[longo at zk3.dec.com: The Wizard Of Floyd]

[Mike Brehm]

Since we're all deep into M&D, and our man TRP fills his writing with odd
coincidences, conspiracies, and connections, I couldn't resist forwarding
this on to everyone

>    >
>    >(forwarded from another humor list; forwards snipped)
>    >
>    >--------
>    >
>    >Call it Dark Side of the Rainbow. Classic rockers are buzzing about the
>    >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."
>    >
>    >It sounds wacky, but there really is a bizarre synchronization there. 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.
>    >
>    >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.
>    >
>    >When deejay George Taylor Morris at WZLX-FM in Boston first mentioned the
>    >phenom on the air six weeks ago, he touched off a frenzy.
>    >
>    >"The phones just blew off the wall. It started on a Friday, and that first
>    >weekend you couldn't get a copy of 'The Wizard of Oz' anywhere in Boston,"
>    >he said. "People were staying home to check it out."  It's fun, he said,
>    >because everyone knows the movie,and the album which spent a
record-busting
>    >591 straight weeks on the Billboard charts can
>    >be found in practically every record collection.
>    >
>    >Dave Herman at WNEW-FM in New York mentioned the buzz a few weeks ago. The
>    >response more than 2,000 letters was the biggest ever in the deejay's
>    >25-year on-air career.
>    >
>    >"It has been just unbelievable," said WNEW program director Mark Chernoff.
>    >"I've never seen anything like this. "
>    >
>    >The station plans to show the movie using the album as soundtrack at a
>    >small private screening tomorrow.
>    >
>    >Rock fans always have loved to speculate about hidden messages in their
>    >favorite albums. But seeking connections between the beloved 1939 classic
>    >kid flick and the legendary 1973 acid-rock album pushes he envelope of the
>    >music conspiracy genre.
>    >
>    >Nobody from the publicity-shy band would comment, but Morris asked
>    >keyboardist Richard Wright about it on the air last month. He looked
>    >flummoxed and said he'd never heard of any intentional connections between
>    >the movie and the album.
>    >
>    >But the fans aren't convinced it's just a cosmic coincidence. "I'm a
>    >musician myself and I know how hard it is just to write music, let alone
>    >music choreographed to action," said drummer Alex Harm, of Lowell,
>    >Mass.,who put up one of the two Internet web pages devoted to the
>    >synchroneities. "To make it match up so well, you'd have to plan it."
>    >
>    >Morris is convinced that ex-frontman Roger Waters planned the whole thing
>    >without letting his fellow band members in on the secret.
>    >
>    >"It's too close. It's just too close. Look at the song titles. Look at the
>    >cover. There's something going on there," Morris said.
>    >
>    >Here's how it works. You start the album at the exact moment when the MGM
>    >lion finishes its third and last 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.
>    >
>    >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 bull
---t."
>    >
>    >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 watchin 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 some people just have waaaay too much time
>    >on their hands.  Or maybe, as Pink Floyd sings to close out the album,
>    >everything under the sun really is in tune.
>    >
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