Concert Review: Peter Asher at the Dakota Jazz Club: "A Musical Memoir of the 1960's and Beyond"

Peter Asher at the Dakota Jazz Club, Minneapolis, January 14, 2020. (Photo taken by my better half.)

Peter Asher and Gordon Waller, 1960's.

Last week my wife and I saw Peter Asher at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis. He was performing his show, “A Musical Memoir of the 60’s and Beyond.” I’ve seen Asher perform this show twice before, once in 2012 and again in 2017. I also saw Asher perform at the Dakota with Albert Lee last summer. (However, I missed seeing him and Lee open for Leo Kottke at the Guthrie in November.) 

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Peter Asher, I’ll give you a brief rundown on his musical career. Asher was part of a successful pop duo, Peter & Gordon, with his schoolmate Gordon Waller. Peter & Gordon scored 10 Top 40 singles in the US, including the number one smash “A World Without Love,” and the top ten hits “I Go to Pieces” and “Lady Godiva.” After Peter & Gordon split up, Asher moved into record production, becoming head of A&R at the Beatles’ Apple Records. Asher discovered a talented young American singer/songwriter. Asher became this guy’s manager and produced his first album for Apple Records. His name? James Taylor. Asher also managed Linda Ronstadt, and has been one of the most in-demand record producers since the 1970’s. He has twice won the Grammy Award for Producer of the Year. 

Asher may not be a household name himself, but he has connections with anyone who’s anyone in music. In his show, he tells his life story, and how he went from child actor to pop star to mega-producer. Peter & Gordon mixed many different musical influences, and they were originally envisioned as a sort of folk duo. But while recording their first album, they came in with “A World Without Love,” a Lennon/McCartney song that the Beatles weren’t going to record. How did this unknown vocal duo score such a coup? Well, Paul McCartney, the song’s author, happened to be dating Jane Asher, an up-and-coming young actress who happened to be Peter’s sister. Asher had heard McCartney play the song and asked him if he and Gordon could record it. McCartney said sure, and after some badgering by Asher, finished off the bridge of the song “in something like seven minutes,” according to Asher. “A World Without Love” went to Number One in both the UK and the US, and it was the first British Invasion single by a group other than the Beatles to hit the top spot in the US. 

Asher was involved in many other Beatle-related adventures during the 1960’s, including the Indica bookstore and art gallery. Asher helped organize a show at the Indica art gallery in November of 1966. It was a show by a Japanese American artist named Yoko Ono. And, of course, it was at a party for the opening of this exhibit that Yoko met a certain Beatle named John. 

If you’ve listened to Asher’s radio show From Me to You, on the Beatles’ Sirius XM channel, you know that Peter Asher is a highly engaging storyteller, and his tales are full of British self-deprecating humor. I’ve listened to Asher’s show a lot, partly because I’m a huge Beatles fan, and because my 5-year-old son only wants to listen to the Beatles every time he’s in the car. Asher even addresses his physical appearance in the 1960’s being an influence on Austin Powers’ signature look. (Red hair, thick Buddy Holly glasses, bad teeth.) I also appreciated that at the end of the show Asher made a plug for contemporary music—he basically said, there’s still lots of good music being made today. I appreciated hearing that coming from a 75-year-old who has been in the music industry since 1964. The point of his show isn’t to tell us about how wonderful everything was back in the day, and how everything now is just crap. 

On a slight digression, I think it’s amazing how much the music and culture of the 1960’s is still with us today, 50 years after that decade ended. Sure, that’s partly due to the continuing influence of the Baby Boomer generation on pop culture. But think about how prevalent the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan, to name just three artists, are in pop culture today. Now think about going back 50 years into the past, and if the same thing were happening then. It would be as if the musical stars of the 1910’s were still household names in the 1960’s. That wasn’t the case. It’s remarkable that this music has lasted for so long. Obviously, it’s a testament to the quality of that music, but I think it’s fascinating how this music and culture has survived and thrived through the decades. 

Back to the show! Asher performed with Jeff Alan Ross on piano and Jennifer Jo Oberle on bass guitar. They did a great job of making the songs sound good. I didn’t miss not having drums at all. Ross, a former touring member of Badfinger, got a solo spot when he sang the group’s lovely song “Day After Day.” Oberle soloed on “Blue Bayou,” the Roy Orbison song that Linda Ronstadt had a big hit with, and she did a great job, offering up a soulful vocal. 

If you go see Peter Asher, be warned that there’s a lot of talking in between the songs, and he doesn’t really play that many songs during the evening. Still, you’ll get to hear some great Peter & Gordon songs and some fantastic stories. The show we saw was the last one of the tour, and Asher held court for about 2 ½ hours!