What happens when you combine one the best-selling rock albums of all time with one of the best films of all time? Strange stuff.
Filmed in 1939, The Wizard of Oz is an enduring classic from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Who hasn't delighted in the wonderful tale of Dorothy Gale and her journey into the weird and wonderful land of Oz? Dorothy, Toto, Tinman, Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion, Wicked Witch of the West, Glinda the Good Witch, Munchkins and the Great and Powerful Wizard have made their way into the collective American psyche.
Recorded in 1973, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon remains in the top 20 best-selling albums of all time. With its multi-layered production, probing psychological lyrics and full tilt compositions, DSoTM is the granddaddy of Art-rock. It has yet to be surpassed, in this writer's humble opinion.
I'm not sure how this started, but someone discovered an interesting synchronicity between the film and the LP when Dark Side of the Moon is played as the soundtrack for The Wizard of Oz.
Synchronicity - the relation that exists when things occur at the same time
If you start DSoTM at just the right time (and I mean JUST the right time) and turn down the volume to the film, you will enjoy a stunning display of synchronicity. Some examples:
You get the picture. There are over 130 recognized syncs in the film. Some of them seem to be reading in just a bit much, while others will make you shake your head in disbelief. The most stunning sync is the tornado scene where we view the tragedy while listening to the last cut on side 1 of the LP, The Great Gig in the Sky. It seems as though the piece was written as the soundtrack for the scene and is a truly remarkable experience.
It is incredibly difficult to do the sync on your own. Fortunately, some folks are just nutty enough to have done it for you. I purchased a copy of Dark Side of the Rainbow from this web site. They have created what is undoubtedly the definitive edition, with full 5.1 Dolby Surround sound, no less. Included is an insert listing all the syncs in the order which they appear.
I recommend watching the sync before looking at the list, but if you are too curious, you can find the list of syncs here. As it turns out, people are uncovering other supposed syncs which I intend to investigate. One of them seems to involve Rush's 2112 and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory!
Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
As an aside, have you ever thought about the meaning behind Frank L. Baum's "The Wizard of Oz"? One writer suggests...
The Wizard of Oz as a story is an expansive metaphor for the debate in the 1896 elections over using the Gold Standard as the measure for currency. The Scarecrow represents dumb farmers, the tinman is a heartless industrial worker, the lion is a loud but impotent William Jennings Bryan, the Wizard is the US President, McKinley and Emerald City is Washington D.C. which is entirely green - money based. The fighting is over Gold, which of course, is represented by the Yellow Brick Road!"
And another writer expounds further...
Dorothy's Ruby Slippers were silver in the original story, but because "ruby" looked so good in technicolor, they went with that. Either way, still symbolic of money. The character definitions according to this theory are as follows: Dorothy as "Traditional American Values"... Toto as "the Prohibitonist party, also called the Teetotalers"... Munchkins as "Citizens of the East"... the Wicked Witch of the East as "Grover Cleveland"... Wicked Witch of the West as "William McKinley" ... the Wizard as "Marcus Alonzo Hanna, chairman of the Republican Party"... and Oz being the abbreviation for "Ounce of Gold
Interesting take on what we have always viewed as an entertaining family film, yes?
It's Del.icio.us!
Furl It!
March 7, 2004 12:02 PM
I'm sure someone has proposed this idea in the past, but I'll just say it here..... maybe Pink Floyd created DSotM PURPOSELY to be in sync with The Wizard of Oz. And then one of the members of the band strategically 'put it out there' that it was in sync with the film. It's possible.
March 7, 2004 01:15 PM
Yes, that has indeed been proposed!
Here is a link that discusses that very issue. I think I am going to have to side with "coincidence
http://members.cox.net/stegokitty/dsotr_pages/coincidence.htm
Joel
May 29, 2005 10:34 AM
It's actually not that difficult to do the sync yourself. I used a cd player and you just press the play button as soon as the lion in the mgm logo roars his third roar. Although it takes practice, it can be done, and leaving the cd on repeat actually works, the album plays through, I think, two and a half times durring the movie, and continues to sync.
Also, I've read about 12 installments of the "Oz" series...these books began so long ago, and have spanned over so much time, not to mention the exaustive number of them, and that they were contributed by at least 2 authors that I know of...I seriously doubt that the meaning behind it comes from previous american political issues, the fools that made those comments obviously saw the movie first. It's most likely that it was a social commentary on personality types and society in general.
October 24, 2008 07:38 PM
It definitely falls into the realm of synchronicity. The duplicity of symbolism is inherent throughout this iconoclastic film. However, it's not what you may think. Rather, I'm assured that there was not a grand terrestrial author of mayhem and conspiracy lurking behind this coincidental tome. The only grand author of it all was evidently the higher power/Creator that orchestrates the manifested universe as it is observed through our limited senses. Sure, the creative work most assuredly aligns with inherent/collective thought patterns and archetypes, but it also points to and originates from a sublime ethereal origin and programmed structure which our limited mental capacities as mere humans are not programmed to receive. Observing a phenomenon and explaining it effectively fall into two different schools of thought and reason, the latter being the realm of self absored grandiosity and optimistic fallacy projected through misguided principles and thought. A mere pipe's dream, pardon the pun. I could stretch this mini-missive into eternity as the thoughts concerning said subject matter are heartfelt and paramount. However, I'll exercise economy of words and suffice to state that unequivocally 'The Wizard of OZ' in cahoots and in synch with 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' are a perfect example of WTF(?!) coupled with the reality of an eternal force working behind the scenes. Don't lie to yourself, synchronicity is alive and well and always shall be! Beware, it is controlled from the other side, i.e., God/Creator, Higher Power, Yo Mama(lol-just teasing!), or your own incredible mind(you wish). Think about it! Tripper I am! LOL.