Self-Righteous Melodramatic Wistfulness: Meatloaf, "Heaven Can Wait," meanemotion=melodrama, meanspeed=57.1 beats per minute

Last week I was lucky enough to catch Meatloaf on the Today Show singing a set of songs which opened up with Paradise By The Dashboard Light, from his 1970s blockbuster album, songs by Jim Steinman. The “Loaf” was never better, and that song reminded me of the gorgeous ballad from the Bat Out Of Hell ballad called “Heaven Can Wait,” speed charts of which featured above. “Heaven Can Wait” sits in the Meanspeed music category, or “meanemotion” of “melodramatic,” 55-58 beats per minute. Here, we hear melodrama in its self-righteously wistful form. Imagine someone telling you a story of some great love affair of his life that was lost, in order that you feel their pain, feel it more, and then learn from their lesson. By the way, the Loaf has released Bat Out Of Hell III, and he has never looked or sounded better—and the thing that impressed me the most about the “Loaf” was the enthusiasm he put into every nanosecond in performance—he could have Gone Through the Motions. Hell no! Meatloaf was so fresh, and appreciative of being lucky enough to live a life as a fabulous stage performer, that he was putting as more energy and animation at 7 AM in the relatively freezing cold into his music as any Americal Idol contestant most desperate to become the next Meatloaf.

The Meanspeed Music Theory Frequencies of Meatloaf’s Heaven Can Wait are:
Meanspeed=57.1 beats per minute.
Meanemotion=Melodramatic, the self-righteously wistful variety.
Meanspace=1.051 seconds between beats.
Meanphase=0.952 cycles per second.
Meanpitch=487.257 Hertz, 81 cents above A#4/Bb4=466.164, 19 cents below 493.883 Hertz.

Ian Schneider
November 2, 2006
NY, New York