Magical Mystery Tour

"Magical Mystery Tour" is the third Beatles album that I will be focusing on. While there are many hits on the album ("Penny Lane", "I am the Walrus", "Strawberry Fields Forever"), only one song conforms to the golden section. The not so well known "Your Mother Should Know" fits in perfectly with the sequence:

duration = 149 seconds
climax = starts at 92 seconds
149/92 = 1.619

There is a very clear climax in this song that makes it easy to determine where it begins. The song switches over from an upbeat pace to a slower one that gradually forms into the end of the song.

After reviewing each song individually, I went to the album as a whole. The entire Magical Mystery Tour album is 2213 seconds. In order for it to conform to the golden section, the climax would have to come at approximately 1374 seconds into the album. 1374 seconds occurs at exactly 11 seconds into "Strawberry Fields Forever". Now, what is interesting about this is that Strawberry Fields starts off with 10 seconds of instrumental work and John Lennon starts singing at exactly 11 seconds in. That being said, it really can be considered a golden section album.

However, it could very easily be argued that the first 10 seconds of "Strawberry Fields Forever" is not necessarily the climax of the album (there is no evidence to support it). It is interesting though that the first 10 seconds of the song is probably the most recognizable and famous instrumental verse on the entire album.

Thoughts?

More off Darkness on the Edge of Town

The target this time, "Candy's Room" by Bruce Springsteen. A song about a girl but its better than 99% of them out there which is saying alot. There must be hundreds of thousands of songs on the topic. This is off the same album my last post was off of which is exciting as I'll look for more golden sections off Darkness on the Edge of Town.

The climax occurs after an initial guitar solo and the actual climax starts when Bruce slides on the guitar twice going from low to high. Its one of the rare climaxes I can actually play on my own guitar as it only involves me sliding my fingers down the strings.

Duration: 168 seconds
Climax: 100 seconds (as describe above)

168 by 100 equals a golden section of 1.68 even.

More Bruce

The song for today is "Adam Raised a Cain" by Bruce Springsteen off arguably Bruce's best album, Darkness on the Edge of Town. While every song off this album is a winner, my favorite Springsteen album would be his first, Greetings from Asbury Park.

On to the song, the song has obvious biblical references like many Springsteen songs (i.e. his use of Mary as the female character in his songs that he commented on during his VH1 behind the music show). The climax of this song comes after a long instrumental that ends with a long section of cymbal being played. The instrumental includes some great guitar riffs that you should check out. The climax is when Bruce starts singing again, you really feel the intensity in his voice. Bruce growing up did not get along with his father and you can really tell some pent up anger in this song

Duration: 274 seconds
Climax: 164 seconds

274/164 = 1.6707

Another song which is great and yet has a golden section. Coincidence?

What We Have So Far

so guys, after about a month of posting, these are the songs that we have determined conform to the golden ratio: lets all check these to make sure they really do and please tell us if you disagree with one of them.

All American Rejects- Move Along
The Beatles - I'm Looking Through You
The Beatles - In My Life
The Beatles - Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Ben Folds Five - Army
Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth
Bruce Springsteen - Where the Bands Are
Greenday - Boulevard of Broken Dreams
James Gang- Funk #49
Jackson 5- ABC
John Denver - Take Me Home Country Road
Michael Jackson - Wanna Be Starting Somethign
Mighty Mighty Bosstones - I Never Had to
Razorlight - Golden Touch
Spoon - The Way We Get By
Supremes - Band of Gold
Van Halen - Jump

so there's the list so far..keep up the good work!

Boulevard of Broken Dreams

As I was parusing a list of popular songs of the past couple of years, I took a closer look at Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Greenday, off the American Idiot album from late 2004....
To my delight, 2:42 into the 4:22 song begins the climatic guitar instrumental...

262 seconds / 162 seconds = 1.617 so close to Fibonacci!


This is one of the better examples I've found so far because of its nearly dead on alignment with the Fibonacci Sequence 1.618.

Laces Out!

Hello everyone.

Here's something i found a little interesting in Tom Petty's "Freefallin", and U2's "Stuck in a Moment." First, I figured out what I believed the climax to be and found the ratio that the ratio was a little lower than what we have been looking for. I than calculated where the climax would have to be in order for it to work out, and what I found was that in "Freefallin" it would have to be at 153 seconds, and in "Stuck in a Moment". it would have to be at 169 seconds. What is interesting is that both of these songs follow a similar pattern. A few verses, a chorus, an instrumental period, then precisely at the "Fibonacci second" the singer starts the slower, dramatic verse. After thinkin about Brante's post, I realized that is the point in a live performance where the crowd will be going crazy, so that could also technically be considered a climax. Go ahead check it out.

another type of music

hey guys...and recently gal.

so what kind of music do you like? ...well, anything but country. We've all heard this conversation before. And while this may be one of the most universally used and agreed on statements, there have been plenty of country artists who have managed to slip there way into pop culture. John Denver is certainly among those in that category. And the first song i think of is Take Me Home Country Roads.

Duration- 193 seconds
Climax- 120.

That gives us 1.608, right around the ratio we are looking for. I'm going to look for more of this with some other country/pop artists.

The King of Pop

I've been going through a lot of my Michael Jackson collection (yes, it is a lot!) and I came across the hit song "Wanna Be Starting Something" This song has a long dramatic climax that lasts almost 15 seconds. The golden section appears halfway through that climax, making this a song to add to the list!

duration: 363
climax (mid section): 226

363/226 = 1.606 which is pretty close to the golden section...because this is the middle of the climax, the exact golden section definitely appears at some point during it.

JUMP!

In the tremendously well known (and sweet) Van Halen song JUMP, which is off the album "1984"...Eddie Van Halen begins a dramatic keyboard solo at 2:31 seconds in. The song is 4:03 in length:


243 / 151 = 1.6093

This example is purely instrumental and has no singing at all during the climax. However, if you watch the music video you can see some great hair-bouncing and jumping from David Lee Roth, which is always a plus...

Pop Music Example?

As I thought of different popular bands of the current music era, I thought of All American Rejects and their very popular song "Move Along", which i have heard on the radio numerous times in the past couple of days alone..

The song is 4:02 in length and at 2:32 into it, a instrumental of piano that is much quieter than the rest of the song begins. I would argue this is the climax of the song. 242 / 152 = 1.592, which is close to the fibonacci sequence. Here in lies my question...

I feel as if an interesting topic for debate. When a noticeable difference in the speed of a song occurs, for instance a fast song that has a slow verse around the time of the climax such as Move Along, does the beginning of the slow verse mark the climax or does the end of it? At the end of the piano instrumental(which does have words sung during it, at a much slower pace than the song's previous pace) the lead singer screams loudly and marks the beginning of the fast pace of the song again, which could arguably also be called the climax. Also, does the climax have to be exclusively instrumental, with no lyrics at all?

Buffalo Springfield

"For What It's Worth" is the song of the day by Buffalo Springfield. The song is a classic Vietnam era song, you'd recognize as soon as you hear it if the title is not familiar to you. It's on the Forrest Gump soundtrack as well as on any classic rock station, probably daily.

Duration: 160 seconds
Climax: 97 seconds, the chorus starts that leads into some picking

160 by 97 gives you a ratio of 1.6495.

The Boss

"Where the Bands Are" by the legendary Bruce Springsteen is my next song. Being from NJ, Bruce is one of my favorite artists and it seems like most people from NJ love him as well. I saw this thing on CNN awhile where they asked people if Bruce ran for Senate, they vote for him. A surprising number said yes despite Bruce's only involvement in politics are the power his songs have.

Getting to the song, its off 18 Tracks which is basically a composition of songs that Bruce had written for other albums but did not make the album. There are some real gems on it.

Duration: 225 seconds
Climax: 141 seconds starts "And I want something that'll break my chains"

225 by 141 is 1.5957 which is close enough as per our criteria.

Rubber Soul

My second Beatles album, Rubber Soul, has similar characteristics to Sgt. Peppers. Out of 14 songs, 2 of them conformed to the Golden Section.

song # 10 "Im Looking Through You"

duration = 147 seconds
dramatic solo = 91 seconds
147/91 = 1.1615

song #11 "In My Life"
duration = 148 seconds
dramatic solo = 92 seconds is right at the beginning of the long piano solo
148/92 = 1.608

Just like with Sgt. Pepper, the most well known song on the album (In My Life) conforms to the Golden Section Rule.

However, unlike Sgt. Pepper, Rubber Soul as an album does not directly relate to the rule.

I'll keep you updated on more Beatles albums! If the Fab Four's music keeps corresponding to the fibonacci sequence, than you know something must be true about it.

the Supremes

Another oldie for you guys.

I happen to run across this one on my playlist, Diana Ross and the Supremes' Band of Gold. This one's an oldie but goodie, I'm sure im not the only one who knows it.

Duration- 176 seconds
climax- 110 seconds

Slightly lower than fibonacci's 1.618, but at 1.6 even , it sure seems close enough to me. I wonder how many more of the Supremes' songs i can find that fit this ratio.

I never had to

Whats up guys

I think almost everyone knows the Mighy Mighty bosstones' song, Knock on Wood. It's a real staple of any 90's mix CD. Anyway I found it pretty weird when i ran the fibonacci test on this one:

Duration- 196 seconds
Climax- 121 seconds.

this comes out to 1.619, amazingly close to the true fibonacci number, 1.618. Crazy.

Classic Rock

I'll go a little old school with this one. "Funk #49" by The James Gang, lead by Joe Walsh of the Eagles fame. Probably one of the most well known introductions of any song discussed so far.

Duration: 234 seconds

Climax: 142 seconds when the bass kicks in after that famous guitar riff starts up again.

234 by 142 gives a 1.6479 or another song that has a golden section as per the rules we've come up with. Although one could argue that the climax occurs at the very beginning with the distinctive guitar riff.

Sgt. Peppers

I decided to start my research off with the best album of all time (fact, not opinion!) Sgt. Peppers Lonley Hearts Club Band by the Beatles. I wanted to see if this classic album had any relation to the golden section, and I found some pretty cool stuff. Only 1 song on the album really conformed to the sequence and that was "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", which is probably the most commercially successful song on the album.

- the climax of the song comes at about 128 seconds in when John Lennon yells and there's a short solo
- the song is 208 seconds/128 seconds = 1.62 (very close to the 1.618 ratio!!)

As an avid Beatles fan, I knew that I needed to check to see if the album as a whole had any relation to the Fibonacci sequence. This album is definltey meant to be played straight through and it is also one of the most well known and best reviewed albums, so it would be really cool if Sgt. Peppers had any relation to the golden section.

The entire album is exactly 37:05 long. In order for the album to conform to the Fibonacci sequence, there has to be some dramatic climax/instrumental solo at around 23:30. 23:30 into Sgt. Peppers is about halfway through the song "Within You, Without You." Now this song is pretty much all instrumental and there is a huge climactic instrumental part at that EXACT time in the song. So that means that the hugely popular and historical Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band fits exactly into the Fibonacci sequence!

This is crazy guys, I can't believe that this is actually working and we are finding this stuff. Keep it up, we can definitely find some awesome relationships soon. I'm gonna work on all the other Beatles' albums.

Study Break

I'm in the middle of studying for an accounting exam, but I figured that I'd take alittle study break from projected benefit obligations and off balance sheet transactions and post about a song.

The song is "The Way We Get By" by Spoon. My cousin introduced me to this song and artist at his brother's wedding in late September. I actually flew out to California to attend. Anyway here are the vitals:

Duration: 160 seconds

Climax: 96 seconds, alittle piano slow followed by some drums for your listening pleasure

160 by 96 = 1.6667, to date the furthest away from the 1.618 but still relatively close considering how short the song is. The optimal would have been for the climax to start at 99 seconds, but +/- 3 seconds seems like a decent range for considering if the song has the golden section. Anyone opposed to adopting +/- 3 seconds as the rule?

We need some pop music

Ok boys, I know you all like your classic and indie rock, but we all know that the songs that stick around the longest are the pop songs (sorry, i'm a girl, that's what i like!). I started off with one of the original boy bands, The Jackson 5.

"ABC"

duration = 172 seconds
dramatic climax: between 105-110 seconds (symbol solo)

172/107.5 = 1.6

not quite there but close enough, especially with the 5 second climax.

lets see if the King of Pop has any more golden section music up his sleave....