher, the multifaceted redheaded Brit who made icons out of James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt and Carole King while winning two Grammys as Producer of the Year and enjoying his own brief moment of fame as half of the platinum-selling duo, Peter and Gordon. Oh, yeah, he also used to be a child actor. Not to mention, kept Paul McCartney in line as the older brother of actress Jane Asher, for whom a smitten Sir Paul wrote “And I Love Her,” “I’m Looking Through You” and the gorgeous “Here There and Everywhere.”
That’s some life, but Asher seldom gets his due. Until now. Thanks to the directing team of Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine (“Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song”), we’re blessed with the fascinating documentary “Peter Asher: Everywhere Man,” which finds the spry 82-year-old still plugging away, brilliant mind sharp as ever, as he dishes about the highlights of his roughly 75-year career.
Grounding their film is a multimedia concert Asher performed in 2024 at Bimbo’s 365, located in his adopted hometown of Los Angeles. In what Asher describes as a “musical memoir,” he and his backing band perform such Peter and Gordon classics as “I Go to Pieces” and the McCartney-penned “A World Without Love,” separated by reminiscences enhanced by photos, home movies and archival footage chronicling Asher’s life as a singer, producer, manager and bookstore/art gallery proprietor.
He’s literally telling tales out of school while recounting how he met Gordon Waller while both were attending the prestigious Westminster School in London. The two hit it off and soon realized their angelic harmonies were worth sharing with the world. But neither wrote music, and they needed an original song if they had any hope of becoming part of the burgeoning British Invasion. Turns out their godsend was living right under Asher’s roof in the Wimpole Street townhome he shared with his parents, two ginger sisters and one James Paul McCartney, a lad from Liverpool who, at the time, was living rent-free in their attic while he and his three mates – John, George and Ringo – were about to become a worldwide phenomenon.
The song was “A World Without Love,” which John Lennon hated so much that McCartney felt he had no choice but to gift it to Asher, who turned it into an international smash that knocked The Beatles, of all people, from the No. 1 slot. Paul would go on to bless the twosome with “Woman” and “Nobody I Know.” And after Peter and Gordon split up, Paul hired Asher to run the A&R department at Apple, the new arts-promoting venture established by the Fab Four on tony Abbey Road.
His first major find in that role was a troubled kid from Boston with a golden voice and a whole new approach to folk rock. His name: James Taylor. His first record for Apple flopped, but once he and Asher decided to ditch London and head to L.A., everything changed. You know the history. But it’s no less exciting to hear how Asher serendipitously built a family around Taylor that would include famed session musicians such as guitarist Danny Kortchmar, drummer Russ Kunkle, bassist Lee Sklar and pianist Carole King. Along the way, they’d add Taylor’s sister, Kate, and a gifted female crooner from Arizona going by the name of Linda Ronstadt.
No doubt, Asher had the Midas touch, even realizing his dream of appearing on the cover of the Rolling Stone in 1979 with his two mealtickets, Ronstadt and Taylor. You keep expecting a setback in Asher’s amazing life, but there simply isn’t one, unless you count his divorce from Betsy Asher in 1977, a drug-related break-up that inspired the 1981 James Taylor hit, “Her Town Too.” I also found it interesting the contrast between Asher’s smashing successes and Waller’s rather woebegone life as a lifelong “oldies” act, forever attempting to find a partner as good as Peter Asher. Very sad, especially when you learn of Waller’s death at age 64, only months after the duo reunited for a couple of charity gigs.
Poignant moments like that abound in a film that’s a must for every baby boomer who came of age listening to Peter and Gordon, James Taylor, Carole King and Linda Ronstadt. The level of nostalgia is off the charts. It’s a little shocking to see how much these heroes have aged, yet you marvel at how vibrant they remain entering their eighties. Clean, California living, I guess. There’s so much history contained here, and at almost every seismic cultural shift, the Zelig-like Asher is somehow at the center ot it, including playing an integral part in the mating of Lennon and Yoko Ono. Yes, he says, you can blame him for the breakup of The Beatles.
Other than McCartney, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger (who stole Marianne Faithfull from Asher’s business partner, John Dunbar), you can’t name many other musicians who can say they’ve survived and adapted to the dozens of cultural changes that have come and gone over the past 65 years? Plus, Asher is just so damn likable. Just ask his longtime pals Steve Martin and Eric Idle, both on hand to sing the praises of their friend and collaborator, whose impeccable Swinging 60s fashion sense, we’re told, was the inspiration for Mike Myers’ mod look in the “Austin Powers” films.
If there’s a quibble, it’s that there’s not a lot of depth to it, but you love spending time with all these legends. In fact, “Everywhere Man” is one of those rare films you never want to end. The things this true Renaissance man has known and seen. You could pick his brain for hours. But for now, grudgingly, two hours will have to do. And don’t you just love how kismet it is that Asher’s very first acting job was in 1953, at age 7, in a film appropriately titled “Isn’t Life Wonderful.” If you’re Peter Asher, indeed it is and likely will continue to be.
Movie review
Peter Asher: Everywhere Man
Rated: Not rated
Featuring: Peter Asher, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, Danny Kortchmar, Gordon Waller, Steve Martin, Eric Idle, Paul McCartney, Jane Asher and Kate Taylor
Directors: Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine
Runtime: 118 minutes
Where: In theaters June 26 (limited)
Grade: A-
