Meanspeed® Music Review

“Addicted To Love” – Robert Palmer
The mean speed, or the speed of the song expressed as beats per minute on this live recording= 111.7 beats per minute.
The mean space, or time between each beat= 537 milliseconds.
The mean beat on the recording = 1.862 beats per second.
The mean frequency, or the speed of the song expressed as cycles per second= 1.862 Hertz .
The mean tone= 476.58 Hertz, located 37.5 cents above A#4/Bb4= 466.164 Hertz , and 62.5 cents lower B4= 493.883 Hertz. For more on tone frequency, sound vibration and their correspondence to beats per minute, see Stephen Jay’s The Theory of Harmonic Rhythm, linked with Stephen’s kind permission on meanspeed.com.
The graph is based on a spreadsheet generated with this method:
a) I calibrated groups of every single measure (four quarter-notes) ten times with Seiko 300-lap stopwatches;
b) Ten trials were averaged, coordinated and synthesized.
I the created the speed graph in Microsoft’s Excel for MacIntosh 2004 on an Apple iBook G4 as hardware. One of the graphs derived from the results, in a radar graph style was printed on an Epson CX4600, scanned on same printing device.

The song “Yesterday” by Paul McCartney had, as most know, a working title called “Scrambled Eggs” before the lyrics were filled in. As they say listen to the melody, not the lyrics. Which is not to say: ignore the words. It is saying – except for Elton John and a few others, the *music* is written first – the lyric is usually secondary. You never know, no one may ever know, as Michael Stipe of the amazing REM says, “the song is whatever you want you want it to mean,” what a song *means*. Try the outstanding yet disingenuous http://www.songmeanings.net or the same on the growing yet banal http://www.songfacts.com. My accusation of false fronts on their sites is the illegal appearance of all the lyrics of the songs. How and why they get away with it is a smarmy matter: they “allow” a “member” to post the lyrics. Thereby, they avoid liability for stealing lyrics, because – Hey, man, someone in the group *posted* the lyrics for *educational* purpose. How can you say that and not laugh? On his latest DVD with Tim Reynold live at Radio City Music Hall, Dave Matthews says about a song, in exasperation about all the talk of what a song “means”, Dave says, essentially -it means whatever you want it to mean.

James C.C. Manning and I thought that these four archetype songs at the speed of lust would help you *feel* what we are trying to convey here: if you master a speed the power may be fantastically great. And personally, the thing we feel best about is that there is NOTHING BUT INFORMATION that we work to convey. If our numbers are right or wrong, they are ours. Others have worked also, but cutting and pasting has made individual effort a mostly mediocre reminder that in the past, with pencils and pens and notebooks, we worked harder.

“#41″ – Dave Matthews Band -
The mean-speed, or the speed of the song expressed as beats per minute on this live recording= 107.3 beats per minute.
The mean-space, or time between each beat= 559 milliseconds per beat, 2.24 seconds per measure.
The mean-beat on the recording = 1.788 beats per second.
The mean-frequency, or the speed of the song expressed as cycles per second= 1.788 Hertz.
The mean-tone=457.81 Hertz, located 68 cents above A4=440.00 and 32 cents below A#4/Bb4= 466.164 Hertz. For more on tone frequency, sound vibration and their correspondence to beats per minute, see Stephen Jay’s The Theory of Harmonic Rhythm.
The graph is based on a spreadsheet generated with this method:
a) I calibrated groups of every single measure (four quarter-notes) ten times with Seiko 300-lap stopwatches;
b) Ten trials were averaged, coordinated and synthesized.

[REDACTED DUE TO ISLAMIC TERRORISM]

“Oh Very Young” – Yusef Islam as Cat Stevens
The mean-speed, or the speed of the song expressed as beats per minute on this live recording= 111.7 beats per minute.
The mean-space, or time between each beat= 537 milliseconds.
The mean-beat on the recording = 1.862 beats per second.
The mean-frequency, or the speed of the song expressed as cycles per second= 1.862 Hertz .
The mean-tone= 476.58 Hertz, located 37.5 cents above A#4/Bb4= 466.164 Hertz , and 62.5 cents lower B4= 493.883 Hertz. For more on tone frequency, sound vibration and their correspondence to beats per minute, see Stephen Jay’s The Theory of Harmonic Rhythm, linked with Stephen’s kind permission on meanspeed.com.
The graph is based on a spreadsheet generated with this method:
a) I calibrated groups of every single measure (four quarter-notes) ten times with Seiko 300-lap stopwatches;
b) Ten trials were averaged, coordinated and synthesized.
I the created the speed graph in Microsoft’s Excel for MacIntosh 2004 on an Apple iBook G4 as hardware. One of the graphs derived from the results, in a radar graph style was printed on an Epson CX4600, scanned on same printing device.

“Mustang Sally” – Wilson Picket
meanspeed summary by Hunter Newman supervised by James C.C. Manning
title=”Mustang Sally“
performer=Wilson Pickett
beats calibrated=2,970
average number of beats per trial=330 beats
time elapsed=27 minutes, 5.7 seconds
average time per trial=3 minutes, 6.3 seconds
meanspeed=109.6
average beat=0.547 seconds
mean emotion according to meanspeed music theory=lust
mean slow phase=1.827 cycles per second
corresponding pitch=467.6 hertz

John Paul Newman
September 10, 2008