Goin Down Highway 61

This week we moved further down that super information highway, merging into the CD-ROM lane. New from the folks at Graphix Zone, the same folks that last year brought us a CD-ROM from the artist formerly known as Prince, comes the Bob Dylan Highway 61 Interactive Music CD-ROM.

Technology wise, it's an impressive package. The makers claim it would take ten plus hours to navigate through the whole program, and the impressive graphics themselves ensure the time will be entertaining. And it is. It's fun to play with the relatively new technology, and be dazzled by what you can do, the places you see, the clips and the music. But heck, even Pong was fun when it first came out.

Thus to review this product, it becomes necessary to distinguish between the technology and the actual content of the material. That Dylan was chosen as a subject of this type of collection has both its pluses and minuses.

On the plus side is that while people can argue Dylan's worth as an artist, no one can argue about his proficiency at turning out work. During the thirty plus years of his public life, Dylan has produced a remarkable amount of material that this package sums up for the uninitiated, and also adds something to for the hard-core fan. After exploring the many choices presented, one can't help but be intrigued by the collage of quotes, the images and the music (kind of like our weekly newsletter itself).

On the down side is the strange marriage between an artist who is at his best strumming an acoustic guitar producing simple yet stimulating music and the dazzling array of special effects. (Another minus is that this package really requires 8MB of RAM which is more than many people have.) One of the problems of the package is there are so many places to visit, so much included that at times it is frustrating that some of the clips are so short. One wishes to hear the whole song rather than just a snippet. Like its featured artist, the quick clips and scattered images add up to something enigmatic. Still, it is fun to explore the different areas, and there is no other medium available that much of this material could be used for. If musical CD-ROM's have a future, one has to wonder whether it will be as a fancy art tool to assemble an artist's lifetime worth of material or whether it will be used as a technological step and give contemporary bands yet another forum to sell their product.

The way it all works is interesting unto itself. The beginning of the program brings you to the "main collage." Here you click on different pictures to get to different areas: Greenwich Village (where you get a wealth of posters containing information on Dylan's early career); the Coffee House (where one can hear some beat poetry while viewing some of Dylan's artwork, or hear an early version of Blowin' in the Wind); backstage at the 30th Anniversary Special (where there are interviews with various performers like Rosanne Cash, Eddie Vedder, and Lou Reed); and a Columbia recording studio (where you are treated to demo versions of Mr. Tambourine Man, Temporary Like Achilles, Like a Rolling Stone and an electrified version of House of the Rising Sun).

Once you visit all the areas, you are given a ticket where you get to see clips of a 1993 New York City supper club performance. This is essentially the game element of the package. Rather than have just an encyclopedia of information, the makers decided to provide a challenge/reward system. I was unable to negotiate my way through the entire maze so I was unable to see the featured conclusion to it all.

Other things included are a complete discography which also includes the cover art, liner notes and lyrics to material from all 41 official Columbia releases; news clips and interviews with some of Dylan's friends; a new video of Masters of War developed specifically for this project; and the entire Subterranean Homesick Blues video.

As a whole, the Highway 61 Interactive Music experience was a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon, especially for a self confessed Bobhead. It's a worthwhile addition to any Dylan collection. There is so much to view, and the scattered shoebox full of stuff style of the program somehow seems both innovative and artsy.

MORE BOB NEWS: It was announced last week that Dylan's Unplugged performance will be released on CD on May 2. Included will be four songs not shown on the MTV broadcast- Desolation Row, John Brown, Love Minus Zero/No Limit, and Tombstone Blues. For those of us who have seen playlists from the two shows taped for the broadcast, one has to say whoever made the final decision on what was shown, made some perverse decisions. What was finally shown probably contained the weakest choices in almost all cases. Among the gems that will take a great deal of effort to ever see are performances of Absolutely Sweet Marie, Hazel(!), I Want You, and Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You. Where's K-Tel when you really need them?