Dark Side Of Oz Syncs Part 1

When “synchronizing,” The Dark Side of the Moon album with The Wizard of Oz, you see many similarities. The First song is called “Speak to Me,” where Dorothy is balancing on a beam between two pigsty’s the singer sings: “Balanced on the biggest wave.” Dorothy then proceeds to fall into the pigsty at the same time the next track starts. The beginning of the next track is suspenseful, as are the actors to save Dorothy and sounds like a swarm of hungry pigs squealing. The next line says “you race towards an early grave,” now this could be referring to Judy Garland (Dorothy) who died two years earlier at the age of 47. The album is about Time, Death and Insanity. Judy Garland had attempted suicide, had mental problems which she continually struggled with and a drug dependency in which she died from.
The next song was called “Breathe.” I find it interesting that these two tracks were next to each other. Such as if Judy Garland was found overdosing the first thing someone would say to her is, “Speak to me! Breathe!” During the song we hear “look around and choose your own ground” which could refer to her burial. It had been over a year before Judy Garland was given a proper burial. Garlands body was kept in a temporary crypt until the story broke. Her family then made quick arrangements to avoid further shame and embarrassment.

As the song “On The Run” ends the camera is looking up at a cloudy sky. The track seems to be ending with a sound of thunder in it. It seems like there’s a storm on its way. Another thing to note is that while “On The Run” is playing, Garland is singing “Over the Rainbow,” they both have the same acronym “OTR.” As the witch enters the scene to the song “Time,” bells seem to immediately go off. As Dorothy exchanges looks between her mother and the witch the guitar seems to pick on cue with her for the most part. When Dorothy runs away she finds herself at a fortune teller. His sign reads: “Past, Present and Future.” Dorothy starts to look at the fortune teller as she is being told something important while at the same time you hear “Home, home again, I like to be here when I can” being sung.

The Great Gig in the Sky is the song playing for the tornado scene of the movie. The camera angles seem to change on cue of the music. As Dorothy panics the singer seems to stress her voice more until Dorothy is hit on the head with the window and goes unconscious. At that point the singer seems to fade out and back in to a screeching high when the witch appears, but then fades low again when the with disappears. The singing stops the second Dorothy’s house touches ground again. Could the Great Gig in the sky be referring to the house and/or the tornado?

The next song on the album is “Money.” When Dorothy opens the door of her house it is the first time we see color in the movie. It is the same time the song begins with cash registers and chimes. During the guitar solo the munchkins seems to be dancing to the beat. There was a rumor that the munchkins, from The Wizard of Oz, were drunk , the reason for this is because they marched out of step and at the end of the song your hear someone say “I don't know, I was really drunk at the time.” Another way to look at this scene is that MGM is to blame for Garlands demise. MGM forced her to take pills to control her weight and energy. They started her in drugs from the age of 16. MGM never paid Garland a cent after the movie was released. Garland only received the pay for making the movie at the time. The rest of her life she was penniless. The IRS seized most of her property and possessions due to back taxes she could not pay. The first three lines of the song Money spell out MGM: “Money, get away – Get a good job with a good pay and you're okay – Money, its a gag.” This could be placing blame on MGM.