Dark Side of the Rainbow

Okay, I bet everyone here knows and has tried this, but I just recently found out about it. If you don't know, you play Wizard of Oz and Dark Side of The Moon at the same time and it supposedly synchs up. Well, I read a summary of what it was like, and I tried it myself.

The MGM lion roars three times, and the record clicks on. The sepia titles float in the cloudy sky. Speak to Me, the operatic screams, and the transition into breathe timed right with Mervyn LeRoy's name. “Time” is capitalized in the introduction. “Look around, choose your own ground.” Dorothy turns away from Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, and we see the three farmhands. The number three appears quite a bit in the film. “Run, rabbit, run,” Hunk seems to tell Dorothy.

“Balanced on the biggest wave, you race towards an early grave.” Dorothy is balancing on the fence. She falls, and as Zeke runs to save her, On the Run starts. The mood is suddenly shifted to panic. A woman's muffled voice is heard, and it appears to be coming from Aunt Em. There's a strange contrast here as we see Dorothy singing “Somewhere over the rainbow,” but a peculiar thing is to watch the shadows and wind movements, as they seem to follow some of the stereo sound effects. The rays of sunshine peeking through the cloudy sky take on a more sinister vibe of looming chaos.

The clocks go off at the exact moment Miss Gulch appears on screen, riding her bicycle. As she sits and talks with Dorothy's family about taking Toto away, the music is ominous and threatening. As the first verse of Time begins, Elmira Gulch rides away with Toto in her basket. Toto makes it home safely. “Waiting for something or someone to show you the way.” He appears in Dorothy's bedroom, and the ooh's and ahh's of the backup singers come in as the camera swivels around Dorothy's room. The guitar solo begins just as the next scene change occurs, and we see Dorothy passing through a triangular bridge from left to right. There are lots of triangles, but only if you're looking for them, of course. Watching the exchange between Dorothy and Professor Marvel is interesting. Some of the lyrics “match” but it's really more of the mood in this scene. As soon as he begins to convince her that Aunt Em is sick, the Breathe reprise starts. “Home, home again.” Dorothy realizes she needs to go home.

Dorothy is then making her way back to the farm. The wind starts as the piano introduction to The Great Gig in the Sky plays. With the bend of the lap steel, we see the twister. As soon as Clare Torry's vocals come in, trees and fences begin to fly around. The screams appear to be Dorothy's. As this scene plays against this song, it takes on a much more surreal, numb sense of acceptance. The key change and the screams are timed perfectly to the exact moment that the window hits Dorothy on the head. Another scream perfectly timed as we see Elmira Gulch transform into the Easterly Wicked Witch. Torry hits the high notes one last time. The house falls to the ground. Dorothy gets up and goes to the door.

She opens it to the colorful world of Munchkinland. “Cha-ching.” Interestingly enough, the wide panning shot of the glossy foliage of Munchkinland is the same length as the first verse of Money. Some folks have said that the magical colors are indicative of a high lifestyle, hence the “Cha-ching” and the lyrics of Money. I personally feel that's kind of a stretch, but then again, it's whatever you want to take from it. Maybe the “Cha-ching is the symbol for the transaction of Dorothy, in her passing from one realm to another. But let's not dwell.

“Dont give me none of that do-goody-good ox manour.” Glenda the Good Witch appears, flying in her pink and green bubble. “I think I need a leer jet.” Get it? Then it's the growling saxophone into the guitar solo as the exchange between Glenda and Dorothy takes place. As the guitar gets back down to squeaky quiet, all the munchkins start coming out of the woodwork. Then, as the guitar part builds back up into the more “rocking” part, the munchkin jumps out and all of them start dancing around in circles, very nearly in time with the music.

Dorothy is now on the horse carriage, the army of munchkins marching behind her in time with the outro of Money. She gets off and starts talking to the mayor, and there is suddenly an air of diplomacy as Us and Them starts. The coroner unrolls the death certificate (important in that other paper I might write). The little baby munchkins awaken in their nest as the sax comes in. On the start of the lyrics, “Us, us, us, us..” the Lullaby League comes spinning in with their tutus and dance in time with the high-hat part. “And after all, we're only ordinary men.” The Lollypop Guild come in. “Forward he cried from the rim and the front rank died.” The mayor gushes forward enthusiastically. “Black, black, black... and blue, blue, blue.. And who knows which is which, and who is who?” The Wicked Witch bursts onto screen, dressed in black. Dorothy is dressed in blue. Who knows which is witch? Get it?

The broom is up on “up” and down on “down.” Well, sort of, that one only kind of works. It depends on the timing of things, so it's good to watch with the mindset that there's a window of about one minute around the events of the music for something on screen to “synch.” The Witch bails, and we hear, “If you give 'em a quick, short, sharp, shock, they never do it again. Dig it?”

“..And out.” Glenda floats away in her bubble. “People come and go so quickly here,” Dorothy notes. “Out of my way, it's a busy day, I've got things on my mind.” Dorothy is now skipping along, starting her journey down the yellow brick road. The munchkins gladly move out of her way, realizing it's a busy day for her.

The next part is awesome. I'm biased, of course, because Any Colour you Like is the highlight of the album for me, and it also happens that the scene where she meets the Scarecrow is a highlight of the film in my mind from when I was a little kid. The two meld surprisingly well. On the nods and curtsies of Scarecrow and Dorothy, the drums boom and crash as the synth part expands and puts accents on the cuts back and forth between the two of them. Gilmour wails as Scarecrow explains his predicament to Dorothy, winning her sympathy. The first time I saw this part, I felt like I was about to cry, man. It's just so good.

Obviously this is the perfect time for the song Brain Damage to play. And play it does. Scarecrow stomps around and spins and falls all over the place. “The lunatic is on the grass.”Brain Damage is the Scarecrow's theme song. Together he and Dorothy kick off their famous little skip-walk down the yellow brick road in prefect time to the pulse of the music. Seriously, I know I keep saying that, but it's true. Things seem too perfectly timed for it all to be accidental. But I'm pretty sure it is. There's plenty of “dead time” where the lyrics or rhythms in the music aren't really doing much for the action on screen. But even in those moments, it's interesting to see how the atmospheres playing on the album accentuate and sometimes contrast against what is going on on screen.

Eclipse begins just as they meet the Tin-man. The organ part is great as the camera swivels around and zooms out. Just as the album ends with the pulsating heartbeat, Dorothy and Scarecrow are listening for Tin-man's heartbeat. “If I only had a heart” plays as the album starts over. This is one of those dead times, for some. I think it's pretty cool, but it's because I choose to, it's all about suspension of disbelief, just like anything else.


Breathe comes back in and Tin-man is dancing around, more perfectly in time than any other instance in the film. You can get a feel for Breathe being sort of like the main overture, as that chord progression is all over the album, like variations on a theme. It's very sound-track-esque. It's crazy watching Tin-man sway back and forth to the lap-steel bends.

Another thing I noticed was how every time the lyrics “Run, rabbit, run” come up, the focus seems to be Scarecrow (or farmhand Hunk). As On the Run plays, the trio has reached the dark, scary woods. The lion appears to laugh at the same time that crazy laughter can be heard. The atmosphere is perfect for this scene, inducing panic and fear.

Time starts again. This time the clocks chiming don't really synch up with anything, except maybe that now the Lion is officially part of the gang, and all the protagonists have unified in their goal to seek the wizard. It's a bit of a stretch, but like I said, it's whatever. What is cool about this part is their little hop-skips that are right in time with the extended rototom drum part. We then see the Wicked Witch, antagonizing Dorothy just as we saw last time we heard Time. The camera pans across the expanse of the poppy field, and we hear the screeching guitar solo. It fits perfectly, if you ask me. Then, as they're bounding through the field, the big choir chords again. The tempo begins to slacken as they all start to get tired. “And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking.” They all begin to pass out, sinking into the ground after having run. Then, on the Breathe reprise, the snowfall adds a new color to the screen, and the Rhodes piano sounds sharp and icy (if you want).

This time around, The Great Gig in the Sky begins as the gang approaches the Emerald City. The lap-steel bends just as the Wicked Witch takes off into the air and circles her castle. Some of the next part could be considered dead time. In no way does this scene compare to the first time through this song. But the majesty of the Emerald City is captured pretty well. The horse of another color, again with the rainbow motif. Oh yeah, that reminds me, I was also going to talk about the crystal ball motif, kind of like a prism, you know.

“Can you even dye my eyes to match my gown? (Mhmm.) Jolly old town.” And so the whole crew is treated like kings and queens, shiny and new. The witch spells out “Surrender Dorothy,” once again Dorothy is treated as an exchangable good (maybe). “Cha-ching.” Money starts, and feels even more thematically appropriate this time around. The Emerald City is all green and high class. The lion's speech about being king of the forest. He growls, the sax growls. He raises his arm defiantly in perfect time to the line about the “lee-e-ear jet.” Good times.

Next is Us and Them. The air of diplomacy and religious tones are present once again as the gang walks down the majestic hall to the frightening chamber of the “great and powerful Oz.” Scarecrow bows down to the wizard, just as the words “God only knows” are heard in the lyrics. “.. and down, down, down” is heard as the Cowardly Lion jumps dives out of the window. “With, without, and who denies it's what the fighting's all about.” Those are the lyrics at the moment the flying monkeys take Toto away. Toto is, after all, what all the fighting was about, that's why Dorothy ran away and wound up in Oz. There are even more synchronisctic moments, I'm kind of just hitting the highlights. I'll bet you're glad.

We're getting close to the end of the movie now. Any Colour You Like plays while Dorothy is held captive in the Wicked Witch's castle. Toto escapes and finds Scarecrow, Tin-man, and the Cowardly Lion. “The lunatics...” “You make the change, you re-arrange me 'til I'm sane.” The three change into the Winkies' outfits. “There's someone in my head, but it's not me.” Now the boys are in the castle. As the four big hits on the bass drum ring out, the Tin-man is wailing away on the door with his axe. The lyrics of Eclipse appear to be said by the Wicked Witch. The song fades away with the beating heart, and then, as the Wicked Witch melts away, silence. It's interesting that the most intense moment of the film is in dead silence.


Breathe comes back in. The main overture. The heroes victorious, they return to the chamber of Oz. The lyrics come in just as Oz's true form is revealed. “Look around.” Oz turns around to see the group staring at him. Say, does Scarecrow looks a little like Roger Waters to you? No? Alright, fair enough.

As Oz is put on the spot to come up with some way to solve everyone's problems, On the Run begins. As he is gifting everyone with their little trinkets, maybe he is planning his escape. He's a phony through and through. “Live for today, gone tomorrow, that's me.” The crash big sound. “What about Dorothy?” Dorothy is going to have to go with Oz on his way out of there.

The clocks of Time go off just as we see the Omaha State Fair weather balloon. Dorothy's time in Oz is up. It appears she's going home, which is what she wanted the whole time. Everyone looks so sad. The weather balloon flies off without Dorothy in it. Damn Toto is always putting Dorothy in a bind. But it's okay because, just as the song gets to the first verse, Glenda the Good Witch appears in her magic bubble. She is very majestic and noble. She comes and tells Dorothy she could go home the whole time. Now it's really time to go. She says her goodbyes and clicks her heals. The lyrics are, “Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death,” with the word “death” on the third click. Spooky? Damn right.

“There's no place like home.” We're back in Kansas now, and just in time for the reprise of the Breathe theme. “Home, home again. I like to be here when I can.” Dorothy wakes up at home, and everyone is there for her. “Far away, across the fields, the tolling of the iron bell, draws the faithful to their knees, to hear the softly spoken magic spell.” The piano comes in with Great Gig in the Sky as Dorothy explains about her time spent in Oz, and how she realized there's no place like home. “The End,” roll credits. The piano fades out, cut to black.

If you're still reading, thank you. Anyway, that's basicly what happened. It was...certainly a surreal experience. Is it coincidence? Maybe. Planned by Floyd? Maybe. MGM predicts future? Maybe. I really think that there's much more to it than that, and it's something my tiny human brain isn't really capable of fully understanding. Really, it's best not to over think this, as it was probably just all those drugs Roger and co. were on.