Peter Asher: Everywhere Man (2025) Movie Script

1
You've been
a friend of mine
That's that one chord.
-Yeah. Yeah.
-You know?
We'll try it.
There was such a mishmash
of people in those days...
And I'm talking about,
I guess, the '70s? '60s?
Late '60s, perhaps.
...but nobody remembers
how they met.
But Peter was always a kind of
ghostly, legendary figure
that you heard about.
You always heard his name.
Peter Asher, Peter Asher.
This guru. Uh... you know.
Uh, record world...
I didn't even know
what he did.
Good evening,
ladies and gentlemen.
My name is...
Eric Idle,
and tonight, it is my honor
and privilege
to introduce to you all
tonight
one of the finest names
in show business today.
A successful pop star,
record company executive,
producer, manager,
and recognized
throughout the world
as one of the greatest...
I'm sorry. I can't read
your handwriting, Peter.
...one...
of the greatest...
things in the entire universe.
Uh...
"Humanitarian,"
blah-di-blah-di-blah-di-blah.
"Grammys,"
blah-di-blah-di-blah.
"Shagged Marianne Faithfull,"
I don't think so.
Um...
Will you welcome, please,
tonight...
-Peter Asher.
-Peter Asher.
-Peter Asher.
-Peter Asher.
-Peter Asher.
-Peter Asher.
-Peter Asher.
-Peter Asher.
Peter... Asher.
When I see her
coming down the street
I get so shaky
and I feel so weak
I tell my eyes
"Look the other way"
But they don't seem to hear
a word I say
And I go to pieces
and I want to hide
Go to pieces
and I almost die
Every time
my baby passes by
Go to pieces and I cry
Every time
my baby passes by
Go to pieces and I cry
Every time
my baby passes by
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Well, this is, of course,
as it's billed.
This show is a memoir,
and so it may contain,
I warn you,
the acceptable proportion
of self-aggrandizing
revisionist history.
But I'll try to keep that
to a minimum, I promise.
So I guess the question is,
one of the questions
we're addressing tonight,
is how did all this happen?
You know, how did the son
of an eminent physician
and a classical musician
end up doing all this other
interesting stuff?
Actually, I kind of lurched
into show business
entirely accidentally
long before I started
singing professionally.
Now I can go and play
my favorite game:
watching the grown-ups.
The acting thing came
about in an interesting way.
I have two very beautiful
and talented sisters,
my sister Jane,
two years younger than me,
my sister Clare,
two years younger again.
My understanding is
it all began in the park
when somebody saw
the three of us
and said to Mother,
"Have you ever considered
putting your children
on the stage?"
or something like that.
-The hair. We looked so cute.
-I think it was--
-It was the hair.
-Yes, it was the hair.
This is
the actual page we found
in the Spotlight
casting directory.
In fact, it even says,
under "The Asher Family,"
"All have red hair."
I guess that was
the sales pitch, you know?
It wasn't "All are
incredibly great actors,"
or anything like that.
Daddy didn't tell me
he was shooting this morning.
Aren't you going to say
good morning?
I don't want to miss the guns.
Tell Daddy I'm coming.
Look out! It's a wolf trap.
If you got down under the net,
I could go and tell him
you'd fallen in.
No, you get under the net.
No, you. I thought of it!
No, I'd be frightened
down there.
Besides, boys can't act.
That was when my acting career
kind of gently...
tapered off, should we say?
Vivat Regina
I went to
what the English,
with their gift for irony,
called a public school,
which means it's not public
at all
and it's very hard to get into
and expensive.
Vivat! Vivat! Vivat!
Now, by that time,
I had persuaded my parents
to get me a guitar.
And while I was at school,
I noticed that there was
somebody else,
another pupil walking around,
holding a guitar case
from time to time.
His name was Gordon Waller.
Gordon, as you can see,
was incredibly handsome.
You know I can be found...
I mean, all of us
who played guitar and sang
used to stand
in front of the mirror
and pretend to be Elvis,
but he actually did
a very creditable job of it
and sang really well
with his big Elvisy voice.
To a heart that's true
I don't know
whether I heard Peter singing
or he heard me singing.
I think I heard him singing
and I started singing
in harmony with him,
and we actually realized
that we had a pair of voices
which sort of sounded okay
together.
If you
miss the train I'm on
You will know
that I have gone
You can hear
the whistle blow...
So we started working
up a little repertoire.
And then eventually we took
our combination of songs
and we started trying to get
some actual paid gigs.
We would go into pubs
and coffeehouses.
We bumped
into a couple of people
who owned a place called
The Pickwick Club
and they said, "Would you like
to come and audition?"
And we did our usual sort of
two or three demo songs.
They said,
"When can you start?"
Pickwick Club
was this sort of late-night
eating and drinking club
that all the cool, young
actors of the day would go to.
We were making
40 pounds a week each
plus tips.
I know it was nearly as much
as my father was making.
Now, at that point,
we had maybe a dozen songs
we could sing.
And as a duo,
we had a special place
in our hearts
for The Everly Brothers.
I'll never let you see
The way my broken heart
is hurting me
I've got my pride
and I know how to hide
Every duo
that there's ever been,
whether we're talking
Simon & Garfunkel,
Peter and Gordon,
or even Lennon and McCartney,
we all looked to
The Everly Brothers
as the best close harmony
singers of that era.
If I wait for cloudy skies
You...
That music, gosh, you know,
it shaped rock and roll.
You know, I was born in 1957,
so I was listening to
Peter and Gordon
and to The Beatles
before I was listening
to The Everly Brothers
and I became interested
in The Everly Brothers
because,
"Wow, these are the guys
that Peter and Gordon
and The Beatles..."
-Doing their best to copy.
-"...thought were cool." Yeah.
I'll do my crying
in the rain
We loved what they did.
We did lots of their songs.
We tried to sound as much
like them as we could,
which wasn't very successful.
I'll do my crying
in the rain
And then I realized
how it all works
which is you try to copy
people who you greatly admire
and in failing,
you come up with something
kind of interesting
and different, you know?
'Cause I'm a boy
With nothing
Who came from nowhere
But today
The people wanna hear
what I say
So one night,
we were in the Pickwick Club
doing our usual gig,
and we were approached by
this man in a very shiny suit.
He introduced himself to us
as Norman Newell.
Said he was an A&R guy
from EMI Records.
"Would you like to come
and have a drink at my table?"
Then he said he wanted
to take us in the studio
and record us.
Norman had
picked out some songs
from the set he'd just seen
in the Pickwick Club,
but he also said,
"If you know any other cool
songs that you'd like to try,
feel free to bring them along.
Maybe even a new song."
And at that point,
when he asked that question,
I thought, "Maybe I do know
such a song."
And that's because
there was a whole
other subplot to the story
happening at the same time.
When I quit acting,
my sister Jane stuck with it.
-Where are you going, love?
-London.
And of course,
she turned out to be
incredibly good at it.
Jane was a proper movie star.
Can I get you
a cup of tea, Alfie?
Take it easy.
You always wanna be
doing something.
She was very
well known
in England as an actor,
and also as a music lover.
And welcome to another session
of Juke Box Jury.
Jane was
on this TV show
where they had celebrities
rate the new records.
It's gonna be a hit or a miss.
So it was
in that context
she was approached
by a magazine
to go and see
this new band from Liverpool
that all the fuss was about.
Da-da da, da-da da da da
Da-da da, da-da da da da
If there's anything
that you want
If there's anything
I can do
Just call on me
and I'll send it along
With love, from me to you
Jane went to the show,
then she was taken
backstage at the end
to meet them,
as the visiting celeb.
And of course she found them
to be witty and charming
and all the things
that we know them to be.
She liked them all very much,
they liked her very much.
One liked her in particular
and asked her out.
...to hold you
And keep you by my side
I remember having met Jane.
Number one,
I thought she was blonde
because I'd only ever seen her
in black and white
on Juke Box Jury.
I think we all immediately
tried to pull her,
you know, being the order
of the day.
But I ended up with her.
And from then on,
I made strenuous efforts
to become her boyfriend.
I would get invited
to her house
and really I suppose
what solidified London for me
was the house they lived in,
57 Wimpole Street.
Paul would come visit,
come over for dinner.
He would bring his laundry
for our mom to do
and stuff like that.
You know.
I mean, kinda boyfriend stuff.
And he was there so much
that in the end
our parents took pity on him,
I think,
and offered him the guest room
at the top of our house
next to my bedroom
as a pied--terre
when The Beatles
weren't out on the road.
So I moved in
with the Ashers.
They're a fascinating family.
I was learning an awful lot.
Never known people to stuff
so much into a day.
And it was really like
culture shock
coming from the working class
in Liverpool.
Richard, the dad,
was a wacky medic.
Very intelligent
and rather eccentric.
My father
was an endocrinologist.
He was also very interested
in mental health
and particularly
in psychiatric diseases.
He identified and named
Munchausen syndrome.
Doctors, traditionally
when they identify disease
name it after themselves.
So one does find
a lot of people saying,
"Who was Dr. Munchausen?"
But in reality, there was,
of course, no Dr. Munchausen.
It was Baron Munchausen,
who made up fictitious stories
a bit like Don Quixote.
Mrs. Asher, Margaret,
she was really very nice,
very warm person.
Very mumsy.
And for a young guy
who liked his home comforts,
boy, did she spoil me.
My mother was
an entirely remarkable woman.
She had several different jobs
and did all of them
brilliantly well.
She was a working musician.
She was oboe professor
at the Royal Academy of Music.
She also gave
private oboe lessons,
and among the pupils that
she had was George Martin
who wanted to brush up
his oboe playing
and was recommended
to my mother
as the best oboe teacher
in town.
So long before my mother
met George
as her daughter's boyfriend's
record producer,
she already knew him
as George the oboe student.
I like afternoon tea.
It's a very civilized thing.
And where is your oboe?
I had to sell it.
I needed the money.
You've still got yours?
Oh, yes, of course.
-You treasure it, do you?
-Yes.
She wasn't just
a nuts and bolts person
telling you how to handle
a bit of wood.
I mean, music was her life.
I'll give you one lesson...
-Would you really?
-...for nothing.
Sometimes, she would say,
"Would you mind if I gave you
my lesson in my apartment?"
So I would go along
to her apartment
and running around the flat
there were three
ginger-headed children.
In fact, the kids were called
the Carrots of Wimpole Street.
It was such a family.
Clare was a very nice
younger sister,
a lot of fun.
And then there was Peter.
He was an interesting,
bright guy.
I could talk to him
about anything.
And also very interested
in music, very musical.
So there was a lot
of connection there.
They got a piano in my room
and there was a piano
in the basement as well.
So when John came to visit,
we could write there
on the piano at the same time.
There was a little
music room in the basement
and I do remember
one particular occasion
shortly after Paul
had moved in.
John came over and he and Paul
went down to this music room.
They were down there
for a couple of hours
and then Paul called up
the stairs to me in my bedroom
and asked if I wanted
to come and hear
this song they had
just finished writing.
They sat side by side
at the piano
and hammered out
the first version
anyone had ever heard
of this brand new song
they had just finished
called
"I Want to Hold Your Hand."
So in that context, of course
I did hear a number of songs.
And I remembered hearing
this song
called "A World Without Love"
that Paul had explained to me
was actually
an unfinished song
and a sort of reject,
partly, I think, because John
didn't think that much of it.
In particular, John apparently
made fun of the opening line.
The song
starts off with a line,
"Please lock me away,"
and when I would play it
John would respond,
"Yes. Okay."
I would joke that
that was the end of the song.
So, when Normal Newell said,
"You know any other
cool songs?"
I asked Paul,
"Did anything ever happen
with that 'World Without Love'
song?
Gordon and I would like
to have a go at it."
So he said, "Okay, fine."
And to make sure
we got it right,
he did a couple of things
for me.
First, he wrote down all the
lyrics on a piece of paper.
This is the original
Paul McCartney draft
of the chords and the verses.
He also, on a reel-to-reel
tape machine
that I had in my bedroom,
made a little demo of the song
insofar as it existed
at that point.
Please lock me away
And don't allow the day
Here inside
Where I hide
With my loneliness
I don't care what you say
I won't stay in a world
without love
It's a good demo.
It's a good demo.
Of course, I did have
to nag him a little bit
as the date of our session
grew near
because he had to finish it.
We didn't have a bridge.
What happened was
I finally said, "Look, Paul,
it's only a week away.
You know, we really
wanna do that song."
He said,
"Well, hold on a second.
I'll go into my bedroom."
And he came back
about three minutes later
and he put, "So I wait
and in a while..."
"I will see
my true love smile,"
that middle section.
It all just gelled together,
when he finished that
middle bit and it just went...
So we took the song in,
played it to Normal Newell,
he said, "Fantastic."
So it's about six
or seven minutes' walk
down Grove End Road
and we'll find the studio.
Cool.
At the time when you
and Gordon went to EMI,
were you super nervous, or...?
Yes, we were.
We were nervous,
but also super excited.
We'd never been
in an actual recording studio.
The first thrill was hearing
ourselves back
on a proper microphone
with proper
recording technique.
That day was also pretty much
when I decided I wanted
to be a record producer.
Because in addition to loving
the experience,
I also loved the idea
that there was this job
where you got
to hire musicians
much better than yourself
and tell them what to do.
I thought, "That's genius.
How do I get in
on that racket?"
And here we are.
So is this sign
still the same?
Well, it used to say
"EMI Studios."
I think it was red lettering,
as far as I can remember.
We'd picked about five songs
to record on that first day,
cut them all,
and by the end of the session
everyone agreed
that "World Without Love"
was going to be
our first single.
Please lock me away
And don't allow the day
Here inside
Where I hide
With my loneliness
I don't care what they say
I won't stay in a world
without love
It came out
a month after we cut it.
Went to number one in England,
number one all over Europe,
and finally, it was beyond
our imagination,
went to number one in America.
With my loneliness
It was incredible.
Don't you think it's rather
a waste of
an expensive education
to have become pop singers?
Not at all.
-Why not?
-Not at all. I mean...
well, it's not a matter
of "waste of money," is it?
Education's education.
That's all there is to it.
She may come
I know not when
When she does...
What do you feel
about your song,
"A World Without Love,"
sort of getting into the top
or the hit parade
and edging you out?
Well, it's fine, you know.
I don't mind at all
as long as
it's one of our songs.
It's great.
You know,
Peter was famous.
Having the song
written by Paul,
which is a very clever thing
to do.
Yes. Exactly.
One that John hated,
apparently.
Was that true
or was that a rumor?
No, that is true.
He despised it.
Hi. This is Peter Asher.
You're listening to Sirius XM
The Beatles Channel.
And I'm here
at Abbey Road Studios
with the amazing Twiggy.
Cutting "World Without Love"
here in this studio
was 60 years ago.
-Did you do it here?
-Yes.
Oh my God. I have to tell you
a story about it.
-Okay.
-I was 14.
My mum and dad used to let me
go to the local mod dance,
and there was a rather lovely
young lad there
and he bought me a present,
and do you know what it was?
It was a record called
"World Without Love"...
-Amazing.
-...by Peter and Gordon.
And I'd played the record
over and over and over again.
And then the phone rang,
and it was this lad,
and he said,
"Well, the thing is,
I'm saving up for a scooter
and I can't afford a scooter
and a girlfriend."
"So I'm going
for the scooter."
But I still had
"World Without Love."
So I went up to my bedroom
and played it
and cried my eyes out.
Oh no. I'm so sorry.
So I wait and in a while
I will see
my true love smile
She may come
I know not when
One of the effects
of having a big hit
was that suddenly now
we were being approached
by big package tours.
And one of the tours
we got offered
included an act
that I knew well
'cause I'd gone to see them
very often
at the club stage
of their career.
Where I hide
with my loneliness
The most interesting thing
about that tour
is a sort of oddity.
We were not the headliners,
but neither were
The Rolling Stones,
because based on
his huge hit record
he just had at the time,
this gentleman
was the headliner on the tour.
Hear the happy feet dancing
to the beat of the Freddie
It was Freddie
and the Dreamers
and they did this absurd dance
called "Do the Freddie."
Then you're ready
The Rolling Stones would close
the first half
and quite a lot of the girls
would leave
'cause they had not come
to see Freddie do the Freddie.
They'd come to see Mick
do the Mick
which was much
more interesting.
So there we were,
and suddenly we found
ourselves part
of this whole
British Invasion phenomenon.
And when people talk to me
about that I always point out
that in my view,
it's pretty much 90%
The Beatles
and 10% all the rest of us
put together.
Yes, there were
a whole string of bands
who had hits in America
but if The Beatles
hadn't kicked the door down
in the first place,
it never would've happened.
I don't care what anybody
thinks.
I love The Beatles for them
and I'll always love them.
Even when I'm 105
and an old grandmother
I'll love 'em!
And Paul McCartney,
if you are listening,
Adrienne from Brooklyn
loves you with all her heart.
I love you, Paul.
These days,
people in England
don't think twice
about going to America,
but it was unheard of
for an English singer
to be going there.
Paul came back and said,
"Hey, guys,
you've got to get
over to America.
It's amazing.
You know,
it really is sensational."
From England,
the two London youngsters
who met while attending
Westminster School
and developed
into top-flight stars.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Peter and Gordon.
I don't want to see you
again
I hear that love
is planned
How can I understand
When someone says to me
"I don't want to see you
again"?
Why do I cry at night?
Something wrong...
America, to me then,
was a mystery.
I'd never been here
so it was also sort of
the promised land.
It was an exhilarating time.
I don't want to see you
again
And now, direct
from London to Boston,
Peter and Gordon.
The swinging sound
of Peter and Gordon!
Everybody welcome
Peter and Gordon!
Peter and Gordon!
We did a ton
of TV shows
'cause television
was still the major way
of promoting your record.
Woman
Do you love me?
Woman, if you need me
Then believe me
I need you
A love like yours and mine
The stars
don't have to shine
Listen to the bird
who sings it to the tree
And then
when you've heard him
See if you agree
Nobody I know could love you
more than me
Nobody I know could love you
more than me
Thank you.
Thank you.
Aubrey Richmond
on the mandolin and fiddle.
Jennifer Oberle on bass
and vocals.
Our drummer on this occasion
is a very skilled
percussionist as well,
Mr. Steve Aho.
And--
And our very own band leader
and keyboard player,
Jeff Alan Ross.
In America,
we didn't have our own band
so the local promoters
in each area
would put together a band
for us.
Of course,
the bands did vary in quality,
but there was one band
called The King Bees
who I rather liked,
and in particular, I liked
and admired
their guitar player.
They needed a backup band
for a short tour
of New England.
So we were playing a club
in New York
and I looked up
and there's Peter and Gordon,
they had come in
to check us out.
And for some unknown reason,
they picked us.
We really didn't have
much in common with them.
We were playing R&B.
So I didn't see how
we were gonna really fit in
with "World Without Love."
But we did.
I was immediately attracted to
Peter 'cause he was so smart.
We'd read a lot
of the same books,
we were interested in a lot
of the same stuff.
Same music.
He knew all about
rhythm and blues.
So we had a lot in common
in that way.
On the other hand, Gordon
was the opposite of Peter.
Gordon wanted to get drunk,
chase chicks, and have a ball.
Now, Gordon,
it seems to me, that, um,
Peter, for want
of a better definition,
is the sort of "cute"
member of the duo
while as you represent
the sort of "mean," "moody,"
and "sexy" part of the act.
Would you agree with this?
Up to a certain extent, yeah.
I think I'm sort of wild type
when he's very reserved.
But I think I'm quite cute
sometimes, yeah.
We rehearsed
for a couple days
and then out we went.
I loved every minute of it.
I was a kid,
and here I am with stars
and teen audiences
going crazy.
I thought it was
the height of glamor.
Little did I know.
Lucille
You don't do
your daddy's will
The very first gig
we did in America
was the World's Fair,
and it was surrounded
by a moat.
So what happened is,
these girls all rushed forward
as soon as we came on stage,
jumped into the moat,
and swam across to the stage
which was in the middle
of the pond.
All these soaking women
running towards us.
It was terrific.
Lucille, please come back
where you belong
You know, mostly,
you got the feeling
that when they're chasing you,
even The Beatles,
they weren't really sure what
they'd do if they caught you.
There wasn't a plan.
Gordon,
what happened last night?
Just about
everything, I think.
We didn't have enough
policemen there
to hold out-- you know,
hold back the people.
Sometimes they just get
knocked straight over.
And this has happened
a hundred times to us.
Were your
clothes ripped off of you?
They weren't ripped off,
they were just sort of
loosened a bit.
These flaps on the back
of our jackets were taken off.
Asked her friends
But all their lips
were tight
Lucille
You don't do
your daddy's will
The weirdest fan moment
was when we were playing
an outdoor gig.
Girls running across the grass
to where the stage is,
I jumped down,
my glasses fell off
and hit the ground
and I reached down,
picked them up, put them on.
As I looked back again,
this girl was crouched
where the glasses had fallen
and was pulling the grass out
and eating it.
And I went,
"That's really cool."
You know? "That's bizarre."
Just you know why
I met Peter
at the Steel Pier
in Atlantic City.
I knew who he was
before I went there
from working in publicity.
Betsy was
The Rolling Stones' publicist
so she was
in the music business.
I knew that Peter
had a reputation
for being smart
and I hoped that
he would like me.
Betsy was a Nashville girl.
Her father
did not approve of me.
I mean, he was nice enough,
but you could tell deep down
he wouldn't have chosen
a long-haired Englishman.
Before I started
working in publicity,
I had heard about
Greenwich Village.
It was the start of Dylan
and the folk music.
So I just sort of ran away
and was a waitress
at the coffeehouses.
What Peter and I shared
originally
was that he was
a folk music fan.
Betsy was friends
with everyone in the Village.
She was very much
on the folk scene.
She introduced me to Phil Ochs
and a lot of people
I only knew by reputation.
And so we had
a wonderful, wonderful time
in New York City.
And eventually, she
came back with me to London.
True love ways
When I look back,
it was great timing for me
to have been in the Village
in the early '60s
to Swinging London
in the late '60s.
It was great timing.
Mid '60s, Swinging London,
hipness, decadence,
and exquisite tailoring.
We were going to change
everything, of course.
But mostly, we were going
to change the rules.
We grew up in the '50s
with rationing and...
-Exactly.
-...no television, all that.
Coming out of the war,
we admired
the "tighten your belt"
spirit of the Blitz,
but at the same time,
we thought, "Enough of that."
"Enough of that.
Let's put some flares on!"
"Let's put silly clo--"
Exactly!
I see her walking by
I feel this way
It was the first real time
youth had a voice, wasn't it?
Yep.
And I was 16 and a half.
I mean, it was insane.
Now I'm gonna
make her mine
It was exciting.
Girls weren't looking like
their mothers any longer.
And boys had decided that
they would grow their hair.
Everything seemed to have
a creative energy to it.
It was kind of like
an electricity.
Every suit of armor
ever made
Has a kink
Chain mail pants
with a missing link
Thank you.
It was all changing
and we wanted to be
part of it.
We wanted to catch up.
You've got a new business
starting.
Yes, that's right. Yes.
I opened a bookshop in London.
Whereabouts in London is it?
It's in Southampton Row...
-Oh yeah.
-...near the British Museum.
It was myself,
Barry Miles, and John Dunbar.
We intended to create
a bookshop and an art gallery
in two separate locations,
but sharing a common name.
The name we chose was Indica.
How did you
come up with the name?
Cannabis indica.
We always claimed it came
from "indications."
The future.
We were telling you
what was gonna happen next.
No, we all smoked dope,
basically.
That's why it was called that.
Indica.
-The full name of cannabis.
-Oh, is it?
-Yeah.
-Huh.
You learn something every day.
Okay.
You say you want
a revolution
I would work
behind the counter with Miles
when I wasn't out on the road.
My sister Jane came in
and helped.
And actually,
her boyfriend, Paul,
was a great help too.
I remember distinctly
him helping us
the day we had to put up those
shelves behind the counter.
Kind of a useful boyfriend
to have hanging around,
who can either write you
a number one record
or put some shelves up
depending on what's required
that particular day.
We all wanna change
the world
All in all,
this gang of people
from Indica
and the whole scene,
you know, is trying to do--
is trying to see where
we are now.
You know, it's just
a straightforward,
uh,
endeavor kind of thing.
Just to do something
other than
what's been done before
because what's been done
before
isn't necessarily the answer.
Don't you know
it's gonna be
Alright
Indica Bookshop
is one of the headquarters
of the group of people
who've come to be known
as the underground.
It's naturally the first place
to which
the International Times
arrives
after it's come
off the presses.
After all, the editorial
offices are downstairs.
The International Times
was a modest name
for a new newspaper.
But that became
the underground newspaper
of the day.
Don't you know
it's gonna be
Alright
The thing that people seem to
get wrong a lot about Indica
is that they know it was
a bookshop and an art gallery
but they often think they were
in the same place,
which they weren't.
The art gallery was here
in Mason's Yard.
That, and I don't know
what it is now,
it looks like
another art gallery,
that was where
the art gallery was.
Oh, cool.
- Peter Asher?
- Yes, that's me.
-Can we take your picture?
-Curiously enough.
Of course you can, yes.
That's hilarious,
the timing of it.
-Mind if we take a picture?
-No, I don't mind at all.
The first 45 I ever had...
-Yes?
-"To Know You Is To Love You."
Great. Thank you very much.
-Loved it.
-Thank you so much.
I do a tour
and talk about Peter
almost every day of the year.
Oh. What do you say?
Well, this is where the '60s
musicians graduated.
They came here,
and they could
all meet each other.
It became a breeding ground
for art and music
instigated by Peter
and his friends, you know.
-Yeah. Yeah.
-Thank you very much.
To know, know, know you
is to love, love, love you
Thank you.
-Thank you so much.
-Thank you. It's a pleasure.
How weird. I didn't expect
to be part of a tour.
That's totally fine.
Yes I do
How would you
describe the London art scene
at that moment in time?
Very square.
Very square, very boring.
Just sort of shit pictures,
I used to call it.
Indica was a great gallery.
I mean the art
and also who it attracted.
In those days, galleries
weren't really that exciting
or they didn't draw people in.
And I have to admit,
I don't think I really went
to galleries before then.
John Dunbar once boasted
he never once had
a painting on the wall.
It was all objects
and super cutting edge.
John Dunbar
had been made aware
of this Japanese American
artist called Yoko Ono
and he thought she sounded
suitably interesting and wacky
to be in our avant-garde
gallery.
People wouldn't wait
until this crumples.
You see, people are not
that patient
so they like to eat it,
you know?
Or they like to steal it.
And then, of course,
famously, uh,
when we were hanging the show,
that was one of the days
that John Lennon showed up
in his little
wide wheelbase Mini
with a chauffeur.
She was having a show
at this gallery
and, uh, she had
all these things--
all these, like,
hammer-nail things
and there was this ladder
and a thing on the ceiling.
So I climbed the ladder
and on the ceiling it said,
"Yes."
If it had said, "No,"
I would have carried on
with my preconceived ideas
about art and artists,
that they're all sort of,
"Yeah, yeah, sure, sure."
But it said, "Yes,"
and that was enough.
And that... that was
how we met, actually.
Thank you.
That's very interesting,
'cause that was a nice
little round of applause.
Sometimes it's a, "Aww."
Like,
"What a great love story."
But other times, it's a...
And the most dramatic one,
which has only happened once
but was quite startling
when it did,
was as soon as the clip
was over,
John says,
"And that's when we met,"
some bloke in the audience
jumped to his feet,
pointed at me, and yelled
at the top of his voice,
"It was you!
You broke up The Beatles!"
I reject soundly
any implication
that I was responsible
for breaking up The Beatles,
but there is a breakup
for which I do accept
some responsibility
and that was the breakup
of a marriage.
Before he opened the gallery,
John was a student
at Cambridge University.
When he came back,
he was in
an incredibly good mood.
He was grinning
from ear to ear
and he told us that he had met
the woman of his dreams.
Woman, do you love me?
Woman, if you need me
John was different from
any boy I had ever met.
He seemed to know everybody
you could ever want to meet
in London.
And he was great friends
with Peter Asher.
It was clear
they were madly in love.
And when John proposed
to Marianne,
he was kind enough to ask me
to be the best man
at the wedding.
That was a very long time ago.
And it was, uh...
Weddings, weddings...
What does "best man"
mean exactly?
They were so sweet together,
Marianne and John.
Yes indeed
they were sweet,
but I suppose
I could have seen
some early signs of trouble.
About a year
before the wedding,
John called me up and said,
"Let's have dinner,"
and I said, "Of course.
And if you're interested,
I'm going to a party
after dinner this evening
and you can come with me
if you want to."
It was a party given
for The Rolling Stones.
Well spotted, yes.
Trouble ahead.
We all got to the party,
the Stones were already there,
and actually the person
who paid the most attention
to Marianne at the beginning
wasn't any one of the Stones.
It was their manager,
Andrew Loog Oldham,
and he wanted Mick and Keith
to write a song for Marianne.
It was incredible.
I was just standing there
and there was John
and Andrew Loog Oldham.
Andrew said to him,
"Can she sing?"
And that was that.
A week later,
I got a telegram,
"Be at Olympic Studios
at two o'clock. Stop.
Andrew Oldham."
As some of you
may already know,
Mick did in fact write a song
for Marianne
and much else besides.
Eventually,
they ran off together
and became the sort of scandal
of the day.
I suppose you could
charitably look at it
as being a kind of
full service best man,
you know, who gets you married
and then after your honeymoon
introduces your beautiful wife
to Mick Jagger
and off they go.
But it's not
a complete disaster
in the sense that we did end
up with a really good song.
The one that went, you know...
It is the evening
of the day
I sit and watch
the children play
Smiling faces I can see
But not for me
I sit and watch
As tears go by
What did you
learn about marriage?
Oh...
It just doesn't...
It just isn't the scene
for me, you know?
In late '66,
John Dunbar was having
domestic problems
which were coming between him
and his gallery.
I'd busted up
with Marianne,
so motivation had sort of gone
and it got to be
very difficult financially.
I really had to sort of
do business...
or not, you know,
and I kind of did not.
Well, John just didn't show up
to business meetings
or anything.
Yeah, he was just
hardly ever there.
Miles called me
and said,
you know,
"This is not gonna work."
We didn't mean for it to be
a fly-by-night operation
but it clearly was being run
in a slightly haphazard way.
Only
three years after it opened,
the Indica Gallery
and Bookshop closed down,
reflecting the end of an era.
You said what we did
From the start
Was no good
And you tried to stop...
Gordon Waller,
just half of the top act
Peter and Gordon.
Gordon, there's something
we ought to sort out.
I've been reading suggestions
that you're going to split up
and others that you're going
to continue working together.
Now, which is true?
But you cry
'cause I've gone
How would you
describe Peter and Gordon
as a duo?
They were
very different.
They were sort of chalk
and cheese, yes.
Peter was a human being.
I was just an animal.
I was something that had been
let loose into this world
and I realized it
and I took advantage of it.
I'd love to genuinely think
I regret it,
but I had so much fun
being an asshole.
One time we were on stage
somewhere in Ohio
or something,
and they were banging away,
playing their tunes,
and Gordon was pissed off
at something, he said,
"Fuck it!"
He just walked offstage
and left Peter onstage
by himself.
Gordon just fuckin'
walked off, man.
Gordon could get into
fairly fiercely bad moods,
and when he did that,
anything could happen.
We used to have some
pretty fearsome arguments.
I had a girlfriend
and she knew my heart
was singing rock and roll.
She said,
"You don't need Peter.
Peter's crap.
Peter can't sing.
Peter's this, Peter's that."
I said, "Well,
but we're Peter and Gordon."
"Fuck Peter and Gordon."
Gordon's made
a record on his own,
so we're not gonna do
as much continuous work
as we have been doing.
How good
did you think you were?
I think we were
perhaps not very versatile.
We only had one style,
you know.
And we weren't
particularly good songwriters,
though we wrote some songs for
albums and B-sides and stuff.
But, uh, I think we were
a very good duo.
I mean, I liked the way
we sang together very much.
Neither of us remember
the last gig we did
for the very reason that
at the time
we had no idea it was
the last gig, whatever it was.
Gordon and I
just kind of drifted apart.
We weren't sure if we were
simply on a break or what,
but it ended up that this
break lasted for 38 years.
There she was just a-walkin'
down the street, singin'
"Do wah diddy
diddy dum diddy do"
We toured
in America in 1964
with Peter and Gordon.
We had just had a number one
with "Do Wah Diddy."
She looked good
She looked fine
And I nearly lost my mind
There was one night
where we were stuck in...
I think it was
Cleveland, Ohio.
Fogbound at an airport.
I spent the whole evening
with Peter Asher,
talking,
and I could see that there was
a bigger horizon,
much bigger, for Peter.
I didn't think he was gonna
head out of music,
I just thought he was going to
head out of Peter and Gordon.
Hey, little girl
I'm in a whirl
After I left Manfred Mann,
my career was not going
the way I wanted it to go,
and I thought, "If I get
someone like Peter involved,
that would be a step forward."
So I rang him up
and I just asked.
You know, I said,
"Have you ever thought of...
actually producing records?
Becoming a record producer?"
And he said...
"Why do you ask?"
I confess,
I was surprised in the sense
that Paul provided
an opportunity
based on very little evidence.
To ask someone
to produce a record
who's never actually produced
a record before
shows a considerable boldness
and imagination
and I'm very grateful to him
for that.
And the rain will fall
It falls for you
The first track I ever did
was the Bee Gees' song called
"And the Sun Will Shine."
That was
Peter's choice, absolutely.
I don't think at that point
I even knew
who the Bee Gees were.
It was a minor hit.
It's only become notable
slightly now
because I did put
a good band together.
I wanted to take no chances
on my first time
in the studio.
I didn't realize
that Peter was going to come
to the very first session
that we did
having booked Jeff Beck,
Paul Samwell-Smith,
and Paul McCartney.
And I went, "Paul McCartney
on what?!
Drums?!"
And the sun will shine
If just for you
Peter sent me the 45, I said,
"Damn. It's really good.
How did he know?"
I was over the moon.
I couldn't believe it.
He's a producer.
Yes, it will
One of the things
I knew
is I wanted to be
a record producer.
But there I was,
a kind of half-baked,
half-retired pop star
deciding what to do next.
So it was
a very exciting moment
when, one night, I got a call
from Paul McCartney.
It's a business
concerning records,
films, and electronics,
and as a sideline,
whatever it's called,
manufacturing whatever.
But we want to set up a system
whereby people
who just want to make a film
about anything
don't have to go on their
knees in somebody's office,
probably yours.
So Paul said, "Look,
this is all going ahead.
Would you like to be head
of A&R for the label?"
Which means you're overall
in charge
of who makes
what kind of records,
who gets signed,
who produces whom,
and all that kind of stuff.
So of course I was thrilled.
It was a very huge idea.
It was gonna be
just everything.
You know, films, theater,
television, records,
spaceships.
There was just no limit
to what Apple was going to be.
Did you ever
spend any time at Apple?
Not really, but, uh,
I helped sort of name it
and start it off.
Paul and John were around
my flat on Bentinck Street...
Maybe we were on acid?
At least I probably maybe was.
...and we were talking about
what to do with the money.
What money?
That they were making.
They were The Beatles,
for fuck's sake.
Evidently, someone
in accounting or something
had convinced The Beatles
that they had money
they needed to spend,
and among other things,
they bought
this incredible building
that happened
to be on a street
not previously associated with
the music business at all.
This is Savile Row
which, as you probably know,
is most famous, classically,
for incredible tailoring.
Handmade, beautifully made,
incredibly expensive,
made to measure suits.
You had to have
an introduction, a reference,
before they would consider
making a suit for you.
Right.
My office was top floor
on the left.
And The Beatles' office
were on
what we would call
the first floor.
Derek Taylor's
was on the second floor
and that was where
the fun was.
Derek Taylor was sort of the
public relations department
and, more or less,
the heart of the hippiness
or indeed the hipness
at Apple.
One day, he came to me
and said he had this girl,
this American woman,
who we had to find a job for.
I was
a Hollywood girl at that point
and Derek Taylor
called and said,
"I think you should come
to London.
I think you should come
to Apple.
This would be
a really good time to appear."
I had gotten there
on a Saturday.
Then, Monday morning,
boy, I was in that taxi
headed to Apple.
I had three months on my visa,
and so I was doing
anything I could
to get a job for Apple.
Anything.
I was running out of time.
But then Peter came to me
and he said,
"Would you like to be
my personal assistant?"
And I went, "Yes!"
"Absolutely."
Saved!
And then I ask you,
"What do I do?"
and you said, "I don't know.
I've never had
a personal assistant before."
So we just kind of winged it
at that point.
When I get to the bottom
I go back to the top
of the slide
Where I stop and I turn
and I go for a ride
Till I get to the bottom
and I see you again
The energy there
was just amazing.
From the time
you walked in the door,
throughout every room
every floor in that place,
there was so much going on.
During the day,
we would tend to work,
but by the time it got
to the cocktail hour,
one did tend to find
one's self in Derek's office.
-The drinks cabinet.
-He had the drinks cabinet.
I know.
And the drawer
of interesting substances.
It was a lot of Beatle madness
and weird hippies
wandering in and out.
Ken Kesey coming to visit.
The Hells Angels.
Do you remember
the Krishnas coming?
Yes, I do.
And you went, "Boy,
I hope that's not for me."
Well, it probably wasn't.
Yes, it was.
-It was?
-It was your next appointment.
Krishna, Hare Krishna
It was
kind of chaotic, I admit,
but at the same time,
one has to remember
that we did succeed
in putting out a number
of pretty good records.
And indeed,
we did try to follow
the original concept
of the label
which is that it would be
much more receptive
to outside material
than the record business
traditionally has been.
In support of that aim,
we actually took an ad.
"This man has talent.
He sent his songs in
and now he drives a Bentley."
We ran that ad
and we got huge response.
There were tapes everywhere,
all over his office.
Everything was just covered
with tapes.
They'd made a point
of saying,
"We're here to listen
to everybody's stuff,"
so we would get
just sackloads.
I had a lot of people
listening to tapes,
and then I would listen
to anything
that was even vaguely good.
Unfortunately,
most of it was awful.
I'm just gonna remember
a couple of things
from way, way ago in the '60s
when we were starting
a new record label
called Apple.
And, uh...
my friend, Peter Asher,
one day came to the office
and he showed up, he said,
"I've got this guy
from New York."
I said, "Go on. Come on,
let's have a listen to it."
And, um, for once,
it was someone really great.
Let's start
at the beginning of Peter.
How did you guys
end up meeting?
We met through
Danny Kortchmar.
The King Bees,
we ran out of gigs.
It just got to be too much.
We were playing
these shitholes.
We were playing
the dumpiest places
and we weren't
getting anywhere, so I quit.
And when I quit,
I called James.
James and I met
when we were 13
on Martha's Vineyard.
James hitchhiked
down to New York
and slept on my couch
and we made a band,
we started a band.
Now, a fish,
he kinda likes the water
I spent some time
in New York City making music
with a rock and roll band
in the Village
as paying my dues,
as they say, whatever.
...lives in the top
of a tree
But my eyes
are made for darkness
I quit that group
because New York City got
to be a little bit too much
in the commercial music
business and everything.
He had a really hard time
in New York
when we were with
the Flying Machine.
He was living in
a shitty little apartment
up on the West Side.
He was lonely,
he was miserable.
He liked playing, you know,
but he didn't like the rest
of his life very much
and, you know,
I think that's when he started
using heroin probably.
So he called his father
and his father drove up
from North Carolina,
picked him up, and drove him
back to North Carolina
where he started to rehab.
Next thing I hear from James
is, "I'm gonna go to London,
you know, uh...
Just gonna go there
and see what happens."
I said,
"If you're gonna go there,
get in touch
with my pal Peter Asher."
So he pretty much just
showed up out of the blue.
He called me up,
introduced himself
as a friend of Kootch's,
and I said, "Great,
come on over."
And he came over to my flat
and, uh, played me
the demo tape he'd made.
Then he picked up my guitar
and played me some stuff live.
I went crazy. I said,
"This is amazingly good.
I can't believe it."
A couple of days later,
I invited James
to come over to the office
and meet the proprietors.
There's something
in the way she moves
Or looks my way
or calls my name
Peter had set up
this audition with, uh...
with Paul and George.
It wasn't lost on me
how remarkable that was.
And he started singing
and it was just so beautiful
that right there and then
we said, "Okay."
And if I'm well, you can
tell she's been with me now
They listened and...
Paul said, "Yeah,
if you wanna produce him,
let's go."
I was the first person
signed to the label.
Now of course, I did want
to do things by the book.
I wrote an official-looking
memo,
and item 1: "James Taylor:
He is an American songwriter
and singer
who is extremely good."
I rest my case. You know?
I'll stand by that opinion
to this day.
In my mind
I'm gone to Carolina
The first James Taylor
album, I orchestrated a lot
and made more complicated
which was based
on my desperate desire
that James not be taken
just as another long-haired
folkie like all the rest.
So I decorated the record
to make people pay attention,
and I maybe was getting
in the way
of James and the songs
or something.
Can't you see
the sunshine?
To me,
that early Apple album
sounds primitive.
Primitive in that it's new,
it's raw.
It's a work in progress.
James Taylor
is somewhat tall
and he sings on Apple
his songs of tomorrow today
in an album
that fuses the mind to love.
It's a heavy experience.
It's all a matter
of opening up your eyes
It came out and it wasn't
particularly successful.
Got a couple of good reviews,
people were interested
in James.
People did admire
his songwriting.
I don't know if we didn't get
the album quite right or what.
I think part of it was
that at that same time,
Apple Records itself was
starting to fall apart a bit.
Some very good records
got made,
but this is when The Beatles
were falling apart themselves.
There were a lot of arguments
going on.
That's when they all started
suing each other and all that.
-Goodbye
-Goodbye
-Goodbye
-Goodbye
Goodbye
The general mood
that it created
was of impending doom.
Goodbye
And then,
at the same time...
My father was in charge
of the mental observation ward
at Central Middlesex Hospital.
He was an endocrinologist,
officially,
but treated mental patients
brilliantly.
Then one day, they decided
that the person in charge
of the mental observation ward
needed certain specific
psychiatric credentials
which my father did not have.
They took that role away
from him,
which made him very sad.
We were all horrified
and emotional wrecks.
We didn't talk about it
a whole lot, and still don't,
but, uh, it--
yeah, it changed things a lot.
I'm not generally a
particularly emotional person.
In a very English way.
Well, also, to be fair,
we were born in a war.
Yeah.
Emotions are not really
so much important as survival.
And, um...
You know, "stiff upper lip"
was a very important thing
'cause people are bombing you,
people are screaming
all over the place, you know.
You had to hold it in a bit.
Scary. Scary times.
Right.
Exactly.
- You alright?
- Yep.
I was concentrating
on looking forward.
I was looking forward
in particular
to building James' career.
James and I decided our future
would be best served
by leaving Apple.
So that's what we did.
We pretty much just sort of
packed up and left.
They were all busy arguing.
So I took the master tapes
out of the vault downstairs
and off we went.
Sunny Skies
sleeps in the morning
He doesn't know
when to rise
Why did you
move to California?
I'd always had that
in mind.
I mean, I'd been here
many times, of course.
I'd been to both ends
on the road.
But California was always
where I'd had the most fun.
In the '60s, I rented
a Mustang convertible
and drove down Sunset Strip.
I said,
"There's nowhere else to live.
This is it."
He knows how to
ease down slowly
Everything is fine
in the end
Now, Peter, here we are,
under a soft California sun,
lotus blossoms, champagne,
beautiful spread
you've got here.
Are you glad you left
the old country?
I'm glad I'm here.
I mean, that doesn't make me
necessarily glad
I left England.
Truthfully, I loved London.
I loved our life in London.
I wasn't keen to come back
to America, really.
But we rented a house
down on Longwood
for $450 a month.
The house was empty.
We didn't have furniture.
And it was coming up
to Halloween,
so the kids
from the neighborhood
came around trick-or-treating
and then went home
and told their parents,
"Hippies have moved in
down the street."
I came over here with
not much money to speak of.
Actually no money.
I had, like, $5,000
or something.
And I didn't really know
what I was going to do.
If James had been a failure,
I could have been sort of
down-and-out in Beverly Hills,
you know, in no time.
Ending with a friend
named Sunny Skies
When we decided
to leave Apple,
James stopped off
on the East Coast
for a bit of rehab.
I was in a withdrawal
from opiates
in western Massachusetts,
and Peter called
and said, "Listen,
I propose that we try to find
you another record label,"
and, um,
"and that I manage you."
I sort of digested that
for a while, and...
since I never had much in the
way of a good business head,
I called Paul and I said,
"What do you think of that
as an idea?"
and he said,
"I think that's a great idea."
And I said, "What do you think
one should pay a manager?"
and Paul said, "Pfft.
I don't know. One percent?"
Yeah.
Ideal was slightly better
than that, for me.
Peter
was obviously kind of a star
coming into the scene
'cause everybody knew
who he was.
He had the advantage of being
a well-known public figure
and having the added thing
of being part
of the British Invasion.
We used to hang out
at the Troubadour.
It was the hang
in the late '60s, early '70s,
for anyone in
the local LA music scene.
People always think
there's some sort of
a social scene
and a musical scene
all mixed in together
and concentrated in one place,
and usually it's not the case,
but the Troubadour was a
real case of that phenomenon.
If you weren't hanging out
in the Troubadour bar,
you should be.
And that's where a lot
of people met each other,
made friends, found lovers.
It was a happening scene.
That's when I first
got to know Peter and Betsy.
They'd invite us all
over after
and we'd hang out
and talk music.
James was there,
and Kootch, and everybody.
It was kinda an extension
of the Troubadour scene.
I was in London,
but somehow you found me
and you rang me and said,
"Would you like to come to
Los Angeles and work for me?"
Right.
So I must not have been
horrible.
And you're supposed to say,
"No, you weren't, Chris."
He said,
"You'll have to live with us."
So I did, I lived with them
and he had an office back
in the cottage, past the pool.
I think Peter,
when he got to America,
he actually kind of
let his hair down a little.
He found himself.
He actually was on his own now
and making his own career.
And not associated
with The Beatles.
When it came time
to make
the first American album,
we made a deal
with Warner Bros. Records.
And I wanted to keep it
very simple.
The Apple albums are quite
orchestrated and complicated.
So I put together
a small band.
The difference between
the Apple album
and Sweet Baby James
was that we essentially
had a band.
You know? A good band.
We already knew we wanted
to have Danny Kortchmar
play guitar, of course,
'cause we both love him
and love his playing.
And I found a drummer
who was perfect,
a guy called Russ Kunkel.
He was playing
with simplicity and clarity,
and I kinda went,
"That's my drummer."
But I was giving some thought
to who we should get
to play piano.
There's a ton of great
piano players in LA,
you know, proper studio guys
who can play anything
and incredibly dexterous
and jazzy.
But my instinct
was to avoid that.
So I had an idea.
Because by this time,
I had heard the original demos
that Carole King made
of all those songs
I loved so much.
And I realized that I loved
her piano playing.
Very simple, un-jazzy,
kind of singer-songwriter
piano.
So I went, "That would be
perfect for James."
So I got to meet Carole
through Kootch.
Luckily, he'd been in a band
with Carole called The City.
She didn't know who James was
but she agreed to come over
to my house to meet him.
I just remember Peter
gently but firmly directing,
"No, why don't you have a seat
at the piano
and James will play guitar.
Why don't you play something
that you both know?"
So we started playing.
I mean, he probably
started playing
and I picked up whatever key
it was and started playing.
'Cause one Saturday night
I was laying in bed
And I heard
that highway song
It was an amazing
musical connection.
Yeah, yeah, yeah
And that was
the beginning
of James and Carole's long
and successful
musical relationship.
We would all meet
at my house in the afternoon.
I didn't really have any
furniture, as you can see.
I did have a rented piano,
and the cat was free.
And that was about it.
With us, we rehearsed
and got to know each other
in Peter's living room
way before we went
into the studio.
So we got to know each other
and we got to learn how
to integrate our styles,
me on guitar, James on guitar,
and Carole on piano.
Empty and cold
We would go over there
in the afternoon
and sit on the floor
and James would play a song.
When Kootch and I
started working with Peter,
we had a very clear idea
about how we wanted
the music to sound
and my guitar was the center
of the arrangements
that we came up with.
That was
a relatively new thing.
We were all free to make
creative suggestions
or just play the thing
we think should be played,
and that's what made
the magic.
Peter was directing things
and he would let the thing go
wherever the creativity,
uh, was coming from.
In many ways,
he was responsible
for a different kind
of recording
beginning to happen in LA.
We would run the songs
in the living room first
and work them out,
and then go straight into
Sunset Sound and cut them.
They totally rehearsed
that album
so that when they went
in the studio,
the whole album cost $7,000.
And we got the
whole thing done in two weeks.
We named it Sweet Baby James
and it came out
February of 1970.
Our album, Sweet Baby James,
was basically the first album
where the musicians
were listed
on the back of the cover.
I do remember being
frustrated, as a music fan
and as a record collector,
not being able to tell
who these incredible
musicians were,
'cause they were not credited.
So I resolved to credit people
wherever I could.
That changed everything.
Because he'd listed
us musicians,
producers and artists
would say,
"Oh, those are the guys
that played on James Taylor.
Get them."
It changed all our careers
completely.
It gave us careers.
Take to the highway
Won't you lend me your name?
When we did
Sweet Baby James,
we didn't have
a permanent bass player,
but it was shortly after
we'd made the record
that James called me
and told me
that he'd found a bass player
as good as Paul McCartney,
and I said, "Good.
This will come in handy."
He introduced me to Lee Sklar
who has played bass on most of
the records I've made since.
Pass that way again
But you know
I could feel it
They were gonna do this gig
at the Troubadour
and they tracked me down.
So we went over
to Peter's house
and that was the first time
I actually met Peter.
And I'm sitting there,
looking at him, going,
"Peter and Gordon? Really?"
You know? I mean, it's like,
all of a sudden,
to be sitting in a room
with a guy I've seen
on Ed Sullivan.
I was fanboy.
And it was something
'cause that's the first time
I met Danny
and that was the first time
I met Carole.
So it was this whole thing
kinda came crashing together
at Peter and Betsy's house.
Kind of for all of us,
but I know for me,
I ended up going from
zero to 100 in an instant.
On a country road
Whoa
I played as a sideman
with James
and I was happy to be
a recording artist,
but at some point,
Peter, in his understated
British manner,
said, "We'd like to invite you
to go out on the road
with James,"
and I was like, "Well, no.
I have my daughters
and my life,
and I'm not a performer."
So Peter said, "No,
it's only on weekends.
We're doing a college tour
and it's only on weekends,
so you wouldn't be away
that much
and we just want you
to play piano."
She was reluctant
about playing,
and that's why she became
our opening act
at the Troubadour,
in order to experience
what was it like
to play to a live audience.
I don't know how many of you
know who Carole King is,
but, uh, I've known her
for about two years now
and I've worked an awful lot
with her,
and it's really been a
privilege and a pleasure to me
to be associated with and work
with such a fine composer.
And Carole wrote all the music
she's gonna play
for you tonight.
And some of the songs
go back quite a ways.
Please give a warm welcome
to Ms. Carole King.
Lookin' out
on the morning rain
I used to feel uninspired
I said to Carole,
simply playing the songs
she'd written
and telling people
she wrote them,
that'll amaze everyone
on their own.
They didn't know she wrote
"Up On The Roof"
and "Natural Woman"
and all that stuff.
Lord, it made me
feel so tired
That began a process for me
where I could become
a performing artist.
...like a natural woman
A natural woman
I had James out
working on the road
as much as possible.
You know, opening for people,
playing the folk clubs,
which he was starting
to sell out.
And it started to speed up.
Eventually, "Fire and Rain"
came out as a hit single
and people started to talk
about him in major terms
as being a new kind
of rock and roll.
Just yesterday morning
They let me know
you were gone
Suzanne, the plans we made
put an end to you
I walked out
on the morning
Well, I wrote down
this song
I just can't remember
who to send it to
I think Peter just got better
and better at what he did.
Producing is
a very broad term,
and sometimes it means
he's a musical prodigy,
and sometimes it means
he's a social worker
or a therapist.
And sometimes it means he
or she just enables somebody
who's musically gifted
to do their thing
and get out of the way.
And I think he probably
can wear any of those hats.
You just got to see me
through another day
So you hadn't
really been a manager before.
You've got James
and he's kind of a junkie.
Yes.
What made you so certain
you could base
your future on him?
Um, youthful naivete,
I suppose.
I just thought his music
was incredibly good
and if I liked it this much,
everyone else would too.
...and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that
I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when
I could not find a friend
Throughout
some really dodgy times,
Peter stuck with me.
I think that's no small thing,
to make that happen.
Very, very few people
could do that.
As I started working
with James,
I also got to meet
his entire family,
who are extraordinary.
And I was super impressed
not only by James,
but by his sister, Kate.
When James
was making the record
in England,
I thought, "You know what?
I should go over and make sure
they're taking good care
of him."
So James took me to Apple,
introduced me to Peter.
Then, one afternoon,
Peter had a gathering
out in the country.
There was an ancient
stone-lined swimming pool
in the backyard
and James and I went down
into that pool
and we started singing.
I remember walking
by that empty pool
and hearing these
two amazing voices
and realizing that one of them
was Kate.
I got out
of the swimming pool,
I went back home,
and a month later,
the phone rings
and it's Peter,
and he said,
did I want to make a record?
I said,
"Let me think about it. Yes."
Basically.
Well, the sun
Is surely sinking down
And the moon
is slowly rising
So this old world
must still...
It was wonderful
working with Peter,
but I was green.
I was 19, excitable,
and didn't know what the hell
I was doing.
Everybody,
get on your feet
You make me nervous
when you're in your seat
Alright!
Take off your shoes...
She really wasn't
ready to go on the road.
She did, like, one night
at the Troubadour
and was fantastic.
She was jumping on the tables
and singing,
and everyone loved it,
but she blew
her whole voice out.
She was so, like,
manic with energy.
Hey! Well, honey...
I loved touring.
I loved the whole thing.
The singing, getting in front
of an audience, the band.
Loved it.
But by the time
the tour was over,
there was an inner voice
that was telling me...
"You're going down
the wrong path."
At that same time,
I was facing
my own personal dilemma.
It all began
when I was in New York
and somebody said, "You have
to go down to the Village
and hear this girl."
Whoa, you and I
Travel to the beat
of a different drum
I went down
and she was terrific.
The most amazing voice.
I've got my doubts
You can't see the forest
for the trees
She was incredible.
This barefoot, tan,
beautiful California girl
belting out
these terrific songs.
I was very impressed.
It's just that I am not
in the market
We met Linda. She was playing
at the Bitter End.
And we hit it off,
Linda and I,
and became friends.
She was fantastic.
Somebody told Peter
he should check out the show.
He had Betsy with him,
and they were so nice.
You know, they seemed to be
genuinely sympathetic
to what I did.
I told them to come
to the Troubadour.
So we hooked up there.
I was 26 years old.
I had had two hits
very far apart
and I didn't know
what I was doing yet.
I was just wandering around,
doing all this different stuff
that I liked.
I was singing
a country song here,
and a folk song here,
but it was hard for somebody
to make a cohesive product
out of it.
Linda had decided
she was gonna look around
for a manager.
And she approached people
like me at the Troubadour
because we were part
of the music scene.
I was so in love
with her voice
and her singing,
and I knew
she was gonna be a big star.
Everybody did.
It was just a matter
of getting
the right combination
of things together.
So she asked me if I had
any suggestions,
I said, "Look,
the only manager I know
is Peter Asher.
He manages James Taylor
who is a friend of mine,
and James says he's great."
So we went
to his office,
and I said,
"Will you manage me?"
and he said, "Yes."
So I was elated.
And then, about a week later,
he called me and he said,
"I have to decline."
I was crushed.
I didn't think having
two girls on similar paths
would be practical or fair,
and so I very reluctantly
said no.
He was really fair-minded
and there's always a lot
of reasons to do something,
but if there's one good reason
not to do it,
that's the reason
you should consider.
So I think the one reason
not to do it
was that it would not be fair
to Kate.
I was supposed
to go back out to California
and start on the new record.
Peter and I had talked about
what songs we were gonna do.
But as much as I was loving
being in Los Angeles
and immersed in this scene,
I was homesick too.
So I called Peter.
I called him, I said,
"I just need more time."
When Kate made the call,
I wasn't surprised, I admit.
It was clear
she was not very comfortable
in the role
of would-be rock star.
And I think Kate herself
told Linda.
She was opening
for James in Tanglewood,
and I said to her,
"You should call Peter."
I hear
that you called Betsy
and talked to her before
you approached Peter--
Oh, I probably did.
Betsy was the soft gate in.
Peter can be uncomfortable
socially.
He's shy, basically.
I'm a shy person too,
so I appreciate it.
Betsy was a good liaison
between Peter
and the rest of the world.
They worked together
very much as a team.
She had a very good ear
for songs
and for songwriters
and artists,
and I think he relied on it.
I think Betsy
was more excited
and enthusiastic about Peter
producing me
than Peter was.
I think he'd heard that I was
difficult to deal with
or something.
She did have a reputation
for being difficult.
But it was clear to me
very rapidly
she wasn't difficult at all.
Half the time, no one
had actually listened to her.
There was an awful lot of,
"Don't you worry your pretty
little head about that."
Nobody was really giving
Linda credit
for being brilliant.
Whatever masterstroke,
genius idea I had,
it was mostly just,
"Let's listen
to what Linda has to say."
And now here's
a very special guest of ours,
a very lovely distraction,
Ms. Linda Ronstadt.
I had this song
called "Heart Like a Wheel"
I'd suggested it to a couple
of different producers.
It became this sort of
test case, apparently,
'cause she'd play it to people
and they'd go, "Oh yeah,
it's quite pretty, but eh."
Some say the heart
Is built like a wheel
When you bend it
You can't mend it
Peter liked that song.
Peter understood it.
He didn't say,
"Where's the hook?"
I mean,
we're all looking for hits,
but that struck me
as a song so beautiful
it almost didn't need
to be a hit to be a hit.
It became one
of the biggest songs
of my career.
When Peter came along,
everything changed.
The records got a lot better,
the musicians he got
were all brilliant.
These are all like
the best cats,
Kenny Edwards and Andrew Gold.
Peter, back then,
was very aware
of how Linda really did well
on oldies.
He reorganized
"You're No Good."
We were doing it onstage,
but differently,
a different groove
and everything,
and the guys in the band
came up with the ideas.
Peter recognized that
from where he was sitting
in the control room,
he said, "Keep that."
Feelin' better now
that we're through
We did it a couple
of different times
'cause we were both convinced
it must be a hit
but it kept not sounding
like one.
So we did a version
that Andrew Gold
played most
of the instruments on.
He played drums and bass
and keyboards
and one of the guitars.
You're no good,
you're no good
You're no good
Baby, you're no good
We left a big section
in the middle,
16 bars I think it was,
with a sort of reggae beat.
We had no idea what we were
gonna put there.
We really didn't.
Andrew and I stayed
in the studio that night
working on some guitar solos
to fill that gap.
Multiple overdubs
and going crazy.
We'd been there all night.
And Linda came back in
the next morning,
all scrubbed and fresh
and, you know,
and we played it to her
and she went,
"Eh, I don't really like it.
It sounds like The Beatles."
Which was such
a letdown
'cause they were really
excited about it.
And I said, "I don't know.
Play it again."
They played it a second time.
I went, "This is a hit."
I'm tellin' you now, baby,
and I'm goin' my way
And then our engineer
accidentally pushed a button
and it erased everything.
By that time,
I was jumping up and down,
going, "This is really good."
And Peter didn't have a fit.
He didn't go, "Oh, woe is me."
He said, "Get your guitar out,
let's do it again."
They didn't finish until dawn.
That could have declined
into a whole,
"Your fault, your fault,
your fault,"
and it didn't.
That was Peter.
Baby, you're no good
I came in
right where her career
was blossoming.
I was working for
other producers in town.
I had not cracked
Peter Asher's circle yet.
But my good friends
were working for Peter,
so I went by the studio
one time
and my friend JD Souther
saw me
and he goes, "You gotta play
on this record, man."
And then I saw Peter go,
"Oh God."
You know, like, "Oh no."
So I'm just sitting there
listening
and I started going,
"I know what to do on this,"
and when I did it,
I could see Peter go...
"Whoa, what was that?
What happened just then?"
And after we did the take,
all of a sudden, things were
a lot warmer, let's say.
Unlike most producers,
Peter had Linda singing live
in the studio.
These songs
that were going down,
like "Blue Bayou"
is a live vocal.
I'm goin' back someday
Come what may
To Blue Bayou
Normally,
you would play a track
with what they call
a guide vocal.
But if you're going
for the performance
with the singer,
you're gonna make sure
you're on your game.
On Blue
It was extraordinary,
to be part of it.
Bayou
And the winner is...
And the winner is...
Why don't you open the letter!
Oh, Linda.
Hasten Down the Wind...
-Hey!
-...Linda Ronstadt.
I'd especially like to thank
Peter Asher. Thank you.
It's so easy
to fall in love
It's so easy
to fall in love
When I went
on the road with Linda,
Peter's concept was,
"I want the band that plays
on the record
to be the band on the road
so it sounds and feels
the same."
Peter was largely responsible
for a very, very different
paradigm.
We rehearse together,
we record together,
and we tour together.
So now we're a family.
And Peter, he was always
there with us.
He'd be out there singing
with me on my microphone.
He was always part of it.
Do I enjoy being onstage? Yes.
But I don't think I stepped
on stage gratuitously.
To my mind, at least,
I always had the excuse of
providing some
actual function.
But maybe not.
Maybe it was all just vanity.
He's a ham
like the rest of us.
You know.
You can't shake that.
-Seems so easy
-It's so easy
Yeah
We got out on the road
and we just became closer
and closer friends.
We would wind up
in some jacuzzi somewhere
with a bottle of cognac
and just completely
out of our minds.
...concerned
my heart can learn
Peter doesn't
seem like the kind of person
that would have done
a lot of drugs.
Oh, he loved it.
- He did?!
- Yeah.
Peter was always a pothead.
He loved pot.
But he maintained perfectly
on it.
I partook.
The actual quantity
we, you know...
we shall leave
for the history books.
But no, I had fun when
everyone else was having fun.
It's so easy
to fall in love
Whoa-oh
It's so easy
to fall in love
We had a lot of fun
but there were lots
of obstacles in those days.
Egos and narcissism.
And tons of drugs.
They got very heavy
in the '70s.
I'm surprised so many people
survived.
Me included.
Coke changed things, yes.
Particularly when used
in excess.
Things got a bit more intense.
They just got edgy, you know.
People spoke to each other
through gritted teeth.
Eventually, I think,
if you do enough of it,
you can just lose your grip
on reality.
And they'll start getting mean
and nasty
and saying shitty things,
and like that.
I've seen it happen
over and over again.
Cocaine was a lot of fun,
but it ruined everything.
I got taken away
in an ambulance.
Sounds like
a nervous breakdown
or something.
Yeah, it sort of was.
Yeah, it sort of was
a big one.
Betsy's brain chemistry
was too fragile.
She was a person that had
a lot of emotional problems
that we didn't realize
how sick she was.
She got to the point where
she never left the house
and, uh...
it went downhill from there.
She did end up taking
the drugs a bit seriously.
That's one of the mysteries,
is how some people can survive
drugs quite effectively,
um, and some people can't.
I got put
in Las Encinas.
I was in the nuthouse
for a long time.
She's been afraid
to go out
She's afraid of the knock
on her door
There's always
a shade of a doubt
She can never be sure
James and JD and I
were playing and then we just
started throwing words around,
and all of a sudden,
it became about Peter
and Betsy
and coming to the end
of their road.
It became about them
breaking up.
She gets the house
and the garden
He gets the boys
in the band
Some of them his friends
Some of them her friends
Some of them understand
How did
Betsy's disintegrating state
impact you and your career?
I don't know.
I mean, there's...
I don't know.
I'm sorry. I don't...
I mean, I just--
The career--
I suppose I took refuge
in my career, you know.
Somebody loves you
Somebody loves you
In 1977,
Peter Asher was clearly
the producer of the year.
And Rolling Stone
had begun doing
these awards and polls
to wrap up a year.
And then, when you're
bouncing ideas around
at an editorial meeting,
anything can happen.
They called me up and said,
"We're gonna do
a big story on you
and the fact that you manage
and produce these two acts.
Ben Fong-Torres
is gonna write the story,"
which he did brilliantly.
But they also said, "We want
you to do a photo shoot
with Annie Leibovitz
in New York next weekend."
I went, "Yes! I'm in,"
you know.
"I'll get on the plane now."
But they did say,
"Oh, there's one more thing.
We are considering this
as a possible cover story,
but it'll only be
a cover story
if you bring
James and Linda with you
to the photo shoot."
At that point, I'm the kind
of manager, usually,
who's very calm and rational
and kinda goes,
"We've been offered this.
What do you think?
Here are the pros.
Here are the cons.
Do you think we should
do it or not?"
But did I want to be
on the cover of Rolling Stone?
Fuck yes. So...
So I had no hesitation
in kind of bullying James
and Linda a bit.
I've been cheated
Been mistreated
When will I be loved?
I've been put down
I've been pushed 'round
When will I...
I suppose I do have
this sort of
generally optimistic view
that what I set my hand to
seems to work out okay.
I don't think it's necessarily
to my credit at all.
I think it could just be
a series
of fortunate circumstances.
But I've never really known
what I was going
to be doing next.
When will I be loved?
Tell me
When will I be
Loved?
Wendy and I first met
at a party in Malibu.
Fell in love, got married,
had a kid.
I mean...
It's not a highly original
story.
I'd never been sure
if I wanted children or not,
to be quite honest,
but I was thrilled
and delighted
when Victoria arrived.
It was a super fun
household to be in
because there was just
tons of people all the time
and different characters
that were living in the house
and a lot of creative people.
You'll never see
this few people at this table.
It's always, you know,
Wendy's, Wendy's, Wendy's,
Wendy and Peter,
Wendy and Peter.
Joni Mitchell lived
a few doors down
so we just had dinner
at each other's house
every three nights.
We'd switch.
Peter used to come home to
big old parties at our house.
He'd call and he'd say,
"Can I talk to Wendy?"
and they'd say, "Who's this?"
He says, "Peter.
I live there."
'Cause he was
on the road all the time.
At one point,
Peter had said that
he might have been just happy
producing James and Linda.
Yes, I was pretty busy.
But at the same time,
when opportunities arose
to produce other people,
particularly people
I'd idolized, you know...
-Diana Ross.
-Diana Ross, for example.
And, baby
Every time you touch me
Wish your heart
was a heart of stone
Just say
what you want to say
He was born on a summer day
in 1951
I was a good kid
Goodbye, Norma Jean
Though I never knew you
at all
Qu rosas tan encendidas
I knew absolutely nothing
about Peter
except that, um...
Here, I'll show you.
This is what I knew
about Peter Asher.
That my mom had some albums,
these Peter and Gordon albums.
And that's basically
all I knew about Peter Asher
until he was suggested
as a producer.
With a shiver in my bones
just thinking
About the weather
A quiver in my lip
as if I might cry
What we love about pop music,
those of us
who love pop music,
is that in that
three and a half minutes,
there's this kind of
ecstatic energy
and this moment of bliss.
There's an art to being able
to find those moments
and accentuate those moments
and render those moments,
and I think that Peter
has that ability.
We're never meant
to be apart
We said,
we've been working on songs.
We're thinking of it
as bluegrass,
so we didn't know
what Peter thought of that.
I love good songs
that stick in your head
regardless in which field
they're written.
What is it
that drives both of you
to take risks
and to leap off cliffs
into new territory?
I've never thought about it
as leaping off cliffs--
I just was gonna say that.
I never think of it as a risk.
A risk would imply,
"I have this career,
but if I do this
my career will go away."
Right. Yeah. Exactly.
Part of it
is just being unguided.
And seeing something,
as I say, as an opportunity.
You kind of go, "That should
be interesting or fun
or maybe I'll learn
something new if I do that."
And the winner
is Robin Williams!
-Come up here.
-Yes!
Comedy Album
of the Year
was not a Grammy
I ever expected,
that's for sure.
Robin was just a friend.
I had sort of talked myself
into the gig.
I want to thank Peter Asher.
We call him DJ Mensa.
Thank you, Peter.
God bless you.
He's English.
He knows more than we do.
God bless him.
As much as
he's great at music,
he was great at picking out
the best bits.
It's kind of like
a live music album,
so you really get the feeling,
"This is what it's like
to be on the road,"
and that's why I thanked him.
-Busting on Robin?
-Yes, I am.
-No, it was sweet.
-Gonna intrude.
This is a man--
Look at this suit.
Look at this suit.
Peter dresses amazingly
with, like, Edwardian stuff.
It's things that even, like,
a gay leprechaun would go,
"It's too much.
Can't wear that."
Now, I would be remiss
if I were to end this show
without catching you up
on the Peter and Gordon story.
I must admit,
as those decades rolled by,
it had always been
my assumption
that we probably wouldn't
sing together again.
And then all of a sudden,
out of the blue,
we got this phone call
from Paul Shaffer
who was putting together
a benefit.
You saw in the paper
that Mike Smith,
lead singer
of The Dave Clark Five,
fell off a fence
and was paralyzed.
Cathy said, "You've got to do
something for Mike Smith,
a tribute of some kind."
And I started getting
this idea,
I could base this thing
around the British Invasion.
Cathy said, "Well, you gotta
get Peter and Gordon."
"Gotta get Peter and Gordon."
And he went,
"They're not gonna do it.
He's never gonna do it."
I said, "Ask him."
So he called me
and I realized
that if we were ever gonna
try singing together again,
this would be
the right time to do it.
I said, "I'll call you back."
He phoned me up and I said,
"Don't be silly. Of course
we'll do that for Mike.
No problem.
Get me there, I'm your man."
When I see her
comin' down the street
I get so shaky
and I feel so weak
I had to learn
to sing the songs properly,
'cause I'd been singing them
on my own
in the way that I would like
to sing them
for the last 35 years.
Peter hadn't sung them at all
for 35 years,
so I don't know
whose job was harder.
I said yes,
and then later on, it dawns
on you that saying yes
extends to the moment when
you actually have to do it,
and that was scary.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Peter and Gordon!
Go to pieces
and I wanna hide
Go to pieces
and I almost die
Every time
my baby passes by
I think it dawned
on me towards the end
we still probably
sounded okay.
People seemed to like it.
We seemed to still
sound like us.
I reach for her
but she's not there
To all of a sudden
have that harmony
alongside me
that I'd been looking--
I mean, I've tried--
I must have tried 50 people,
and no one can get close.
My baby passes by
So, thanks, Peter.
...when she said,
"Goodbye, baby"
"We'll meet again soon,
maybe"
The gig was a success
and that's when
the question came up,
"There are other gigs
available.
Are you interested
in doing them?"
And we did a few of those.
Us and our guitars.
Same way we started.
You realize that these songs
played a considerable role
in people's lives
and how much that means
to people.
You actually see people
in the audience crying.
If you miss
the train I'm on
You will know
that I have gone
If you talk
to them afterwards, it'll be,
"That's the song
I proposed to my wife.
That was our song."
...a hundred miles
Sounds like a clich,
but it actually is a privilege
to be able to be part of
an operation in reminiscence.
You can hear the whistle
Blow
A hundred miles
Thank you very much.
Just you know why
We lost Gordon
in 2009.
He was one of those who didn't
look after himself at all
and kept getting
doctors' warnings,
you know, and things.
But his voice remained
completely intact.
The beautiful baritone that
I had so fallen in love with
all the way back in school
remained
almost exactly the same.
...ways
Sometimes we'll sigh
When Gordon died,
I had the choice,
am I never gonna sing
these songs again?
That's when I had this idea
for a show that's
half talking, half singing,
that would tell stories.
So I began to assemble
what I eventually called
A Memoir of the '60s
and Beyond.
True love ways
And I get to sing the songs
with various different people
including Lyle Lovett,
or whoever, you know,
Gordon du jour happens to be.
I don't care what they say
I don't care what they say
I won't stay
-I don't care
-I won't stay
"I don't care what they say"
is unison, right?
I don't care what they say
I won't stay
I don't care what they say
I won't stay
in a world without love
-That's it. That is exactly--
-Okay.
Okay, great. And, uh...
Birds sing out of tune
And is that in unison?
-Do it one more time?
-I'd love to.
So I wait and in a while
I will see
my true love smile
She may come
I know not when
When she does, I'll know
So, baby, until then,
lock me away
And don't allow the day
Here inside
Where I hide
With my loneliness
I don't care what they say
I won't stay
in a world without love
What do you
think is Peter's reason
for going out on stage
at age 80 and change?
Well, he didn't start at 80.
You find yourself to be 80
and still being able to do it,
just about.
So I wait and in a while
I will see
my true love smile
Okay, your verse is coming up
pretty soon.
Stand by.
Here we go.
So, baby, until then
Lock me away
And don't allow the day
Fabulous. You sound great.
Here inside where I hide
With my loneliness
I don't care what they say
I won't stay
in a world without love
I don't care what they say
I won't stay
in a world without love
Thank you very much.
Thank you to my fabulous band.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much.
Fantastic.
Please lock me away
And don't allow the day
Here inside
Where I hide
With my loneliness
I don't care what they say
I won't stay
in a world without love
Is it true
Mike Myers modeled
his character Austin Powers
after you?
Yeah, baby! Yeah!
Rumor has it
they modeled Austin Powers
after Peter.
Oh, really?
That's hilarious.
Does Peter know this?
I kind of...
Yes, I sort of get it.
Yes, it's possible, I suppose.
I see Peter.
None at all.
- None?!
- I don't think so, no.
The Buddy Holly glasses.
I think Peter
had a velvet suit
with a, you know,
ruffle collar.
Oh, behave!
You wouldn't voluntarily
choose bad teeth
and glasses, you know.
Yeah, but you're a pretty
snappy dresser, Peter.
Thank you. Thank you.
Yonder mountain
So high
I can't make it all
on my own
Rolling river
Why so wide?
To sweep me up
And to bear me on
And up against
the sky so bright
That I can't even
close my eyes
I know I will follow
Follow love
I know I've got to go
Follow love
Yes, I will follow
Follow love
Follow love
Growing slowly
Like a tree
Someday soon
Darling, I love you
I love you
And soft and gentle
full summer moon
To set my soul free
Thank you, baby
And drifting like a cloud
in the sky
I can see myself
from high above
I know I must follow
Follow love
Even if I'm called to love
Follow love
I guess I will follow
Follow love
Follow love
Oh, half the future
And half the past
They're waiting
inside those eyes
And after all this,
to last and last
Till at last
it's your time to rise
Rise
I will follow love
-Follow love
-I will fall in love
Follow love
Somebody
gonna hold my hand
Follow love
Somebody
gonna lead me home
Follow love
Somebody
gonna take me there
Follow love
Everybody follow love
Follow love