Talkin' Blues: bobserve gets bobtalk

Bob Dylan spoken words now at bobserve.com PLUS many other updates

Who doesn’t love bobtalk, the name by which we affectionately refer to Bob Dylan speaking from the stage?

“David and I were in a restaurant called The Pickled Parrot this afternoon. David asked the waitress, ‘Do you serve crabs?’ And she said, ‘Sit right down, we serve anybody.’” (July 14, 2000 Minneapolis)

“That was a song titled ‘Seeing the Real You At Last’. All kinds of 'yous'. Hard to find the real one!” (Feb 15, 1991 London)

Olof Björner had collected literally thousands of instances of bobtalk over the years for his Olof’s Files. As part of the ongoing plan to integrate his immense archive into the bobserve database, all this talk is now available at bobserve.com. Did I mention it’s now entirely searchable from the search+ menu?

Luke’s Poling’s Bobtalk Project

As set out in an earlier newsletter, bobserve isn’t only about copying over data. Just as important is the continuation and enhancement of this work.

Enter Luke Poling.

I first learned of Luke’s project when he posted on Expecting Rain in early 2024:

Inspired by the (somewhat) recent discussion with Ray Padgett on the Never Ending Stories podcast, I decided to take them up on the suggestion (challenge?) (dare?) of cataloguing all of Dylan's on-stage comments.

Even with more than 3,500 instances of bobtalk logged in Olof’s Files, Luke has found there is still more to be captured. Make no mistake, this is not a selective light-touch project. In the same spirit as everything we like to do here at bobserve, Luke is taking a fresh look at all the decades’ worth of spoken word (seriously!), and he’s taking nothing for granted. It’s an ambitious project, and I am pleased to be able to collaborate with Luke on a way to bring this work to Dylan fans.

How to view bobtalk

On any setlist, select bobtalk from the side menu. If you’re on mobile, first tap the button to expand the “setlist menu” and then select bobtalk.

For 2024 onwards, the bobtalk will be displayed within the setlist as shown here. This layout will be applied to prior years in due course. Until then, that talk will be listed with a note about the setlist position.

Here’s some of Luke’s handiwork for Eau Claire April 5, 2025.

Where there are no logged spoken words, the menu icon next to bobtalk will not show, but you can still select it to use the feedback form to send us anything you think we’re missing.

How to search bobtalk

Simply use the search+ menu, select bobtalk and type in your search term.

“Well, like Jerry Garcia would say. We're gonna beat it on down the line. Well, we hope you had a good time. We think these songs do mean some thing to you. So, have a real safe trip home. We're gonna be out of the country for a while, though we'll be back from far distant lands, so I hope we see each other again sometime.” (June 7, 1978 Los Angeles)

What else is new?

We’ve been busy! Here’s a recap of various new features.

dylanytics

• Starting to build out stats and lists, such as annual concert and song counts, stragglers, consecutive concerts, most-attended by bobserve users, etc

• Access via search+ menu/dylanytics. https://bobserve.com/dylanytics

Instrumentation

• Musician instruments detail from Olof's Files added to each event - example: https://bobserve.com/setlist?event=218

Setlist page menu additions

• Recordings - LosslessBob tapes listing, manually supplemented where a tape circulates but no LB number has been assigned to the concert. Currently only for concerts. (** login required). Sample: https://bobserve.com/setlist/recordings?event=2099

• Commentary - links to > 5000 reviews/articles about individual events. Includes boblinks reviews, Flagging Down the Double E's, Shadow Chasing, WiseJake's ER Tour Recaps, and the ER live setlist threads. Sample: https://bobserve.com/setlist/commentary?event=3195

• Research - direct links to relevant entries in Olof's Files and at boblinks.

• Set Changes - view song changes vs prior concert. Sample: https://bobserve.com/setlist/setchanges?event=1955

• Attendees - your username can be listed as an attendee, linking to your myevents page where people can view all your shows and stats (** must be logged in to view and, to respect privacy, you need to grant permission to allow your name to be listed/linked). Sample: https://bobserve.com/setlist/attendees?event=3932

• First, Next, Last - stats for each setlist song, listing debut, final (so far!), when previously/next played and how many days each of these are away from the selected concert. Sample: https://bobserve.com/setlist/firstnextlast?event=1955

Track and share your attended concerts ("myevents") (** login required)

• Easier to share your shows with others, who can now see the exact same stats pages you can, as well as a "mutual events" page listing which concerts you both attended. Instructions at top of page https://bobserve.com/myevents

• Control how visible you want your show data to be, using sidebar selections

Other

• While initial focus was on concerts, soundchecks, rehearsals and various public performance types, we've now added informal performances and press conferences.

• Tap star to favorite individual song and full concert performances. See which others have favorited, with count (** must be logged in)

• Song info pages link to ER Track Talk posts

• Expanded Search+ menu now offers searching by venue name

• Year picker in the top menu bar

• Dark theme in Help menu

• Now at more than 14,000 individual song links to youtube audios, and 1,500 complete show youtube links.

• See 30 most recently added or changed events - https://bobserve.com/recentlychangedevents

• Olof Guide - working on more user-friendly indexes to Olof's Files, starting with musicians: https://bobserve.com/olofguide/musicians

• Song Match: enter up to 12 songs to list events that contain all your song selections. Access via search+ menu. https://bobserve.com/songmatch