The Wizard of Oz and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon: Dark Side of the Rainbow

I'd heard the same rumor you have: Play The Wizard of Oz muted with Pink Floyd's 1973 classic album Dark Side of the Moon in the background, and the two totally sync up-enough that people claim the album was composed for that purpose. (Instructions on how to conduct the experiment yourself, along with a list of coincidences to look for, can be found below.)

Rubbish, I said.

It's a ridiculous thing to believe. Ask yourself which is more likely: Either (a) some rock band went to the trouble of composing an entire album as a sort of substitute soundtrack for a 34-year-old movie, or (b) a bunch of stoners and acid fiends one day randomly popped in a tape of The Wizard of Oz while listening to Pink Floyd and decided, "Whooooooooaaaa! This is, like, too coincidental to be, um, a coincidence...man."

(Yes, my stereotype stoner voice comes across like Otto the bus driver from The Simpsons. No offense intended. Man.)

I'm naturally a skeptic, particularly when it comes to urban legends propagated by devotees of a rock band that's known as much for their psychedelic drug use as they are for their music. And especially when said urban legends pertain to fairy tales involving fields of poppies, multicolored horses, and flying monkeys. So take my opinion for what it's worth: I think there may be something to this whole Wizard/Dark Side connection.

Some friends of mine recently decided to try out the sync-up, and for whatever reason, I stuck around to watch. I have to admit, there's a number of eerie similarities that are hard to dismiss-especially if you go into it with the mindset that any connection whatsoever between what you're seeing and what you're hearing has to be a coincidence. I started to doubt my own skepticism. And I wasn't even on any mind-altering substances, unless you count my standard seven-cup-a-day coffee habit.

But don't take my word for it. Try it, and then decide for yourself.

Setting up the "Dark Side of the Rainbow" Experiment

Equipment needed:

CD of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (the digitally remastered version is ideal).

DVD of The Wizard of Oz (there is a 1999 and a 2005 re-release).

DVD player

CD player that operates independently of your DVD player or theater system.

Consumables. As in, snacks. (This content producer does not condone or encourage possession or use of illicit substances.)

How to make it work:

1. Pop the CD of Dark Side of the Moon in the player and set it at "play/pause" at 00:00 on the first track so it's cued and ready to go.

2. Start The Wizard of Oz and skip past the intro fluff until you get to the actual film.

3. When the black and white MGM lion roars for the third and final time, immediately press play (unpause) on the CD player. Careful: The roars can run together.

4. Mute the movie. The opening credits will accompany a crescendo of sound effects from the CD.

5. Here's the key that will tell you if you've done it right: At about the 1:17 mark, the name Mervyn LeRoy (the producer) should fade onto the screen exactly in sync with the first note of the first musical track, "Speak to Me/Breathe." If they're not together, rewind both and try again. It should only take about 3-4 tries, max, to get it right. Trust me, the precision makes a difference.

6. Optional: Put the CD player on "repeat all" mode so that it will start over at the beginning of the album once its done. Some people claim that the CD continues to sync all the way through the movie, but it certainly requires a greater time commitment to find out.

What to look for

If you don't want to be swayed by seeing things that other people have told you about, skip over this section. Otherwise, here's some examples of interesting connections to look for:

1. As Dorothy balances on the fence during the song "Breathe," the line heard is "balanced on the biggest wave, race toward an early grave." When she falls into the pig pen, the song changes, as if on cue.
2. As Dorothy sings "Over the Rainbow," at one point she looks from one side of the sky to the other, as though following an airplane. There is a corresponding sound of a plane speeding by.
3. The first appearance of Almira Gulch on her bicycle occurs simultaneously with the alarm clock at the beginning of the song "Time."
4. As Gulch argues with Dorothy's Aunt and Uncle over the fate of Toto, the music chimes back and forth dramatically.
5. The song "Great Gig in the Sky" occurs exactly in sync with the tornado sequence. It starts slow with the wind, crescendos chaotically as Dorothy is sucked into the funnel, and fades down as the storm lapses into Dorothy's daydream.
6. The sound of the cash register, signifying the beginning of the song "Money" occurs at the moment that Dorothy steps out the door into Oz.
7. The line "Who knows which is which?" fittingly enough, corresponds to the encounter between Glenda the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West.
8. The Scarecrow scene is matched up with the song "Brain Damage."
9. As Dorothy bangs on the Tin Man's chest cavity, the sound of a heartbeat echoes.

...And that's just scratching the surface. There's no limit to what you'll see if you really look for connections, and many eager experimenters have already tried to catalogue exhaustive lists online. Some even recommend putting the CD on repeat so that it plays continuously through the movie. This makes the possibility of it matching even more far-fetched, and truth be told, the evidence gets less compelling in the subsequent playings.

The Verdict?

You can decide for yourself whether the rumor has some basis in fact or whether it's just the product of the fanciful, drug-assisted imaginations of a handful of Floyd fans that caught fire as an urban legend. Probably the most important detail to point out is that, from a technical standpoint, creating an album as a soundtrack to an existing film would have been incredibly difficult and basically pointless in 1973; the album was obviously vinyl, and this was well before the advent of VHS tapes. Who would they have been pulling this stunt for? Assuming the record producers had a copy of the film, it still would have been an enormous headache to create an entire album with timing that precise.

Pink Floyd has never tried to claim that the Wizard of Oz connection was intentional, but there's really no reason for them to deny it. As reported on Turnmeondeadman.net (which also chronicles an exhaustive list of coincidences to look for), sales of Dark Side of the Moon reportedly spiked in the late 1990s when rumors of the phenomenon started popping up in mainstream media outlets. Even if it is just a series of strange coincidences, it's enough to keep creative minds guessing and wondering, and it's a fun exercise to try and to discuss with friends. And once you've started seeing the connections, you begin to see more. Perhaps the strangest connection is an actual line from the movie, which of course you'll miss while you're trying the syncing experiment. Dorothy's last line before she begins singing "Over the Rainbow" is directed at Toto, her dog, as she wishes they could escape somewhere there isn't any trouble:

"Do you suppose there is such a place, Toto? There must be. It's not a place you can get to by a boat or a train. It's far, far away, behind the moon, beyond the rain..." (from IMDb.com [emphasis added, obviously]).

Far out. Man.

References:

Todd Gardner. "Dark Side of the Rainbow, Introduction." Turn Me On, Dead Man.

"Memorable Quotes for the Wizard of Oz." IMDb.com.