Harry Chapin and Tempo – An analysis of “W*O*L*D*” including measurements, 2 and 3-dimensional maps and graphs, & video with Harry performining”

Harry Chapin recorded a popular he sings as the character who is a pathetic middle aged man who is too old to A.M. radio, too young to get a new line of work.

meanspeed_music_tempo+map - Harry_Chapin_W_O_L_D - blue

meanspeed_music_tempo+map - Harry_Chapin_W_O_L_D - blue

He pleads to his wife that he understands about her decision to leave him in favor of a man who is not stuck in the field of music, and lower than that, “hit music.” The graduate school trained half of my brain tells that to the popular music side of my brain, oh, maybe every hour or so!

On another note, I am proud to have gone to college with Harry’s daughter. She handled her father’s fame and death with complete aplomb and I have nothing but the highest respect for her. I was surprised to find out who she was: like other children of the famous, she had used an alternate last name as not to draw attention to herself, and it was not until years after my graduation did I find out who she was. I was frankly shocked, and I do not shock easily on these things. It was whispered that Harry Chapin’s daughter was a student, but did not want to be known as such because, as I could only imagine, every social occasion would bring up the invitation for someone to ask, “SO, what was it like when he finally became popular and the passed away?”

On an online search, using every legal tool and search engine I could, the tempo line of the most famous version of this song, or even the tempo itself. I found it: not. Therefore I decided to do the tempo work myself and pass it on to anyone interested.

Harry_Chapin - W*O*L*D* - tempo_graphic_meanspeed_school_bpm_map_a

For purposes of the bpm graphs on this page, the introduction is measured from the first beat. Beyond that anything in regard to my desire to show exactly where a lyric falls gave way to my desire not to break the law and reprint lyrics. I know that in many cases the lyrics are all over the place anyway, and the harm in showing where they fall on the tempo charts in a learning situation is nothing.

harry_chapin-wold-tempo_graphic_meanspeed_school_bpm_map-2.png

So said, the Chapin brothers who survived Harry are very earnest men who are vigilant about protecting copyrights, especially because of the many charity causes reliant on an income stream from some of Harry’s work operate on a shoestring and I do not want to even have the appearance of jeopardizing their cause.

Meanspeed-Carlton-Spencer Speed Summary
song title=W*O*L*D*
composer=Harry Chapin

harry_chapin-wold-tempo_graphic_meanspeed_school_bpm_map_b.jpg

harry_chapin-wold-tempo_graphic_meanspeed_school_bpm_map_b.jpg

performer=Harry Chapin

bpm_graph - W_O_L_D - Chapin - meanspeed 3 dimensional

bpm_graph - W_O_L_D - Chapin - meanspeed 3 dimensional

recording measured from=iTunes® Purchased AAC audio file
file type=m4a
file size=9.8 MB
bit rate=256 kbps

bpm_graph - W_O_L_D - Chapin - meanspeed 3 dimensional 3

bpm_graph - W_O_L_D - Chapin - meanspeed 3 dimensional 3

sample rate=44.100 kHz
profile=Low Complexity
channels=stereo

bpm_graph - W_O_L_D - Chapin - meanspeed music school 22

bpm_graph - W_O_L_D - Chapin - meanspeed music school 22

/Ian Andrew Schneider/

October 29, 2009

Meanspeed® Free School

New jersey, United States

calibration=Joe DeLuva, James Manning-san supervising
time measurement equpment=Nike® and Seiko® 300 lap stop watches
trials measured=9
arithmetic mean speed/average expected tempo=75.0 beats per minute (bpm)
file size=9.8 MB
intellectual property rights=(p) Elektra Entertainment Group Marketed by Warner Stategic Marketing, 2005
album=Rhino Hi-Five, ‘Harry Chapin EP,’ purchased on Apple®’s iTunes®

Harry_Chapin - W*O*L*D* - tempo_graphic_meanspeed_school_bpm_map 3

REPOSTED FOR A REASON- Censored by Apple®, REINSERTED by [redacted]. SJ, You are NOT my Big Brother, NOT my god, and most CERTAINLY not My Savior†. RIP.

Tempo has never been objectively defined.  In addition, “beat,” as “groove” can be felt by people who love music by sound or vibration.  At the same time _please please correct me of I am wrong: Not ONE universal definition of the “beat” in music has ever been accepted by all musicians and their listeners.

The first pdf file was removed by wordpress through the demands of the ugly RIAA on demand of Steve “I’m Christ” Jobs.  After explaining situation to people who – you’re not gonna believe – are MORE INTELLIGENT than Jobs – the pdfs are available again.  I dunno – maybe I have cancer too.  But that disease, man, lets a person act like an anti-Christ wherein the “cancer card” is a halo above his head – “I may be the world’s biggest douche, but ya can’t criticize the way I CONTROL music, because I’m Steve Jobs and I have cancer.”  Steve musta never heard the aphorism “we are all syphilis.”  We are dude – Cancer or time: GUARANTEE that you’ll die.  And what else?  NO CANCER (!)???  Time will kill me, you, yeah – you too.  So loosen up SJ – it’s amazing how greedy someone can be when they go around with decks of cancer cards.  I f I have cancer, or when I get it – at least I can come back and read this and not try to be the raving greed hypocrite that YOU ARE.
SEVEN September scans – monday night – meanspeed school tempo data visualization – click for the pdf file that Steve Jobs refuses to let you see.  I can see it on my Blackberry®, not on my iPhone.  Steve, dude, when is ENOUGH ENOUGH?

So as Pat Metheny has said, there’s someone [stupid] out there trying to “quantify the “unquantifiable”- and there’s me.  If it’s the same person that hurts, because as here I’m supporting his playing and his music, seen him 40-x live, buy legal recordings – in the days of beer and CDs sometime 3x – 7x / I’m thinking: hey man, I’m not trying to say that I own speed any more than you do.

So why make scans of tempos that are by my definition, and certainly by Pat’s definition, unless he’s eased up a little (I HOPE)?  Because as any equestrian person or dance person or any football, baseball, basketball, swimming, track, heck, even bob-sledding: you are all doing thing on your own.  I see players before games with their personal playlists – and my wish was to help people help themselves arrange music buy anything: artist, genre, date of release, album, year.  Usually if you think a mix is good you do it by improvisation, thinking – what song would just be THE perfect song to follow the song I just played.  It’s really fun, and really personal.  I cannot stand the “gurus” who tell you what you are “experiencing” with this infrawave or that ‘binaural beat’ (Sorry Stephen Colbert: Steve Jobs versus Adobe. Steve wants to be your Big Brother. Thanks but no thanks.ephen Colbert, the bin-aural beat crowd by definition shuns you because you admitted on THE COLBERT REPORT that you are left ear deaf.  So much for that.  Between 10 Hz/600 bpm and 16Hz /5,760 bpm- the lowest note someone can hear, most often found in church organs.

Hershowitz Christianberg, with help from JAMES MANNINGSAN, and a typo found by JAMES JIM DELUVA

@meanspeed

9.21.10