Every now and then a show-business documentary comes along that catches my fancy and lingers in my mind for days. Such a film is Peter Asher: Everywhere Man. If you’re old enough to remember the musical British invasion led by The Beatles, you may recall a popular singing duo known as Peter and Gordon. They unseated the Beatles from the number-one position on the charts with a mournful song called “A World Without Love.” The irony is that it was written by Peter’s good friend Paul McCartney, who was then living with the Asher family.
That’s just the first of many surprising and colorful stories revealed in this highly entertaining, unabashedly nostalgic film. If it makes Asher seem like the Zelig of the music world, that’s because he intersected with so many prominent figures in that arena. Candid interviews with the likes of James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt attest to his gifts as a manager, record producer, and friend. Like them he has endured, survived and even thrived from the 1960s to the present day.
Everybody who’s anybody seems to pop up in the course of this sixty-year saga, from McCartney and Eric Idle to Steve Martin and Twiggy. (Twiggy!) I don’t know what a younger person will make of all this but it carried me back over decades of pop culture milestones I hadn’t thought about in a long, long time.
It fascinates me that so many of the gifted people who are interviewed almost drowned in a sea of narcotics—including Asher—yet survived to tell the tale. I never indulged in drugs so I find this phenomenon fascinating and (as a non-user) eternally puzzling.
Peter Asher: Everywhere Man has been making the rounds of film festivals since last fall at Telluride, and now it’s opening in theaters. A coast-to-coast roadshow with personal appearances by the directors, Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller, and in some cases Peter Asher himself, is just underway. You can learn more here: https://peterashermovie.com/ But I warn you: you may find it difficult to expunge “A World Without Love” from your cranium.
