Legendary record producer & manager Peter Asher

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protect together. Power a truly independent press support the NPR network at plus.npr.org. This is fresh air. I'm Terry Gross. One of the successful British invasion bands of the '60s was the duo Peter and Gordon. Peter is my guest Peter Asher, who later became a famous record producer. The first record Peter and Gordon released became a number one hit in England and the U.S.

That song, a world without love, was written by Paul McCartney for the Beatles,

but John Lennon didn't like it, so Paul put it away until Peter asked to record it. Paul had been living in the Asher family home where Peter, his sisters and his parents lived. We'll hear a while little later. It's a great story. So here's a world without love from 1964. Earth sing out of you and rain clouds high in the moon. I'm okay. Here I'll stay with my

loneliness. I don't care what they say. I won't stay in a world without love. Peter and Gordon went on to have other hits including nobody I know I don't want to see you again and I go to pieces. After the duo split up, in 1968 Peter became the first ANR man at the Beatles' new Apple record label. The first person he signed was James Taylor

who had never recorded before. Peter didn't stay long at Apple. He moved to LA, produced

and managed Taylor and helped turn him into a star. He introduced Taylor to Carol King and launched King's performing career. He produced and managed Linda Ronstadt. Other artists he produced over the years include Randy Newman, Sher, Neil Diamond, Marisi, Diana Ross, Elton John, Bonnie Wright, Barbara Streisand, Robin Williams, and Steve Martin. Wow, that's really a phenomenal list. Pete Asher is part of other important moments in music

history. Peter co-owned the gallery where John first met Yoko while her work was on exhibit there. Peter was unintentionally responsible for Mick Jagger meeting Mary and Faithful, which began their romance. In addition to the many Grammys, his artist one, he won three producing Grammys and in 1977 was on the cover of Rolling Stone. A new documentary chronicles Peter Asher's life. It's called Peter Asher, Everywhere Man. It's playing and select

theaters around the country. Peter Asher, welcome to Fresh Air. I really like this documentary. You've had such an interesting life. So let's start with world without love. Did Paul ever

“explain why John rejected it? I think it was the lyrics. First of all, I think I don't think”

it's quite true to say that Paul wrote it for the Beatles. I think he wrote it pre-beatals, actually. Oh, that's right. You say he wrote it. I think he was like 16 or something like that, which is extraordinary. And I think what John didn't like about it was the lyrics that he thought that please lock me away was an absurd line to put into song. And so he would actually say to Paul, "Okay, I will lock you away," the song's over. So it's copyrighted to Lynn and McCartney.

Everything was. Yes, I know. And Paul told me one of the times I interviewed him, that he regrets having the Beatles songs that Paul or John wrote independently credited to both of them, especially because even if Paul wrote a song himself, the credits started with Lynn and Lynn and McCartney.

“I'm not sure I agree with Paul about that. I think it was something particularly charming”

and emphasized the closest of their relationship that they agreed to credit everything to the two of them. And I think that was actually a very fair division of credit and saved them any arguments. Because at the beginning, of course, they did actually write together the songs they wrote in our house in London, as you point out. But the songs that John came over, they sat down together at the piano or together with two guitars facing each other and wrote together. So I think that

I think it was kind of a cool thing to do. So since you were talking about them writing songs together, let's hear a clip from the documentary. And this is a part where Paul is talking about living with your family and what that was like and it leads into writing with John Lynn and

at your home. And in the second part of this clip, we'll hear you. It was such a family.

Claire was a very nice younger sister, a lot of fun. And then there was Peter, an interesting bright guy. I could talk to him about anything. And also a very interested in music, very musical. So there's 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 be in my bedroom. Not so wanted to come down here this song, it just finished writing. They sat side by side at the piano. And hammered out the first version that he would have ever heard of this brand new song. They had just finished, called "I want to hold your hand."

Peter, ask your reaction was what? When you heard this song? Amazement. I mean, I thought, am I losing my mind or is this one of the best songs I've ever heard in my life? Well, possibly both. But I was thrilled and amazed. And they looked at me for some kind of reaction.

And I said, I think that's amazing. And perhaps the biggest giveaways,

the fact that I immediately asked them if they could play it again. And perhaps the second giveaways, the fact that they were delighted to play it again. I think they knew that they'd written something special. Whether they had in mind the fact that it was going to break the whole of the change, the whole attitude of the whole world, starting with America, that everyone was going to become a beetle fan. And they said, "I want to hold your hand, that that was the magic track that that set off

“the American Beetlemania epidemic." I don't know, but that's what it turned out to be.”

So Paul was living with your family because your sister Jane Asher was a famous actress by then. Yes. Paul was her boyfriend. Yes. The beetles had a home in London for when they were there. But Paul found it too chaotic. He must have moved in very early in the beetles career because if he and John hadn't yet written, I want to hold your hand. That had to be pretty early. That's a good point. Yes, that's correct. I'm very bad at dates. I told you, but

but yes, that would certainly be true. So watching Paul's fame, what did it teach you about what it means to be famous because you are on the verge of becoming famous yourself? It's a good question. I don't really know. I learned anything about becoming famous and certainly nobody was famous in a way that compared to the beetles in any sense. But suddenly, when we go to America, there's no question the template for the famous British invasion member

had been sort of set by the beetles and that all the girls you chased you around around the streets and stuff which they did. We're following what they'd seen in the beetles movie and how they knew everyone reacted to the beetles, the screaming which fever pitch and we were lucky to be sort of

part of that whole madness and it was a thrilling time. Did you always feel lucky that girls were

chasing after the band and that they were screaming probably so loud that couldn't actually hear the music that you were playing and you might not have been able to hear Gordon when you were singing with him on stage. Yes, that was very annoying. That was true. I mean, it was certainly one of the downsides of the technology of that era. Monitors hadn't been invented yet at all. Oh, you had no monitors. No monitors at all. Let alone the fancy inias that we all have today.

“So we couldn't hear ourselves at all. I mean, Ringo, I remember, I didn't interview explaining that”

he knew where he was on the song by watching the backs of Paul and John. He could tell from their movements which bit of the song they were in but you couldn't hear anything between the screaming and the technological setbacks. It was guesswork. It must have been strange for you from going to a guy who was playing small clubs to suddenly having a number one record touring America, getting on the at Sullivan show. It's like an extreme jump.

It was indeed. I mean, often said that, you know, there was a comparison between at one point, you know, I remember when I was before it even made the record. I was at university, reading philosophy at London University and bicycling home from school for the afternoon in the dark and the rain very often. If it was a British winter and only

in a rented Mustang being recognized by beautiful women. And at that point, I kind of went,

“this isn't substantial improvement, you know. I think this is better. So I made the decision to”

quit university of course and take up this pop stuff full time. Did it change yourself image to have women chasing after you? No, but it's fun. That's for sure. I don't think, I don't know, change myself image because I suddenly feel swarve and grown up and manly, I don't think so. I think my insecurities remained intact, but it was sudden. So you loved American jazz, folk music, rock and roll. And suddenly, you go to America and everybody's really absorbed

in the British invasion. Americans were in love with British bands. Was that incomprehensible to you?

It was a surprise. I mean, because that's the whole miracle of the British invasion. We loved

all this music. As you said, folk music and jazz and how's it a big jazz fan. And it just was extraordinary. And then we learned all its music, R&B and the Evelie brothers in our case, and so on and decided to wish to emulate among the stars of American music. And then the miracle is that we sent my learned it all and tweaked it slightly and sold it all back to you. It was remarkable achievement from a business point of view, as opposed.

I want to mention another connection between your family and the Beatles, which is your mother was a professional oboe player. She performed with symphonies and taught oboe at the Royal Academy of Music, also taught private lessons. And one of her private students was George Martin, who later

“became the Beatles producer. I don't think he was producing them yet. Am I right about that?”

That's right. Yeah, I don't think so. No, I think that's correct. Yeah, it was an extraordinary coincidence. So by the time my mother was introduced to George Martin as her daughter's boyfriend's record producer, she was like, oh, it's George, you know. She had given him private lessons to because he was concerned about passing his exams at the Guildhall School of Music. And he had to

oboe with his second instrument and he required some further training evidently. But presumably

it was successful. Let's talk about your very first career, which was as a child actor. And as I think we mentioned earlier, you were in a film with Claudette Colbert. You had a part in the TV series, the Adventures of Robin Hood, which I used to watch. And you're in a TV series with Boris Carloff episodes, or an episode. So what was the experience for you being like, I think eight during part of this? And I was eight when it started. I did my first film

plant this wife with Claudette Colbert and Jack Hawkins when I was eight. Yes. So what was the experience like for you? Did you feel like this is exciting? I'm getting to meet movie stars. I did this. Oh, okay. But I enjoyed acting too. I enjoyed the work, but it's so very standard. You read the script on your lines and do what the director wants you to do and hope that it was good. What was it like seeing yourself on screen? Did you go to a movie theater and see yourself?

Yes. There's going to be rushes quite often in the evening. You know, and see what you chart that very day or the day before perhaps, because I had to develop the film as well. Didn't make you any more or less comfortable with yourself in terms of how you looked? Didn't make you self-conscious? I don't think so actually. I think maybe self-consciousness comes when you're 10 or comes with puberty. I don't know. I don't think I felt very self-conscious at that point now.

Did your mother feel comfortable with you as a performer since she was a performer too? She played overall. Yes. She was surprisingly cool. I mean, all three of us got signed. Jane and clarinai was all your two sisters. My two sisters and I. And that we did bits of acting.

“The only thing we did together was Jane and I did one of those episodes of Robin Hood that you mentioned.”

We played in what was one called Children of the Greenwood. We played a brother and sister peasant couple. We as in the other episodes I did. I played Prince Arthur rather poshia. But, you know, yeah, we were all signed and all worked and all enjoyed it. But Jane enjoyed it the best and also was the best at it. And had a career. And built a very fine-iting career which persists to this day. I mean, part of the reason why you became an actor is that you and your two

sisters had red hair. So you all had red hair. That's the reason we got signed. Yeah, some of the agents spotted this and said, oh, you know, they're very picturesque or something. Yeah. Yeah. But most of the stuff you were and was probably black and white.

the casting directory of that era, it has to say in the black and white alongside the black and white

“photographs, it says all have red hair in big letters because that was not evident from the photos”

in the in the guide because they couldn't afford color printing at that point. So let's get back to you touring. So when you first got to America, what struck you as musically most different about the US versus England? Everything was different. The radio stations were completely different. You know, we only had the BBC. You had all these brilliant little stations where the DJ actually played

the records himself, which in the BBC never happened. Somebody else, you know, put the, put the

needle in the groove and so on. It was very organized. And then as a jazz fan, the craziest thing was, you know, in England, when if a jazz legendary jazz player came to England, they'd be playing concert halls and been treated with extreme respect. And in New York, you know, there's just all these jazz clubs and all our heroes were playing these places that were like scummy, you're going to smoke written little jazz clubs, which was very exciting for us. But there was a huge difference in how they

treated the music. I already had copies of "Downbeat" with all the jazz clubs I wanted to go to circled. I knew who was playing where and when and so on. And I remember going to see people at

Roland Kirk and by as in England, we'd see the Londoniest monk in Royal Festival Hall. So their

attitude to music was completely different, at least to jazz. In the '60s, while you were performing and recording with Gordon, your singing partner, you also became the co-owner of a bookstore and an art gallery that were part of London's underground culture of the time. Describe what was new about the clothes, the music, and the sense of liberation after growing up during the period in England was rebuilding and suffering food shortages after World War II. Absolutely. Well, the rationing people

are amazed to realize that rationing didn't end till 1956. The last item, whatever was the last thing that was still rationed. And what year were you born? 44. So, you know, yes, it was a big change and

“I think that is part of it because the Britain as we grew up was everything was rationed, everything”

was gray and standardized and shortages of everything. And we very much admired the spirit of the blitz and all that stuff and tied in your belt and you know, fight them in the beaches and what the general spirit of the thing. And obviously we won the war in theory, but it's engine feel like it. And we could see that America was the country that was going to change the world from then on. The British Empire's days already were kind of numbered to turn down. So the

Churchillian attitude was sort of fading away. I think we decided, you know, that was all very well. We admired what our parents were accomplished. They'd got to be won the war and all that stuff. But now it's time to have some fun. So we're going to wear silly clothes and bright colors and smoked dope and have a good time. And we did. So how did you change during that period? I was silly clothes and I stopped and it's smoked dope and that's fun. Was that era in the

50s where you sort of tried to look like a grown-up, you know. And then by the time we got to the 60s you wanted to avoid desperately looking like you're growing up. You wanted to look like somebody cool and young. So the gallery that you co-owned is where John and Yoko met during the period when the gallery was exhibiting her work. Were you there when they met? I was there when John showed up.

“But I can't remember. I wasn't actually the person who introduced them or anything. But John”

came in his mini-coup with a chauffeur. And yeah, I was John Dunbao ran the art half of the Indica operation and he'd seen Yoko talk to Yoko or something. And that's he suggested that Yoko would be a good person to be, you know, exhibited in our gallery, which he was indeed. I certainly saw John that at one point. But I don't think I was the person who actually physically introduced them. So the gallery? Even though sometimes they get blamed for it's in the

context. But that gallery was the place that the whole controversy started about whether Yoko broke up the Beatles. Well, exactly. I mean, it's funny because I tell the story and it's part of my stage show, which is a bit of a story's half-musing. When I tell that story, it gets such wildly different reactions at different days. Because sometimes it's a,

oh, you know, what a sweet love story. Other times it's kind of a, I don't know. And then finally,

one time that only this happened. As soon as I told the story, somebody jumped up to their feet and said, "It was you! You broke up the Beatles." I had to say, "No, I didn't." You know, because I didn't.

So I think this is a good time to take another break. If you're just joining us, my guest is Peter

“Asher, and the new documentary about him is called "Everywhere Man." We'll be right back after a”

short break. I'm Terry Gross and this is fresh air. This week on our first President Trump heads to the NATO summit with a stark warning for Iran, make a deal where the U.S. will quote "finish the job." We're tracking what the escalating tension

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Americans first knew him as half of the 60s British invasion band Peter and Gordon.

Their hits included a world without love. Nobody I know and I go to pieces. Asher went on to become a Grammy winning record producer. His two most enduring music relationships with James Taylor and Linda Ronstatt. So, in terms of your music life, you went through a transitional time in the late 60s. Gordon Waller, your singing partner, decided he wanted to go solo and you know that you wanted to produce recordings. I did. But the minute I went into the recording studio and

figured out what producers did, I thought this would be so cool. I love the idea of being able to influence the arrangement and mix and sound and identity, musical identity of a song.

Before you had produced any record, you became the first ANR man for the Beatles' new Apple

record label, ANR stands for Artisan Repetwar, described what your job was. Well, Apple took this very bold step of actually soliciting tapes. It was normally the summer. It was got no solicited material. It was supposed to be sent in to most major record companies. But we actually took ads going, you know, send your tapes to Apple Records and God did they ever. We got giant mail bags for the tapes. And the sad thing was they mostly

were not any good. And not just that it'd be weird stuff, like somebody sends in 100 pages of lyrics that they know John Lennon is anxiously awaiting to write music for all and things like that. Need suddenly realize there's an awful lot of odd people out there who think they should need to be signed Apple Records. But eventually, of course, we did find a few good people. But usually not sadly through the unsolicited tapes. They usually came through connections or friends

or coincidences like me meeting James and things like that. Why did the label go through that

“route? Because it was the spirit of Apple, I think. The idea that, you know, we are the first”

label who's going to really pay attention to artists and take them seriously. Because everyone has experience of trying to get a record company to listen to you and they've refused, you know, and until you had a manager until you went through proper channels, it was really hard to do that. So we were kind of going, we wanted to be the ones who we got it, you know, if you're sitting in your bedroom writing songs, you don't have to keep the secret anymore, send them to us.

Well, the first person you signed was James Taylor and you did not find him in the slush pile. How did you find him? Well, when Gordon and I paid America, we were supplied back up bands kind of locally. There'd be some promoter and say the Midwest or something would find a band to back you up and usually we'd just find an outer work local group who would do it for cheap. And so the quality of those bands varied enormously, but one band that I

actually liked that came to us in that manner was a band called The King Bees. And one of the King Bees was a guitar player called Danny Courtsman and Danny and when the King Bees were back years up on the road, it became great friends. We were a main great friends to the stage, he's a brilliant guitar player and a remarkable man. And then subsequently Danny was in a band with his childhood friend James Taylor. That band was called The Flying Machine and it suffered

and money problems and food problems and all the stuff going on. So finally that band broke

up. James decided to go to London and when Danny found this out he said to James,

“you should look at my friend Peter Asher he's okay and we toured together for, you know,”

well back. And so that's how I got my phone rang and this guy out said, you know, very sort of cultured, slightly southern accent that explained that he was friend of Cooches and you know, and I said great, you know, if you're in London, come over. I mean come and visit. So he came to dinner the following evening and he'd already made a demo tape and the previous week and he played me a couple of songs on the tape and I was completely blown away

and then he picked up my guitar and just leaning in the corner of the room and played me something alive and I couldn't believe it. I thought his guitar playing was exceptional, his singing was exceptional, the songs were brilliant. I can wax on about each of them if needed because they were all different. I mean his guitar playing was slightly classical but with jazz kind of harmonies on it. You listen to a lot of Manhattan records and his singing style out

more to Ray Charles and Sam Cook and so I said, look, you know, this is amazing. I love your music.

I've just got this new job as it happens. I'm head of an after a record label. Would you like a record deal and he kind of went here? Yes, please, I'd love one and that was that. So he used the first artist's time to output records. I took him into Apple offices the next day or the following day. I'm not sure. And Paul and George were both there at the time. So they came in and sat and listened to James singing a couple of songs and kind of went, yes, we agree. I mean I was going to

“sign them anyway but obviously getting the bosses on side was very important. What was your vision”

for him? What did you encourage him to do? Just keep writing to great songs because I love the songs and then we started talking about the kind of record we should make and that's when I decided that on this particular album on the Apple album I orchestrated it quite a bit. I had a friend of mine called Richard Houston who was a jazz guitar player in the classical music composer to write some arrangements for us because I was most anxious that people take James seriously

that they're not think he's just, yeah, it's another long-haired folkie because he definitely wasn't and isn't because that was the thing at that era. If you sang and played the acoustic guitar you were a folk singer whether you sang folk songs are not. But in this case so we made that's

why we made the first album and that album as you probably know was not tremendously successful.

It just laid the groundwork for the first album we made when we got to America. Yeah you left with James Taylor for the US. Yeah. Which is where you recorded his second album. Correct. And you left Apple for good. You hadn't stated Apple very long. No, I hadn't left, by the way, I would have got fired because Alan Kahn came in. Well, because Alan Kahn was coming in and firing everybody. I could see the writing on the wall.

So I wrote Alan a letter of resignation, but he was in charge of Apple overall at the time. And I'm sure you've read about the fights between John and Paul about whether Alan Kahn was evil or not. Oh, whether he could be a good manager and Paul lost the argument in this instance and and they hired Alan the client to be the head of Apple. And it was clear that he was going to fire everybody and he did fire most people. So if I hadn't quit I certainly would have been fired

pretty in short order. Well, let's take a break here. My guest is Peter Asher, the new documentary about him is called Everywhere Man. We'll be right back. This is fresh air. Of all the protests in the summer of 2020 for a moment there, it was Utopia. One took a unique turn. Somebody over there saying it's an odd season gun. This is the story of how violence came to occupy an anti-violence occupation in Seattle.

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This is fresh air. Let's get back to my interview with Peter Asher.

Americans first knew him as half of the '60s British invasion band, Peter and Gordon.

Their hits included a world without love. Nobody I know and I go to pieces. Asher went on to become a Grammy-winning record producer. His two most enduring music relationships were with James Taylor and Linda Ronstatt. So let's get back to talking about James Taylor. You recorded your second album with him in the U.S. He was going through at various times he had a heroin habit. Yes. You probably don't want to dwell on this, but I would like to ask you,

if it interfered either with his music or with your relationship. It interfered with his music a lot.

“I think it takes up quite a bit of your attention being a junkie. Is this quite a complicated”

process and how do you find it and buying it? You know. So yes, it changed that and as a relationship. No, I mean I needed a little about it. I had to sort of look up, as it were. What drug addicts were? We didn't know a lot about it. So I just thought, oh, he spends a lot of time in the bathroom or whatever, and worried about him. But eventually, you know,

eventually we discussed it openly and I was basically saying to him, what can I do to help?

And so I helped him as in whatever way I could. And of course, the actual process of of becoming clean took him, you know, years, but eventually, of course, he did it very successfully. One of my favorite James Taylor recordings is his fire and rain from his second album, Sweet Baby James, or of course he produced. And it's a song about a friend who died by suicide. Did he tell you the story behind the song? A little bit. I mean, he's told it publicly. I mean,

“Suzanne was a friend who killed herself and I think people didn't want to tell him or something.”

So there was some delay and they're actually getting the information. And of course, there's a thing about flying machines and pieces on the ground and there's been much a misinterpreted and people think it relates to a plane crash and it doesn't at all. The flying machine was the band as I explained before that he was in with coach that broke up. So that was the flying machine in pieces on the ground. So I want to play fire and rain,

which was recorded in 1970. And I want our listeners to know that it's Carol King on piano. And after we hear this, you can explain why and how you got her to play. [Music] Just yesterday morning, they let me know you were gone. Suzanne, the plans they may put an end to you.

I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song. I just can't remember who to send it to. I've seen fire 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. But I always thought that I'd see you again.

“Okay, so how did you get Carol King to play piano on that and why?”

Well, Danny Courchmars is a key figure yet again in this story because when I came out to LA, I wanted to put together a little band to play on the whole track and because I wanted to keep it much simpler than the pre-seeding album had been. And to make sure that every song was based entirely around the arrangement that was sort of self-contained in his guitar playing and his singing. And I found a drummer called Ross Conkel and Danny Courchmars himself was going

to play guitar, obviously. And then I was trying to choose the piano player. And by this time, I'd heard some of Carol King's demos. I already was a huge fan of hers, Gothen and King wrote so many of my favorite songs. Of course, you know, with you said, "Let me tomorrow being the first one when she was 18, that was number one all over the place." And that went on to, you know, natural woman and I'm into

something good and up on the roof. And I loved Carol King's piano playing specifically because it was very much an accompanist's kind of piano playing, not flashy, not complicated, but just right,

if she would consider playing on this James Taylor album that we were about to make. I said,

“"They would need you for about five days. I love your playing. I think you and James are”

so great together." And she said, "Maybe." And she didn't know James was. So I invited over to my house where James was staying at this point. And she sat down next to James, the piano bench, James played as guitar and she started playing piano. I suggested they just sit and start playing. And it worked perfectly. I thought her piano playing was exactly exactly what I had in mind. And James loved her too. And of course he was a Carol fan already. And so we sort of booked

Carol's it where as a student musician for the next five days. And that was when we recorded

every track on Sweet Baby James. And if you look, you'll see that Carol King is credited on piano

“on every one of them. And that's how Carol King and James Taylor became friends and collaborator.”

Yes, exactly so. And he recorded her song, "You've got a friend before she did." Belly, yeah, they were almost the same time. Did she have any problem? I mean, she would get composer royalty. So it would work in her favor in that respect. But I mean, it could have taken away from her own recording. Yes, exactly. It was an act of great generosity. What actually happened was kind of interesting. When James was playing the troubadour in Los Angeles, after Sweet Baby

James was a big hit, I persuaded Carol that she's played with James live, which she did. So when Carol agreed to play with James at the troubadour, James had the idea of the Carol might like to do a little set of her own to get a feedback as it were in terms of of actually being a performer in front of a live audience. So she agreed to do that. And it was on the opening night at the troubadour at the soundcheck that while Carol was soundchecking her own piano

just to make sure it would work and everything. She ran through as long as she just finished writing the night before. And James and I were just sitting in the audience at the troubadour in the empty house. And we heard Carol sing this brand new song. She just finished "You've got a friend." And James fell in love with the song completely. So eventually we asked Carol if James could

“learn it. And finally asked very rather nerveily, I think, whether she would consider letting us”

record it, even though knowing that she was going to record it as well. And the both versions of you've got a friend got made. And then the miracle is, you know, rather than deterding anybody, it was a huge success on both counts. James's version of you've got a friend was a number one single all over the place. And Carol's version of you've got a friend was a key track on the album that

became tapestry and went on to sell like a zillion billion copies. -Yes, I think you were required

to own a copy of that album. -Exactly. -Everybody, I knew how to copy. So since you produced the James Taylor version, why don't we hear that? Do you want to say anything about the production? -It's quite minimally. Carol didn't actually play on our version. It's basically James and Danny Courchmore, on a couple of the vukus guitars, and Russ Kunkle playing Congress, I think, largely. I think I may be playing Kabasso on it doing little tiny backbeats on the chorus, but that's

about it. -Okay, this is James Taylor. You've got a friend produced by my guest Peter Ashich. When you're down, I'm troubled, and you need a helping hand, and a thin one, nothing's going right. Close your eyes and finger to me, and soon I will be there, to brighten up, even your dog is lying. You just call up my name, and you know wherever I am, I'll come running on your name to see you again. With the strings on the floor, all you got to do is call,

and I'll be there again. You've got a friend. So that was James Taylor, and that recording was produced by my guest Peter Ashich.

This is fresh air. -On NPR's Wildcard podcast actor and director Danny McBride says he has

finally aged into his looks. -I'm lucky because even when I was 21, I looked like I was 50 years old,

so now I look at my pictures of me, and I'm like, I was older there, somehow this is weird. Watch or listen to that Wildcard conversation on the NPR app or on YouTube at NPR Wildcard. You've got a lot of ways to get news, and a lot of podcasts in your feed that take a long time to get to the point. Here and now anytime gets to the heart of the day's big story, all in about 20 minutes every afternoon. Get smarter and expand your world fast.

Listen to hear and now anytime on the NPR app or wherever you listen to podcasts. This is fresh air. Let's get back to my interview with Peter Ashich.

Americans first knew him as half of the '60s British invasion band Peter and Gordon.

Their hits included a world without love. Nobody I know, and I go to pieces. Ashich went on to become a Grammy award-winning record producer, and he worked extensively with James Taylor, and then to Ron Stap. Let's talk about your recordings with a relationship with Linda Ron Stap. You were recommended by a friend to go hear her. She was already pretty famous because she had recorded and performed with the band Stone ponies. People knew who she was, but the band had broken up,

and she was kind of, "Where was she in her career at this point when you heard her?" I don't remember exactly. I suppose different drum was a hit and long long time was a hit, but she hadn't taken off in a huge way, I guess. I hadn't heard of her. I mean, I'd heard the

“records, I think, on the radio, but I didn't know anything about her, and somebody recommended”

I go and see her, so go and see this girl who's playing at the bitter end in New York because she's

amazing, and she was amazing in every respect. She looked amazing. She sounded amazing. She was amazing.

The smart and bright and brilliant and well-read and fascinating as a person, so I was knocked out and her voice just impressed the hell out of me. Now I understand why you were excited about her. Why was she willing to sign with you? What she was thinking about changing managers. She was with a couple of people, and at that point I think she was with her beco and turned out to be slightly dishonest apparently. When the band got arrested at one, I don't care, put it with forged

air tickets. He had somebody to do with it or something. But anyway, for whatever reason, she was looking

“for another manager. I think one of the things that she felt was that her input wasn't taken”

seriously by previous producers, that's like the chick singer. Right, I think that was true. And and the same thing applies to the record producer and manager, both of which I wasn't, because the James and eventually Linda. I think two of the greatest tracks on the first album that you did with her are Heart Like a Wheel, a song by Anna McGaragall, and you're no good. And I think she suggested Heart Like a Wheel. She had wanted to record it. Yes. I think everyone else who was

working with her didn't. Yes. And you suggested the song, "You're no good." What made you think of that song for her? I think Kenny Edwards, a bass player, and was originally one of the stone ponies. I think he might have suggested it as well. We all knew the song. I'd learned it from the swinging blue jeans English hit, and but he knew it from the, whoever did the R&B version. And then we cut it a couple of different times trying to get it right. And then the final version,

I was a great deal to the genius of Andrew Gold, a fantastic guitar player, and keyboard player, and drummer, and bass player. That he played a lot of the most of the instruments on the final

“version of the record that we did. And we finally thought that we'd got it right. And when I remember”

playing that back and kind of rarely did this one actually super confident that records are hit. But in this case, we were listening to you no good and kind of went. If that's not a record, you know, I don't know what is or I'll eat my hat or whatever the idiom is. Well, you didn't need to eat your hat. Exactly. Exactly. Really well. So let's hear it. This is Linda Ronstadt. You're no good produced by my guest, Peter Ashane.

Hey, you're no good, you're no good, you're no good. Hey, you're no good, you're no good, you're no good,

I broke the heart of this gentleman true. Well, I broke the heart over someone like you.

So that was Linda Ronstadt. You're no good, produced by my guest, Peter Ashane.

“One of the things that you did was you decided like the musicians are so important on recordings.”

You started putting their names on album covers and a lot of album covers did not mention who the musicians were. It was a common practice to name them on jazz albums because those were instrumental albums. Most rock albums of the period where the front person was a vocalist. So talk about why you did it and the impact you think that had. Apparently, it had a substantial impact according to the musicians and I'm very glad if it did.

Because yes, I mean, Motown Records, for example, you didn't know idea who anybody was.

I'd never saw any Motown players listed on any album. Supremes, four types, nothing.

So that seemed to be fairly consistent throughout the industry.

“And I remember looking at records as a fan back in London,”

I would always wonder who's playing on it and couldn't find the information. You know, the guy who took the album cover of Photograph was more likely to get a credit than the people who played all this breathtaking music. So it seemed to me entirely logical. I wasn't doing anything magical and I just thought they should be listed because they played so well.

So we put them on the back of the record. And apparently it did make a difference to those musicians

because they would obviously get hired based on, I want something to sound like that. And that's a good thing. So I still do that to this day, but it's more common these days. I want to thank you so much for talking with us. The film is fascinating. The documentary about you called "Everywhere Man." And I wish you good health and continued performances in producing. Thank you very much indeed. The new documentary, Peter Asher, "Everywhere Man"

is in select theater's nationwide. Asher continues to tour as one-man stage show, sharing stories and songs from his decades-long career. This Halloween he'll perform at a place he knows well that very rarely hosts public events, Abbey Road Studios. Tomorrow on fresh air, President Trump is pushing Congress to pass a law that would require showing a passport or birth certificate to register to vote and create strict ID requirements to vote. The rules of the midterms are being

rewritten from redistricting to campaign money. We talk with Ari Burman, who's covered voting rights for years at Mother Jones. I hope you'll join us. To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at NPR Fresh Air. Fresh Air's executive producer is Sam Brigger. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our engineer today is Charlie Kyer. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Philis Meyers and Rebuildinado

Lauren Crenzel, Theresa Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thia-Challener, Susan Ycundee and Abelman and Nico Gonzalo's Whistler. Our digital media producer is Molly Sivine Esper, Roberta Shorock, directs the show. Our co-host is Tanya Mosley, I'm Terry Gross. Psychologist Candice Rogers studies how tech affects kids and you might be surprised by what her research reveals. When you compare all the factors that contribute to youth mental health, social

media often doesn't make the list. It's one of the least influential factors in predicting mental health. teens and screens that's on the Ted Radio Hour podcast, listen on the NPR app

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