Bob Dylan & The Band · The Basement Tapes

Clothes Line Saga

Clothes Line Saga is in E major at 100.8 beats per minute.

4080120160200

Tempo

101 BPM · Andantemedian of 133 analyses · 100.8–100.9 across the middle eight tenths
Key
E major4 sharps · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement
99%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses
133people who ran the extractor
One beat
595.2milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning
434.9Hz · -20 cents from A 440
Dynamics
3.5dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness
0.843Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability
1.131Essentia's danceability, 0–3

Source: AcousticBrainz, dump of 2022-06-23 (CC0) · MusicBrainz core data, 2026-09-17 (CC0) · how each number is measured. Measured up to 23.06.2022 — AcousticBrainz stopped collecting in 2022, so nothing released after that date is here.

What the numbers say

133 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 99% — put it in E major, a key signature of 4 sharps. The tempo printed above is the median of the 133 readings; 100% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 100.8 BPM one beat lasts 595.2 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 148.8 ms and a dotted eighth 446.4 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 50.4 BPM, counted twice as fast 201.6. A score would mark that Andante, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 434.9 Hz, which is 20 cents below concert A at 440 Hz — the sort of drift a tape machine or a slightly different mastering leaves behind. That is a fact about this transfer of the music, not about how it was played.

The dynamic complexity of the recording measures 3.5 dB: that is how far the level wanders from its own average, so a small number means a loud, flat master and a large one means a recording that still breathes. Its average loudness is 0.843 on Essentia's 0-to-1 scale, which is not decibels and is not comparable to a streaming service's number.

10 other recordings here are in E major; the ones listed below are the closest in tempo.

Beats per bar are not in this dataset. AcousticBrainz's analysis reports a tempo, a key and a loudness, and no time signature at all, so this page does not print one — a 4/4 here would be a guess dressed as a measurement.

Keys that fit with E major

Each of these differs from E major by at most one accidental, or shares its tonic. That is the whole of what a mixing wheel encodes; here the relations are named instead of numbered.

Delay times at 101 BPM

Note valueBeatsMillisecondsHertz
Whole note423810.42
Half note21190.50.84
Dotted quarter1.5892.91.12
Quarter note (one beat)1595.21.68
Quarter triplet0.667396.82.52
Dotted eighth0.75446.42.24
Eighth note0.5297.63.36
Eighth triplet0.333198.45.04
Dotted sixteenth0.375223.24.48
Sixteenth note0.25148.86.72
Sixteenth triplet0.16799.210.08
Thirty-second note0.12574.413.44

Half time 50.4 BPM · double time 201.6 BPM. Every row is one beat (595.2 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

  1. Beast of BurdenThe Rolling StonesE major101BPM
  2. Sing a Simple SongSly & the Family StoneE major101BPM
  3. Thank You for the MusicABBAE major101BPM
  4. Dumpweedblink‐182E major101BPM
  5. BlueJoni MitchellE major100BPM
  6. Chest FeverThe BandE major100BPM
  7. We Don’t Talk AnymoreCharlie Puth feat. Selena GomezE major100BPM
  8. IsobelBjörkE major100BPM
  9. La isla bonitaMadonnaE major100BPM
  10. Extreme WaysMobyE major100BPM

Recordings in E major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 101 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in E majorAll songs at 101 BPME major at 100–109 BPMBob Dylan & The Band

MusicBrainz collapses 5 recording ids into this one. Recording id a79c864c-17d2-42ff-a877-c43bc876b747.