Fifty-five years ago, that really happened to Peter Asher.
Paul Mac and Peter Asher
Posted on 06/28/2019 1:58:54 PM PDT by beaversmom
In Danny Boyle’s new movie, Yesterday, a failed indie rocker (Himesh Patel) gets hit by a bus and wakes up in an alternate reality where nobody but him remembers the Beatles, so he plagiarizes “She Loves You,” “Hey Jude,” and other Lennon-McCartney standards and unseats Ed Sheeran as the world’s biggest pop star. The film, written by Richard Curtis, is obviously fictional. But 55 years ago, a similar thing, or at least pretty similar thing—minus the bus accident and the interdimensional copyright infringement—really happened to Peter Asher.
On Feb. 28, 1964, British folk duo Peter and Gordon released their debut single, “A World Without Love.” It didn’t matter that the song was an adequately harmonized, extremely melodramatic ballad about doomed teenage romance. (“Please lock me away,” it starts, “and don’t allow the day here inside, where I hide with my loneliness.”) It didn’t matter that neither Asher nor his performing partner, Gordon Waller, 20 and 19 at the time, were natural heartthrobs; indeed, Asher’s glasses, haircut, and teeth would later give Mike Myers the visual inspiration for Austin Powers. All that mattered at that precise instant in history was that “A World Without Love” was written for Peter and Gordon by Paul McCartney (and credited to Lennon-McCartney, like all of McCartney and John Lennon’s songs were then, no matter who wrote what) and therefore infused with the magic of the Beatles, which meant Peter and Gordon had been handed musical plutonium.
That sounds modest, but in the spring of 1964, the demand for Beatles substitutes was through the roof. The Beatles themselves had come to New York and performed on The Ed Sullivan Show for three consecutive Sundays that February, but then disappeared for most of March and April to shoot A Hard Day’s Night. By this point, McCartney...
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Paul Mac and Peter Asher
Beautiful song.
Bollywood and hollywood in bed together,
with plagiarization allowed. Go back to bed.
I have no intention of watching
some Paki rip off the Beatles.
The article isn’t about the fantasy movie. The movie is only briefly mentioned at the beginning. The article is about Peter Asher and his friendship/association with Paul McCartney.
Yes, I read it, but the writer mentioned it as a lead-in.......................
Wow. Good article. I did not know that song was written by McCartney.
Paul was engaged for awhile to Peter’s sister Jane Asher.
Peter Asher later guided the career of Linda Ronstadt, as her manager and producer for her best and most successful albums. Quite a career!
I saw a talk (filmed) last year at an independent movie house by a very knowledge Beatle historian. It was called Deconstructing the Beatles: Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. This particular talk focused on their breakout year of 1963. What they packed into that year was phenomenal. Part of that, was writing many, many songs that were given away to other artists...which, in large part, became hits. Here is the brief trailer where he mentions that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nJRn2QN-W0
They gave the Stones their first UK hit with “I Wanna Be Your Man.”
According to Peter Asher, that is not quite true.
Asher is still making the rounds, playing shows with long time friend Jeremy (from Chad and Jeremy). Asher told the story at a recent show:
McCartney was dating his sister, who was still living at home in her parents house (as was Asher). Paul, who would occasionally spend the night, was tinkering around on the piano working on "A World w/o Love". He played it for Asher, and Asher liked it.
Some time went by, Asher was now recording his first album and needed one more song. The next time he saw Paul, Asher asked how that song was coming along. Paul said he had stopped working on it, because "John hated it" and did not want to record it.
Asher said he needed one more song for his album and asked Paul if he could record it. Paul agreed, but said he needed to finish the bridge because it was not right.
He later completed the bridge and Asher recorded the song.
The song was written for the Beatles, but rejected by John
Which was a key to the success of The Beatles (at least up to The White Album), John and Paul were good at filtering out the other’s crap.
McCartney wrote “A World Without Love,” or at least most of it, when he was 16. By anybody else’s standards it would be considered a perfect pop song, but on the scale of his own work it was just OK, more of a “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?” than a “Penny Lane.” Lennon vetoed it for the Beatles. “John didn’t think much of the song, so Paul hadn’t even finished it apart from the two verses,” says Asher. “I remember having to ask him a couple of times to finish it. Finally, he did it on the spot. He took his guitar into his room for an annoyingly short seven or eight minutes, and then came out with the bridge, which was perfect.”
Thanks.
Obviously I did not read the article. But I think the story related later, as you posted, is more accurate then the first mentioning of it in the opening.
Exactly. Once they split up I thought Paul’s solo stuff was too pop/teeny bopper.
BTW, If Asher comes to your town, you should go see him. He had a lot of great stories including how he was the guy responsible for the break up of the Beatles! (he introduced Yoko to John).
The Girl That I Love (1965)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.