A movie about a fabled musician of the ’60s and ’70s doesn’t need to wallow in boomer nostalgia. The artists of that era are hardly stuck in time — the best of them are timeless. (Obvi!) And Peter Asher, who was one-half of the 1960s British pop duo Peter and Gordon before going on to become one of the most powerful record producers of the 1970s, is a figure of talent and charisma and fascination, even if part of that was his genius for being in the right place at the right time.
Having said that, there are moments in “Peter Asher: Everywhere Man,” Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine’s lightly engaging documentary memoir (it’s built around Asher’s autobiographical stage show, which we see clips of him performing at the Bimbo’s 365 Club in San Francisco), when my Geiger counter of boomer solipsism began to click into overdrive. Asher has a track record of achievement, but he’s also someone with major boomer vibes; he’s got an aura, a mystique, a history of associational cool. “Everywhere Man” is well worth seeing, as long as you go in knowing that it’s a bit too infatuated with its subject, in that rose-colored Boomers “R” Us way.
But let’s give the man his due! Born in 1944, Peter Asher grew up in a prosperous London family (his father was the endocrinologist who identified and named Munchausen syndrome; his mother was a professional oboe player). At the posh Westminster School, he formed a bond with the only other kid who was toting a guitar around — Gordon Wally, who had longish hair and a voice to match his desire to be Elvis. He and Peter started singing together and discovered that their voices chimed. They landed a weekly gig at the Pickwick Club, a place frequented by hip young celebrities (Michael Caine, Sammy Davis Jr.), and that’s where they attracted the attention of EMI Records.
