Bob Dylan · John Wesley Harding

All Along the Watchtower

All Along the Watchtower is in C sharp minor at 129.3 beats per minute.

Tempo

129 BPM · Allegromedian of 234 analyses · 129.2–129.7 across the middle eight tenths

Key: C♯ minor4 sharps · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement: 89%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses: 234people who ran the extractor
One beat: 464milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning: 436.7Hz · -13 cents from A 440
Dynamics: 3.39dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness: 0.874Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability: 1.046Essentia'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

234 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. Most of them — 89% — put it in C sharp minor, a key signature of 4 sharps. The tempo printed above is the median of the 234 readings; 92% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 129.3 BPM one beat lasts 464 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 116 ms and a dotted eighth 348 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 64.7 BPM, counted twice as fast 258.6. A score would mark that Allegro, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 436.7 Hz, which is 13 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 3.39 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 0.874 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 C sharp minor; 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 C♯ minor

Each of these differs from C♯ minor 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 129 BPM

Note value	Beats	Milliseconds	Hertz
Whole note	4	1856.1	0.54
Half note	2	928.1	1.08
Dotted quarter	1.5	696.1	1.44
Quarter note (one beat)	1	464	2.16
Quarter triplet	0.667	309.4	3.23
Dotted eighth	0.75	348	2.87
Eighth note	0.5	232	4.31
Eighth triplet	0.333	154.7	6.47
Dotted sixteenth	0.375	174	5.75
Sixteenth note	0.25	116	8.62
Sixteenth triplet	0.167	77.3	12.93
Thirty-second note	0.125	58	17.24

Half time 64.7 BPM · double time 258.6 BPM. Every row is one beat (464 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

Recordings in C sharp minor, ordered by how near their tempo is to 129 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in C sharp minor All songs at 129 BPM C♯ minor at 120–129 BPM Bob Dylan

MusicBrainz collapses 372 recording ids into this one. Recording id a280c14d-9898-42ff-910a-683fccaf3d06.