Steve Jobs' iPod

Steve Jobs's love for music is well known, and many of his favorite artists like Chris Martin, Norah Jones, U2 often performed during his product launches. Walter Isaacson's biography* has an entire chapter devoted to Steve Job's musical tastes. Isaacson refers to Steven Levy's definitive book on the iPod's influence on our culture: The Perfect Thing, where among other things, Levy remarks that the our iPod playlists can strip us naked and reveal who we are - just like that- at one glance.

Bob Dylan was Steve Jobs' favorite musician - period. Unsurprisingly Dylan occupied a significant portion (six volumes of Dylan's bootleg series and fifteen other albums) of his iPod playlist. Dylan was more than a musician to Jobs; he was a revolutionary, a supreme artist, a free spirit, a visionary who didn't believe in boundaries - qualities that Jobs himself aspired to achieve.

Job's favorite Dylan song was "One too many mornings", and the normally reclusive Dylan sang it for him during one his concerts after Jobs mentioned it during his pre- concert visit.
One too many mornings was recorded in 1963, and released in 1964 as part of iconic "The times  they are-a changin'" album.

The lyrics# (below) are supposedly about a break up, without any reconciliation in sight - or in mind. Dylan reflects, regrets and then resigns himself to life.

Down the street the dogs are barkin'
And the day is a-gettin' dark
As the night comes in a-fallin'
The dogs will lose their bark

And the silent night will shatter
From the sounds inside my mind
As I'm one too many mornings
And a thousand miles behind

 

From the crossroads of my doorstep
My eyes start to fade
And I turn my head back to the room
Where my love and I have laid

And I gaze back to the street
The sidewalk and the sign
And I'm one too many mornings
And a thousand miles behind

 

It's a restless hungry feelin'
That don't mean no one no good
When everythin' I'm a-sayin'
You can say it just as good

You're right from your side
I'm right from mine
We're both just one too many mornings
And a thousand miles behind

You can listen to Dylan performing it live here in 1966


This version has superior audio (again performed in 1966)




*Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (2011). New York: Simon & Schuster
# http://www.metrolyrics.com/one-too-many-mornings-lyrics-bob-dylan.html
Dylan picture credit
Steve Jobs picture credit