On the Road With B.B. King
A Review of On the Road With B.B. King
by Robert Coffey
I was watching Letterman the other night and B.B. King was a guest. But he wasn't there to plug his latest album - no, he was promoting his new CD-ROM. Such an event brought two thoughts to mind. First, has software become such a part of the landscape of popular culture that we can expect more of this? Second, if it has, can I look forward to Christopher Walken doing some light aerobics and making omelettes with Regis and Kathie Lee as he makes the circuit in support of RIPPER? Boy, I sure hope so.
Until then, however, I will content myself by revisiting "On the Road with
B.B. King", a great product about a great man. The thing that struck me most
while exploring the CD was how wonderfully B.B. King is presented as a
person, not just a musician. The natural warmth and sincerity of this
incredibly talented and durable performer permeates the entire program,
making it virtually impossible to explore this disc without a smile
spreading across your face. While the product has a lot to recommend it, it
is King's disarmingly apparent, dare I say it?, love - of life, of friends,
and of music - that makes it most worthwhile.
"On the Road with B.B. King" lets you visit five different places of
importance in B.B.'s life, getting there by taking his tour bus, Big Red.
Each of the five beautifully rendered destinations concerns itself with a
different part of the blues legend's life, from his early days as a
sharecropper in Indianola, Mississippi to his present life and career,
represented by B.B. King's Blues Club in California.
Upon arriving at a
destination, a simple click on the bus' dashboard will get B.B. to tell you
a story, particular to that place. Should you choose, the stories can be
interrupted periodically for "pop-ups", a series of related asides kind of
like oral footnotes. In a really nice touch, every story is illustrated by a
different various artists in a different style, each style appropriate to
the story, such as the folk art- influenced drawing used to detail B.B.'s
early life on the plantation. Unlike the dry, documentary style of similar
CD-ROMs (witness the dreadful video interviews in "David Bowie: Jump"), such
an artistic approach really enhances the stories and helps them shine.
Each of the destinations are fully navigable and use a standard point-and-click interface. The cursor is a guitar with the neck of the instrument indicating possible directions to move. When there is something to activate, the cursor changes into a little crown over the hot spot. There is a wide variety of events triggered by these hot spots yet none are gratuitous, each serve to tell the story of B.B.'s life and, indirectly, the history of the blues.
The story of B.B. King's life and of the blues is a long and rich one and I
wonder if anyone could ever really cover either subject thoroughly on one
CD-ROM, but they come close here.
B.B. is not left on his on to tell his
story - video clips of legends like Bobby Blue Bland and Rufus "The Dog"
Thomas help define the significance of B.B. King and his blues. But B.B.
doesn't hog the spotlight, quite the contrary, one large area of the CD is
concerned with other blues greats and contains music clips, brief bios, and
B.B.'s thoughts about bluesmen such as T-bone Walker, Louis Jordan, and, of
course, Elvis Presley. I was particularly impressed with the restrained and
respectful way Jimi Hendrix was presented. Set off by himself in the hall of
blues greats, a long video clip of the guitar god playing did all the
talking, letting the obvious blues influences of his work speak for
themselves with no narration to force the point.
There's plenty more on this disc; technical specifications for every Lucille (his guitar) B.B. has played throughout his career, a list of Grammy winning songs with long audio clips of each, a complete discography, video clips of B.B. performing with Diane Schur, Bonnie Raitt, and more. And of course there's lots and lots of stories and personal recollections of B.B.'s life, all told with the ease and warmth of a born storyteller.
In spite of all this, I feel the CD could have provided more since I saw and
heard the whole thing in about six or seven hours. I also feel that the
music is shortchanged since most of the clips are pretty brief and the theme
music for each locale is repeated over and over and over until you get back
on the bus. Couldn't MCA have put a few separate audio tracks on the disc,
letting consumers play a few, preferably significant, songs on their
computers or stereos? Brief clips hardly do justice to the music of this man
and probably won't win over any new fans. Coupled with the short playing
time of the disc itself, there's not necessarily have a whole lot to keep
bringing you back.
Nonetheless, I heartily recommend "On the Road With B.B. King". Throughout
the CD, the genuine feeling of B.B.'s narration draws you in and creates the
atmosphere of sharing time with an old friend while the numerous music
clips, video, and sense of history only add to the experience. Every great
blues singer tells a story, and B.B. King is one among the greatest ever.
Multimedia Cafe Scorecard
| Product: |
On the Road With B.B. King |
| Company: |
MCA Records
|
| Cost: |
$44.95 |
System Requirements:
Windows:
486/33MHZ (66MHZ preferred), 8MB RAM,
Microsoft Windows 3.1 or Windows 95,
640X480 screen resolution,
16 bit color (will run at 256 colors with reduced image quality)
2MB available hard disk space for QuickTime 2.02 installation,
2X CD-ROM drive (300KB/sec transfer rate),
Soundblaster or 100% Soundblaster compatible card,
speakers, mouse.
Macintosh:
All Macintosh models with minimum 68030 processor,
all Power PC's, 8MB RAM minimum, System 7.01 or higher,
640X480 screen resolution with thousands of colors
(will run at 256 colors with reduced image quality),
2MB available hard disk space for QuickTime installation,
2X CD-ROM (300KB/sec transfer rate)
speakers recommended.
Breakdown:
Entertainment Value 4
Educational Value 4
Concept 4
Depth 3
Interface 4
Overall Score:
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