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Musician Jim Witter, right, will bring “The Long and Winding Road,” a multimedia exploration of the complicated songwriting relationship between Paul McCartney and John Lennon of the Beatles, to Western Carolina University at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 18, in the main performance hall of the Fine and Performing Arts Center.
The performance is part of FAPAC's Galaxy of Stars/Something for Everyone Series.
“The Long and Winding Road” features about 30 songs from the Lennon-McCartney catalog, including “Yesterday,” “Penny Lane,” “Hey Jude” and “Let It Be.” The multimedia production uses screens to display images and tell the stories behind the songs – for instance, that McCartney wrote “Let It Be” after his mother appeared to him in a dream. Witter, on piano, is accompanied by a drummer, bassist, guitarist and keyboardist. “The Long and Winding Road” is not an impersonation of the Beatles, Witter stressed. “More than anything, it honors the music and the songwriting,” he said.
Lennon and McCartney wrote and recorded more than 200 songs between 1963 and 1970, said Witter, who researched the Lennon-McCartney lyrics largely through transcripts of interviews from the 1970s. “I think it was a relationship we won’t see again,” Witter said. “There was something magical going on. John Lennon and Paul McCartney really inspired each other.”
Lennon and McCartney met as teenagers in Liverpool. Early on, they agreed to share songwriting credits, although typically one or the other was the primary composer. Witter said he believes the sometimes tumultuous later relationship between Lennon and McCartney stemmed from their diverging vision for the Beatles.
In 2006, Witter performed his show “The Piano Men,” a musical journey through the 1970s featuring the songs of Billy Joel and Elton John, during the inaugural season of the Fine and Performing Arts Center. A versatile performer and powerful presence at the piano, Witter has recorded multiple records, performed in videos on CMT and charted in the United States and Canada. He lives in southern Ontario with his family.
Tickets for Jim Witter’s “The Long and Winding Road” are $25 for adults, $20 for WCU faculty and staff and adults 60 and older, $5 for students and $15 per person for groups of 15 or more. Purchase tickets online at http://wcufapac.ticketsxchange.com/, by calling (828) 227-2479 or by visiting the box office.
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Last modified: Thursday, March 27, 2008