The Dark Side of the Wizard

Introduction:

For many years now, rumours have been flying all over the internet that there are some amazing connections between the classic 1939 film ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and Pink Floyd’s seminal 1973 album ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’; connections that many people believe are more than just coincidence.

In 2004,  I was intrigued enough to do a little bit of in-depth research to see if the claims stood up to scrutiny, and wrote up my findings for the now defunct ‘Researcher Magazine’, a journal once produced by the Merseyside Anomalies Research Association. Here is a reproduction of the article, in a vain attempt to set the record straight once and for all……

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In the insane world of Rock ‘n’ Roll, there are plenty of rumors flying around about hidden meanings in songs, from the supposed backmasked satanic messages contained in Heavy Metal albums to the subtle drug taking references found on some Beatles songs. However, none of these are as big, or as widespread, as the rumors going around about the spooky connections between an iconic album and an equally iconic movie……Pink Floyd fans across the world are literally buzzing about the amazing coincidences that leap off the screen when you play ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ as the soundtrack to ’The Wizard of Oz’.

There are hundreds of websites dedicated to the ‘spooky synchronisations’ that people claim happen between the lyrics, & music and what appears on screen. It seems that the world and their dog have tried it, and many have been ‘blown away’ by the results.

For people interested in the real truth behind urban myths, this is the opportunity of a lifetime: an urban myth, or a music conspiracy theory if you like, that anyone can try out for themselves.

How does it work?

All you need is a copy of the original 1939 film and a CD of the album. Start the CD player and immediately hit pause. Start the movie, turning the sound down and wait for the MGM lion. Immediately after the final roar, take the pause off the CD. Sit back, watch and listen.

 What do you see?

Among the many coincidences claimed on the websites, the following are considered to be really startling:

During the first track ‘Breathe’ Dorothy teeters along a fence as the band sing “balanced on the biggest wave”

The Wicked Witch, in human form, first appears on her bike as the cacophony of alarm bells ring out at the start of the track ‘Time’.

During the track ‘Time’, Dorothy breaks into a trot to the line “no one told you when to run”

When Dorothy leaves the fortune teller to go back to her farm, the band are singing “home, home again”

Glinda, the Good Witch of the North appears during the song ‘Money’ as the band sing “don’t give me that do goody good bullsh*t”

A few minutes later, the good witch confronts the wicked witch as the band sings “and who knows which is which?” (witch is witch)

The song ‘Brain Damage’ starts just as the Scarecrow launches into his song “If I only had a brain”.

As Floyd sings “the lunatic is on the grass” the scarecrow begins his dance routine near a green lawn.

The line “got to keep the loonies on the path” comes just before Dorothy and the Scarecrow start skipping down the Yellow Brick Road.

'Got to keep the Loonies on the Path'. Dorothy & Co on the Yellow Brick Road

And there are many, many more. However, it is not only lyrical coincidences… Apparently, songs end when scenes switch and even the Munchkin’s dance appears to be perfectly choreographed to the song ‘Us and Them’.

However, the most startling synchronisation is when Claire Torry’s powerful vocal solo in ‘The great gig in the sky’ rises and falls in perfect time to the tornado scene.

And that’s not all! The films transition from black and white to colour, when Dorothy opens the door to the magical kingdom of Oz, is heralded by the sound of cash registers at the start of the track ‘Money’. Real fanatics are also quick to point out that side one of the vinyl version of the album is the exact length of the black and white portion of the film. And, of course, there is the famous cover…..a single beam of white light on a black background entering a prism, only to emerge on the other side as a rainbow, which many interpret as a symbolic representation of the black and white to colour transition of the film, not to mention Judy Garland’s classic song ‘Somewhere over the rainbow’.

The clincher for most people comes right at the end of the album as it tails out to the sound of a beating heart. At the same instant Dorothy presses her head against the Tin Man’s chest listening for a heartbeat!

Spooky coincidence? Some say ‘No, not a coincidence. It was planned’.

Dark designs

So, has someone unwittingly stumbled onto the secret meaning behind the most enigmatic album of the 20^th century? Fans certainly think so. But what does the band have to say on the matter?

The late Keyboardist Richard Wright, when interviewed on US radio, denied all knowledge of it, saying that if it was intentional he had not been party to it.

In a 2004 article in ‘Guitarist’ magazine, Dave Gilmore, legendary lead guitarist with the band, only had one word to say on the subject. Unfortunately that word is not repeatable here!

Such denials, however, are met with disbelief by the Oz-Floyd theorists, who cite the sheer number of ‘coincidences’ between film and album as concrete proof that the latter was modeled on the former.

Dark genius of synch? Roger Waters

In particular, one fan, Boston Deejay George Taylor Morris, is convinced that ex Floyd frontman Roger Waters planned the whole thing in secret without telling the rest of the band. “It’s too close. Look at the song titles. Look at the cover. There’s something going on there”.

Difficulties

As theories go, this is an interesting one, but for it to be correct presents too many problems. Firstly, there is the issue of timing.

To make music match up perfectly with film requires careful timing of scenes. Back in 1973 when the album was being recorded, the only way to do this would have been to screen the film itself and play the music alongside it to ensure a perfect match. This would have entailed obtaining the original movie and a projector, and to have it in the studio during the making of the album. So the theory of keeping all of this from your fellow band members is really stretching things a little.

Of course, it might have been slightly more feasible if Roger Waters had written all the music, as he could have seen screenings in private and made a list of timings, but unfortunately the album was very much a band effort. There is no way that Roger could have subtly influenced his band mates to write songs to specific lengths, suggest lyrics and tie-in sound effects, especially if he wasn’t letting them in on the secret.

Anyhow, let’s assume that Roger successfully kept his master-plan secret and managed to get over the hurdles of timing, synching the music to the image and ensuring that the final cut of the album matched the film perfectly. Are there still problems? Yes!

Way back in 1973 there were only three album formats available: Vinyl LP, Compact Cassette and 8-Track tape cartridges. The first two, as we pre-CD generation people will remember, have to be turned over in order to play the second side. A very important fact considering most of the ‘amazing synchronisations’ occur on music that was originally on side 2 of the album. This would necessitate stopping the LP, turning the record over, re cueing the needle and being able to ‘hit’ the first sound on the first track in EXACTLY 2 seconds (which is the time delay between tracks on a CD version) in order for the synchronisations to flow in the way that the Oz-Floyd theorists say they do. No mean feat!

Cassette tape also has it’s problems, as now you not only have to turn the tape over, you have to contend with the pesky leader tape, which has a run in time of about 4 seconds. 8-track, however, is a little different. These tapes play continuously in an infinite loop, so it is possible that, in this format, the synchronisations would be easier to achieve. But again, it would necessitate taking your bulky 8 track tape deck, amplifier and speakers to your local cinema to get the effect. And you’d have to ask the projectionist to run the film without sound. Hardly worth the effort really. Which leads us back again to the biggest problem…timing.

Framing the picture

Not a lot of people know this, but there is a time difference between the length of a cinema movie and its Video or DVD version. This is caused by the fact that cinema movies are projected at 24 frames per second. That is, 24 full images are projected off the film onto the screen every second.  All well and good, but a problem arises when a movie is transferred to video or DVD.

Because of the speed at which (UK) TV screens cycle (50 times per second), TV’s consequently show 25 full images per second. In short, if you played a movie on the TV without doing anything to it beforehand, you end up with a gap that lasts 1/25^th of a second, every second. This would produce an irritating flicker that would be very annoying to watch.

The way round this problem is to speed up the original film a little so that 25 images are displayed every second. The result: smooth flowing images, no annoying flicker…..and a reduction in the film’s length by 4%.

So, if Roger Waters had managed to get the music in perfect synch with the original movie, the minute the movie is transferred to Video and DVD means that the music would no longer synch up. This makes the claim of the ‘intentional synchronisations’ theorists all the more silly. I’m sure there are a few die hard people out there that will say Roger Waters is such a genius that he anticipated the arrival of the new technology (home Video Cassette Recorders and Compact Discs were not around in 1973) and made adjustments accordingly, but I think that this is really pushing the belief boat way out past the point of no return.

Conclusion

So, is ‘The Wizard of Oz’ the secret inspiration behind one of the greatest albums of all time? I really don’t think so. But the weird way that the music does seem to synch up to the movie is intriguing. However, under closer scrutiny, most of the cited links are, at best, tenuous. One synch however, the tornado scene with ‘the great gig in the sky’ as soundtrack, is uncanny.

Is it all just a weird coincidence then? Almost certainly! The laws of chance do allow for this sort of thing to happen.

So, does this tell us anything about the nature of the cosmos? Not really, but it does tell us that there are a lot of people out there with far too much time on their hands.

Try it for yourself!

How to synch up the album and the movie

1.         Obtain a copy of the original 1939 MGM version of the film.
Beware of  picking up the more recent restored version of the movie that contains  slightly different scene lengths.

2.         Obtain a CD copy of the album.

3.         Load the CD, then start the CD player and immediately press pause.

4.         Start the movie, turning the sound down a little.

5.         Wait for the MGM Lion.

6.         Immediately after the final roar, take the pause off the CD.

7.         Turn down the movie sound completely.

8.         Sit back, relax and watch out for the  spookiness!

Or alternatively, check out the fan made pre-synched versions of the movie that are available on YouTube.

Good Hunting!

The Ghost of Seat A5

Haunted Seat BB-27, North Pier Theatre, Blackpool, UK

The United Kingdom has an amazing theatrical heritage. In every major town and city you will find at least one impressive Victorian or Edwardian theatre nestled in its very heart. Over the years, their stages have played host to the world’s finest performers delivering unforgetable performances, which have charged the auditoriums with vast amounts of emotional energy. It is therefore no real surprise that most, if not all, the theatres that grace our small island are said to be haunted.

In my years as a lighting and sound engineer, I was fortunate enough to work in many of these amazing venues up and down the country. Without fail, every theatre I visited laid claim to its own resident ghost, or ghosts, that were seemingly doomed to spend eternity wandering around the aisles or lurking in the shadows backstage.

Whenever I visited a theatre for the first time, I always made time to speak to the resident staff; from usherettes to actors and stage technicians alike, to ask them about their own spooky encounters.

After a while, most of the stories relayed to me began to sound similar, with details so identical that it made me wonder if the tales were nothing more than urban myths that had been passed on from theatre to theatre. Indeed, if you visit only a dozen or so venues, you will come across at least one of these four familiar ghostly scenarios:

The Stagehand – who met with a fatal, and often gruesome, accident whose presence can still be seen and heard backstage, apparently still going about their earthly duties.

The Grey Lady – who is seen wandering around the stalls in an agitated state looking for someone or something.

The Edwardian Gentleman – who can sometimes be seen – but more often than not only heard – walking down the aisles, strolling with cane in hand, sometimes accompanied by a small crying child.

The ‘Haunted’ Seat – which appears to be the focus of the theatre’s paranormal activity, with accounts of staff and theatre goers alike, feeling cold and uneasy whilst sitting in them.

So what is really going on here? Is it possible that every theatre has copycat ghosts with no imagination or a limited haunting repertoire, or are they merely well travelled stories that take on a life of their own through a combination of overactive imaginations and fearful anticipation?

In some theatres the only ‘evidence’ in support of the activity is anecdotal, ie people relating their own experiences, which is sadly lacking in hard tangible proof to support their claims. However, there are a few theatres around the country where there appears to be some historical corroboration.

Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool, UK - Home of Haunted Seat A-5

One such venue, the Playhouse Theatre in Liverpool, (where all four of the above ghosts or effects are said to be resident), is one of them – and there is good historical evidence in support of some of the activity claimed to be experienced there.

In 1897, a stagehand called Elizabeth met with a horrible end whilst sweeping up on stage. The fire safety curtain (known as the ‘Iron’ in theatrical speak, due to the fact that they are constructed out of metal sheeting) came down unexpectedly and struck Elizabeth on the head, breaking her neck and knocking her into the orchestra pit where she died instantly.

Although her death was declared an accident, the safety curtain at that time was water powered and needed someone present to operate it. This fact was never satisfactorily investigated and consequently no-one was ever brought to task for causing the ‘accident’ to occur.

Ever since that fateful day in 1897, staff and public have reported seeing the ghost of Elizabeth walking around the stage and gallery level of the theatre. One of the most dramatic sightings occurred in 1996 when actress Pauline Daniels claimed to have seen a shabbily dressed Victorian lady slumped in seat A5 (Gallery Level), a place where many theatre goers had complained of feeling bitterly cold and/or had experienced feelings of dread or unease. Could this have been yet another sighting of Elizabeth? Pauline certainly seemed to think so.

Towards the end of the nineties, sightings of Elizabeth and spooky activity around seat A5 began to decline. That was, however, until the theatre closed for a major refit in 1999.

Whilst busy on the renovations, the contractors started to experience a number of odd things. The ‘unusual’ activity started off small, consisting of water taps turning themselves on in the toilets and the green room; and workmen’s tools began to disappear from the places they were put down just moments before, only to be found much later in the unlikeliest of locations.

As major changes began to be made to the fabric of the building, the activity intensified, so much so that the workmen eventually downed tools and refused to return until something had been done about it. One workman commented that ‘hearing the odd knock here and there was one thing, but hearing unearthly whispering, wailing and cries for help was something else altogether’.

The theatre was subsequently blessed by a local priest and work resumed. Although the activity had now reduced dramatically, there was still the odd instance of tools going missing and heavy fire doors opening and closing of their own accord.

Once the work was completed, the theatre opened its doors again to the general public – and activity around seat A5 increased. At the same time, the lesser reported apparitions of an elegant upper class woman wandering around the coffee bar, and the apparition of a gentleman dressed in a frock coat and top hat walking around the stalls, also became more frequent. It appeared that the renovations had stirred up more than just the old Victorian dust.

In 2006, I was fortunate (or unfortunate, depending upon your point of view) to be assigned seat A5 whilst going to see a play. Excitedly I decided to use this opportunity to conduct my own mini covert paranormal investigation.

Upon arrival in the theatre, I dashed into the auditorium and claimed my seat. Since I had declined to tell my friends what I was doing, they were a little bemused at my keenness to go and sit down.

Throughout the first half I sat with baited breath and waited for something spooky to happen. It didn’t.

During the second half, my mind drifted from ghostly matters to watching the actors, the set and the tech, all of which were superb. In no time at all I had completely forgotten about sitting in the ‘spookiest’ part of the theatre as my full attention became focused on the play. That was, however, until I started to feel a slight vibration coming from the seat. Could this be the start of the activity, I wondered? I waited with anticipation. However, after a few seconds, I identified the source of the shaking. It turned out to be coming from a woman sat to my right in seat A4, who was shivering involuntarily and complaining of feeling bitterly cold, despite having her coat on and the theatre being exceptionally hot and stuffy. Had the ‘Ghost’ of Seat A5 migrated to the previous seat along?

The woman and her partner didn’t last the second half, leaving with around 20 minutes of the play left to run. Since I hadn’t mentioned to the people I was with about my intentions to conduct a paranormal vigil in seat A5, I declined to move into the now vacant A4, but I did place my hand over the chair and experienced a momentary chill. Whether that was down to auto suggestion or a spooky encounter is something I have often wondered about, but whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t anything as intense as the experiences that others have so often reported.

I haven’t been back to the theatre since, but I have it on good authority that the various apparitions and spooky effects are still being experienced there on a fairly regular basis.

So, at the end of the day, are the theatre ghosts merely urban myths turned to reality by apprehension, or are they genuine paranormal experiences? Until someone can prove it irrefutably either way, to paraphrase a theatre maxim, “the spooky show must go on”.

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Other alleged Haunted Theatre Seats around the World:

Seat J-47, Hibbing High School Auditorium, Minnesota
http://myparanormal.tumblr.com/post/4511616488/myparanormal-j47ghost

Seat BB-27, North Pier Theatre, Blackpool, UK – Ghost Tours available from Supernatural Events:
http://www.supernaturalevents.co.uk/

The ‘Pushing Chair’, Upminster Theatre, Essex, UK
http://www.paranormaldatabase.com/reports/theatredata.php?pageNum_paradata=3&totalRows_paradata=110

The Ghost of Bob Crowther, Tyme Theatre, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
http://wiccalife.piczo.com/?g=24856874&cr=2

Seat C-5, Orphium Theatre, Memphis, Tennessee
http://johnnorrisbrown.com/paranormal-tn/orpheum/index.htm