A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. The Fox Is Black just posted what is easily the best thing I’ve seen online in all of 2011. And I am not exaggerating one bit either. I think it was around 1996 or 1997 when I was a little bit greener and a little bit younger back in my university days, my buddy Troy sat me down for one of the best trips I’ve ever had: watching the 1939 classic The Wizard Of Oz while listening to Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon. The best synch-up occurs when you press play on the album when the MGM lion lets out its third roar, then all you have to do is sit back and smoke all the wizard cabbage you can and be taken away on an amazing ride.
It’s a sunny Friday morning here in Montreal at the moment, so the mind-expansiveness of “The Dark Side Of Oz” experience isn’t 100% accessible to me right now (i.e. a blue sky, breakfast, and coffee seem to be preventing me from “entering” too deep). But I strongly encourage everyone to try this out for themselves. And now the whole thing has been made effortlessly easier thanks to the amazingness that is Bryan Pugh. Bryan sat down and did all the synching and uploaded the video onto Vimeo (pleeeeeease MGM: let us keep just this one special thing online OK?). I’m not sure what your address is Bryan, but I’ve got a huge batch of flowers or chocolate or anything you want ready to pop in the mail for you. Pink Floyd has made it clear through the years that there was absolutely zero inspiration taken from The Wizard Of Oz when they were writing and recording Dark Side Of The Moon in Abbey Road Studios between June 1972 and January 1973 (read more about that in the link below), but it’s almost totally irrelevant at this point. The fact of the matter is this: it works. Brilliantly, as a matter of fact.
Humans are pattern-seeking creatures, and when we can’t find a pattern we will create one. In “The Dark Side Of Oz,” however, there indeed are some wonderful, undeniable pairings and coincidences going on. For instance:
3:06 = PINK FLOYD: “Look around.” OZ: Dorothy turns back and looks at her Kansas home and the life she’s about to leave behind.
3:20 = PINK FLOYD: “All you touch.” OZ: Dorothy touches the arm of her uncle.
4:03 = PINK FLOYD: “Balanced on the biggest wave, headed toward an early grave.” OZ: Dorothy falls into the pig pen with a shift in the music, foreshadowing the turn of events to come.
These, of course, are just the tip of the iceberg. There are some even bigger match-ups further into the show, and I won’t spoil them for you if you haven’t seen this already. But my biggest advice would be this: wait until midnight, sit back with a willing suspension of disbelief, gather some like-minded friends and mind-expanding accessories, and enjoy the ride. Huge thanks to The Fox Is Black for this!
SEE ALSO: “The True Story Behind Pink Floyd And “The Wizard Of Oz”
Source: The Fox Is Black
