sethstanley

In 1973, Pink Floyd, one of the greatest progressive rock bands and live acts of all time, delivered the concept album Dark Side Of The Moon.

A record that many critics acclaim as the finest in their impressive back catalogue. It topped the US charts and lingered in the Billboard 200 for a record consecutive 741 weeks between 1973 and 1988. It has sold over 45 million copies to date, and is Pink Floyd's best-selling album.

But the real stand-out legacy of this record?

I'm speaking in hushed tones, because lots of people don't know this: Dark Side Of The Moon was recorded as a secret soundtrack to the 1939 classic children's movie The Wizard of Oz!

Boom! How about that?

Except it wasn't. It's a fantastic lie, but that's all it is.

Us and Them

The band themselves have always dismissed this odd rumour, which began circulating on internet message boards around 1995.

Websites sprang up, devoted to cataloguing the synchronicity between the visuals of the film accompanied by the psychedelic soundtrack. In 2002, Turner Classic Movies broadcast Wizard of Oz with the option of synchronising it to Dark Side Of The Moon via the SAP audio channel.

I have loved this record since I was about 12 years old, and as with my blog post Rock Myth I: Paul Is Dead, I have never wanted so much for a rumour to be true.

Before I even set my headphones on, it somehow felt right.

Think about the album cover – a single beam of white light on a black background is refracted by a prism into a spectrum of colours just like.... why Toto, it's just like a rainbow! Sing it, Judy!

It's like when the film begins in black and white but explodes into colour! I'm getting so much meaning from the cover alone and I haven't even heard the MGM lion's third roar yet.

What other treats lie in store?

The heart-beat sound that opens the record on “Speak to Me”, why that's surely the heart-beat of the Tin Man!

“Brain Damage” plays over the top of the Scarecrow singing “If I only had a brain”. Roger Waters sings “Got to keep the loonies on the path” as the Scarecrow dances his way down the yellow brick road.

As Dorothy clicks the heels of her ruby red slippers together and says “There's no place from home”, Dave Gilmour sings “Home, home again – I like to be here when I can.”

That's just three instances of many where audio and video marry up so perfectly that it just can't be a coincidence, can it?

4 star daydream

A burning question I have is – if Pink Floyd wrote this to play over the top of Wizard of Oz, why didn't it match the length of the film?

You need to re-start the record TWICE in order for it to last until the film's credits.

Amazingly, people find synchronicity on the second and third plays through the film! As though the band have cleverly created a masterpiece that lines up lyrically, thematically or visually with what's happening on screen not once, twice, but three times!

The idea that someone could create a wonderful psychedelic soundscape that works beautifully as a soundtrack to a beloved classic movie, is glorious.

There is no doubt that on pairing this record and film, there ARE inexplicable moments of synchronicity, and you will find yourself making connections between what you see and hear whether you want to or not, because they are there.

But they are merely events that happen to occur at the same time by coincidence, not by design, and appear to have a connection.

When we see one, two, three examples – we start to believe. We look for more – our mind makes connections that aren't there.

You only have to look at one of the websites that documents all of the moments of synchronicity to see how tenuous some of the connections are.

Any colour you like

It really made me start to think about how we look for patterns in our own lives. We look for signs to help confirm or guide our own behaviour. As a species, making sense of patterns with our senses can be the difference between life and death.

In a much less dramatic way – have you ever bought a car, say, a red Mercedes – and then all you see are red Mercedes on the road? Your mind is thinking about that make and colour of car, because you drive one – and it serves as some level of verification that you made a good decision – it's a popular choice!

Any Crypto Twitter fans will be aware of some of the XRP community's recent obsession with the number 589. There was a spate of people posting about instances of the number 589 occurring in their personal lives – on car registration plates, restaurant receipts, lottery tickets – everywhere.

I believe synchronicity is a powerful thing – meaningful coincidences and patterns occur everywhere, but those coincidences often only have meaning on an individual level.

Are they signs from the universe that you're on the right path? More likely your brain connecting information in a way that makes sense to you, but with no wider correlation or cause and effect.

I believe Dark Side of The Moon was written as a secret soundtrack to the Wizard of Oz. And monkeys might fly.

Next time on Rock Myths: Guns N Roses' Appetite For Destruction was written as a secret soundtrack to Breakfast At Tiffany's.