The Rolling Stone magazine's #57 ranked recording on its list of THE 500 GREATEST SONGS OF ALL-TIME is called "A Whiter Shade Of Pale." It is performed by the group named Procol Harum and was recorded during 1967, a time of wonder in the psychedelic . On June 28, 2006, we posted our original speed review and summary of this song, as it is show below with updated links for 2007--
A Whiter Shade Of Pale by Procol Harum, is, first and foremost, a pure abstraction. There are lines about rooms humming harder and vestal virgins leaving for the coast and fandangos and millers’ tales—no coherent theme appears lyrically. Musically, it is a version of Bach’s Suite in D major, 3rd Movement Adagio commonly called Air On The G-String.
Whiter Shade of Pale is an archetype song with graceful expression in speed.
Songs at the range of 70-76 beats per minute indicate a tendency toward an expression of unconditional love, grace, mercy, gentleness, understanding, pleasantness, charm, refinement and clemency.
I read that John Lennon used to listen to this song over and over during the “Summer of Love,” 1967 on long journeys through headphones. I always wondered if there was anything special to the song beyond the big organ and simplified Bach-derived chord progression that made the song sound so, well, loving. Alas, yes, the speed is right in center of divine grace—or did the ‘divine grace’ of the Bach and organ make them play at around the speed of sexual climax? I do not know. This is One of the songs that “Defined the ballads of the 1960s, most people will say, Yes, I heard that song in ‘The Big Chill’—love that song---don’t understand a word or of it, but I love it.
Whiter Shade Of Pale was recorded live in the studio, the song shows speed changes where 2 or 3 measures brush up against 77, much of the song bounces around the low end of 73 bpm. As a linear trend from start to end the song speeds up a natural 2-3 percent. This acceleration appears from section to section in the song, rather than a general trend toward accelerating sections of the song.
In this song the:
meanspeed= 74.7 beats per minute;
meanspace= 0.803 seconds between beats;
meanbeat= 1.245 beats per second;
meanfrequency= 1.245 Hertz as pulses per minute;
meantone= 318.72 Hertz, 41 cents above D#4/Eb4= 311.127 and 59 cents below E4= 329.628.
The graphs are based on a spreadsheet generated with this method:
a) Calibration of groups of every common measure (four quarter-notes) ten times with Seiko 300-lap stopwatches;
b) Ten trials were averaged, coordinated and synthesized.
c) Speed graphs were created in Microsoft's Excel for MacIntosh 2004 on an Apple iBook G4 as hardware printed and scanned on an Epson CX4600.
For a list of 1000s of songs at 12 speed categories, they are available at meanspeed.com.
Coffee courtesy of Meredith and Jeff Schneider of TexasRoast.com,
Ian Schneider
meanspeed.com
June 26, 2007
links to information about the Procol Harum cult-classic:
The Hammond organ line of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" was inspired by the Johann Sebastian Bach's "Sleepers Awake" and "Air on a G String", but contrary to ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Whiter_Shade_of_Pale - 42k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this |
Fisher's Hammond organ playing on pianist David Lanz's instrumental version of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" from his 1988 CD, Cristofori's Dream, ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Fisher - 28k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this |
turned a whiter shade of pale. She said, 'There is no reason and the truth is plain to see.' But I wandered through my playing cards ...
www.procolharum.com/w/w9901.htm - 9k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this |
 | Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade Of Pale (una palida sombra) 04 ...
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc0imHr5Mxc |
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 | We skipped the light fandangoTurned cartwheels cross the ...
Watch video - 4min -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbWULu5_nXI |
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Three crazy people that are dedicated to collecting all versions of the song "A Whiter Shade of Pale." with information and sound files of over 200 ...
www.awsop.com/ - 17k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this |
A Whiter Shade Of Pale by Procol Harum song meaning, lyrics and chart position.
www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1131 - 35k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this |
We tried to make Procol Harum A Whiter Shade Of Pale lyrics as correct as possible, however if you have any corrections for A Whiter Shade Of Pale lyrics, ...
www.metrolyrics.com/a-whiter-shade-of-pale-lyrics-procul-harum.html - 31k - Jun 24, 2007 - Cached - Similar pages - Note this |
A Whiter Shade Of Pale ~ * ~ * ~ She said, "There is no reason And the truth is plain to see" ... Whiter Of Shade Of Pale ~ sung by Procol Harum ...
www.blueyze.com/whitershade.html - 5k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this |
Unless you are a very old law student, you probably never heard of "A Whiter Shade of Pale."] "A Whiter Shade of Pale" is an old (circa 1967) Procol Harum ...
www.constitution.org/col/jrb/00420_jrb_fedsoc.htm - 30k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this |
Amazon.com: A Whiter Shade of Pale: Music: Procol Harum by Procol Harum.
www.amazon.com/Whiter-Shade-Pale-Procol-Harum/dp/B00005NQD3 - 137k - Jun 24, 2007 - Cached - Similar pages - Note this |
The classic "Take Me To The River" had an entirely new feel to it, as did the sometimes tired "Whiter Shade of Pale" into which Ms. Lennox breathes new life ...
www.amazon.com/Medusa-Annie-Lennox/dp/B000002VUC - 163k - Jun 23, 2007 - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
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Fin OR Conclusion. In spite of my New Years intentions, I find myself unable to keep up with this blog in any meaningful way. Although I have inhabited this ...
www.kachinacrowe.com/ - 25k - Jun 24, 2007 - Cached - Similar pages - Note this |
Bloggaversairy Reloaded. Another year rolls around for AWSoP, Comatose Overdose, These Rivers Run Deep or the Kachina Crowe Circus - however you first came ...
www.kachinacrowe.com/archives/2005/12/bloggaversairy.php - 31k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this |
Listen to the full-length version of A Whiter Shade Of Pale by Procol Harum on Rhapsody.com. Plus, thousands of albums, music videos, playlsits, ...
play.rhapsody.com/procolharum/greatesthitsam/awhitershadeofpale - 79k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this |
3 in D Major"), Procol Harum's "Whiter Shade of Pale" was unlike anything on the radio in 1967. It was also the only track recorded by the initial lineup of ...
www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6595902/whiter_shade_of_pale - 25k - Jun 24, 2007 - Cached - Similar pages - Note this |
More so, however, the song is based on Bach's "Air for G String": if you hear that, you certainly recognise "A Whiter Shade of Pale", but it is different ...
www.xs4all.nl/~josvg/cits/sb/sb9u05.html - 6k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this |
www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/soldonsong/songlibrary/awhitershadeofpale.shtml - 32k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this 
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