On Saturday, September 16, 2023 at 3:17:42 PM UTC-4, roach wrote:
On Saturday, September 16, 2023 at 3:00:33 AM UTC-7, Will Dockery wrote:
On Thursday, September 14, 2023 at 6:46:47 PM UTC-4, roach wrote:
about olof.
i didn't know him, but his work and contribution for the dylan community was invaluable. i went there to his site so many times, with dire questions pertaining to my mental health, quite frankly, and he was about to soothe me, and quell my
anxieties as to what exactly has been happening to me since i got involved and was nearly irreparably drawn in, not knowing as to whether this was healthy for me or not, if i was truly cared about and being dealt with decently,. or if it was some sick
men's club where women were mistreated, used, and abused, and his work provided me some much needed support the many times that i went there.
i am only sorry it is too late for him to know this now, maybe he could already tell from monitoring the site, but hopefully his family and friends can see, and maybe this will be some small additional comfort to them along with all the very many
well wishes and tales from the ER site, as well.
thank you olof.
see you soon again one day, and next time, "Forever."...
Love,
Rachel/"Jolene," bob's special friend, i think?
I remember Olaf, his site remains tremendous:
http://www.bjorner.com/bob.htm
he's got an entry in wikipedia. nice. :-)
Eyolf Østrem, on his Dylanology site (
https://dylanology.substack.com/p/olof-bjorner-19422023), posted the following thoughts on Olof:
"Olof Björner (1942–2023)
The Tireless Chronicler in memoriam
EYOLF ØSTREM
SEP 13, 2023
One of the great men in the Dylan world has passed away.
Casual fans may not have been fully aware of his work and the impact it has had, but I think it’s fair to say that without Olof Björner, the little section of the Internet which is devoted to Bob Dylan, would have looked quite different.
It’s strange with the Internet and all the people there: I’ve known Olof since the beginning of time, but I only met him once or twice, even though we lived in the same country for many years.
“Since the beginning of time” here of course means “since c. 1996”. That’s when I got on the Internet. A little later, I started Dylanchords, and it was at about that time that somebody secretly gave me the address to this hidden treasure, a
Pandora’s box of Dylan knowledge: bjorner.com.
As I remember it, initially only the Yearly Chronicles were open to the public; the rest of the site, the Still on the Road section, with the full details of every recording session and concert, was a members-only resource for the Stockholm Dylan Society.
In any case, that day, when I got the secret link, I was in heaven. I printed out every one of the Yearly Chronicles and read them religiously, studied the setlist statistics with almost obscene delight, and – most importantly – vacuumed the files
for references to obscure songs that I could include on Dylanchords. My fate was sealed.
When eventually I decided to take Dylanchords from a hobby effort to a serious undertaking, it was thanks to Björner, in two ways.
First, the encyclopedic scope. If he could do it, so could I. I decided to be as meticulous as I could with details right from the start, even though it seemed silly at first.
Secondly, the details themselves. Recording dates. Band members. Tour legs. The complete list of songs. The meticulous details with regard to arrangements. The transcriptions of the Bob talk. All of this I have used extensively. Some of it I admit to
having used without credits, but I excuse myself with the fact that it is so obvious where the information comes from. Quoting from «Olof’s Files» is like quoting from the Bible: no reference is needed.
So for all the hours I’ve spent on bjorner.com through the years: thank you, Olof!"
I hope Olof knew how many of us consulted his Chronicles often.
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