The cognitive music tempo of the faster version at 72 bpm sits in the category of grace according to the meanspeed music conjecture. The acoustic version is more ritualistic and austere, hence its location at the speed of ceremony.

Back from: Mission Springsteen. As you know, in matters such as that with one as that of the “Boss.” Long story short: thank you to all the people of Asbury Park, Bradley Beach and Belmar New Jersey who were fantastically fantastic hosts for Mission Springsteen—a secret mission about which I hope to be able to speak in an open manner. For now, suffice to say: Bruce is “totally fine with” my site and the use of his songs on the site—as long as I do not start publishing lyric and chord sheets. While waiting around to meet Bruce and his most pleasant and friendly entourage (more like good friends than a “posse”), I had time to prepare these charts which feature two things: the two 3-D graphs and the linear graph show Daniel Powter performing Bad Day, an iTunes download, alone with a piano accompaniment only. As you can see from the chart on the top which compares the two performances: one is a sequencer in repetitive time, the other in Powter’s head—pure live time. Is one better than the other? No. Is one way more “pure” than the other—hey, isn’t a metronome cheating, didn’t Powter obviously cheat in the “rock” version??? NO! Playing with a sequencer is as tricky and difficult and musically demanding as playing live, and those musicians who can play either way—Metheny, Mays, Collins, Gabriel, Bowie, The Stones, Dave Matthews band, Clapton, Townsend, John, Sting, Springsteen—these people make it. There used to be a commercial in the 1970s pitching Memorex Brand cassette recording tape. The slogan, after a recording of an opera singer was so well duplicated on the cassette that the reproduction of the high notes shatters a wine glass: “Is it live, or it Memorex?” As per the metronome, the best bands and musicians, a few mentioned above, have musicians who have all trained themselves to have fun playing on a sequenced track or have fun just playing live—and what happens is is that often the sequencer frees up the playing, and such recording sounds more Live tan a real live recording than is trying to Stay on Beat. These are the meanfrequencies for the acoustic version of Bad Day, calibrated as my team’s undisclosed vehicle passed the Cavalry Baptist Church on E Street in Asbury Park. The song : My City Of Ruins was blasting in my head. Asbury needs a Bruce Museum on E Street—an amazing place—bring your bathing suit, etc—2 blocks from the sea. Please notice, as Sting and a list that could go from Paul Simon to Bob Marley, the disproportionate number of artists who live almost next to an ocean? Is it the salt in the water that increases creativity? I think it is a possibility. Anyway, the breakdown of Bad Day, live, acoustically:
Mean speed=67.7 beats per minute
Mean emotion=ceremony
Mean space=0.886 seconds between beats
Mean space=3545 milliseconds between measure
Mean beat=1.128 beats per second Meanpulse=1.128 cycles per second
Mean pitch=288.85 Hertz, 71.5 cents above D4=293.665 Hz and 28.5 cents below D#4/Eb4=311.127. Back from the beautiful New Jersey shore, reviving Atlantic Ocean, kind people—Mission Springsteen accomplished,

Ian Schneider
New York City
27 July 2006