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Far out man!



I'm sure some of you will have heard this before, but I found out about it,
and its tried and tested (I thought I'd send a bit of light heartedness
after all these heavy serious debates!)

Amazingly weird connections that leap off the screen when you play Pink
Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" as the soundtrack to "The Wizard of Oz."
The lyrics and music join in cosmic synch with the action, forming dozens
upon dozens of startling coincidences... the kind that make you go "Oh wow,
man" even if you haven't been near a bong in 20 years.

Here's how it works. You start the album at the exact moment when the MGM
lion finishes its third and final roar. It might take a few times to get
everything lined up just right.

Then, just sit back and watch. It'll blow your mind, man.

Consider these examples: Floyd sings "the lunatic is on the grass" just as
the Scarecrow begins his floppy jig near a green lawn. The line "got to
keep the loonies on the path" comes just before Dorothy and the Scarecrow
start
traipsing down the Yellow Brick Road.

During "Breathe," Dorothy teeters along a fence to the lyric: "balanced on
the biggest wave."

The Wicked Witch, in human form, first appears on her bike at the same
moment a burst of alarm bells sounds on the album.

During "Time," Dorothy breaks into a trot to the line: "no one told you
when to run."

When Dorothy leaves the fortuneteller to go back to her farm, the album is
playing: "home, home again."

Glinda, the cloyingly saccharine Good Witch of the North, appears in her
bubble just as the band sings: "Don't give me that do goody goody
bullshit."

A few minutes later, the Good Witch confronts the Wicked Witch as the band
sings, "And who knows which is which" (or is that "witch is witch"?).

The song "Brain Damage" starts about the same time as the Scarecrow
launches into "If I Only Had a Brain."

But it's not just the weird lyrical coincidences. Songs end when scenes
switch, and even the Munchkins' dancing is perfectly choreographed to the
song "Us and Them."

The phenomenon is at its most startling during the tornado scene, when the
wordless singing in "The Great Gig in the Sky" swells and recedes in
strikingly perfect time with the movie.

When Dorothy opens the door into Oz, the movie switches to rich color and
and that exact moment the album starts in with the tinkling cash register
sound effects from "Money."

Anyone who has ever nursed a hangover watching MTV with the sound off and
the radio on can tell you how quick the brain is to turn music into a
soundtrack for pictures. But this is uncanny.

The real fanatics will point out that side one of the vinyl album is the
exact length of the black-and-white portion of the movie. And then there's
that iconic album cover, with its prism and rainbow echoing the movie's
famous black-and-white-into-color switch not to mention Judy Garland's
classic first song.

The real clincher, though, the moment where even the most skeptical of
cynics has to utter a small "whoa!," comes at the end of the album, which
tails off with the insistent sound of a beating heart.

What's happening on screen? Yep, you guessed it: Dorothy's got her ear to
the Tin Man's chest, listening for a heartbeat.

Maybe it's just a string of coincidences. Maybe the mind is just playing
some really cool tricks. Maybe I just had waaaay too much to drink before I
tried this!

Or maybe, as Pink Floyd sings to close out the album, "everything under the
sun really is in tune."

And I thought playing Black Sabbath backwards was a trip!!!

HAVE FUN!

Steve Lauder
steve.lauder@elspa.com