You Don’t Have To Play It Backward To Hear Connection

Is it an amazing coincidence, the intentional work of a crafty and secretive genius, or are fans on some really strong herbs out there?

Whatever the answer, this supposed “The Dark Side of the Moon”/”The Wizard of Oz” linkage has Internet chat groups buzzing and fans scrambling to see if there really is a tie-in between the two disparate items. If “everything under the sun is in tune,” as Pink Floyd sings to close the album, the first 42 minutes of “The Wizard of Oz” should be perfectly synched to Floyd’s music.

To find out, start the album just when the black-and-white MGM lion finishes its third and final roar. Mute the movie. Sit back and note how the album’s music switches songs or tempos to perfectly match transitions in the movie. And check out these eerie synchronicities:

During “Breathe,” as Dorothy talks to her family’s farmhands, she walks precariously along a wooden fence to the lyric: “And balanced on the biggest wave.” As soon as she falls, the tempo downshifts.

The third track, “Time,” is a treasure trove of Oz asides:

Miss Gulch - The Wicked Witch in human form - makes her first appearance at the same moment a cacophony of alarm bells explodes on the intro to “Time.”

During “Time,” Dorothy decides to run away from home with Toto. The line? “No one told you when to run.”

But Toto does give Dorothy the incentive to flee (if you’re really into this Floyd/Oz linkage). Just as the dog escapes from the basket on Miss Gulch’s bike, hitting the ground on his run back to the farmhouse, “Time’s” line is “Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town.” Toto pops through the open window in Dorothy’s bedroom and looks to be advising her just as the line “Waiting for someone or something to show you the way” plays.

So Dorothy flees and winds up at the trailer of a fortune teller, who convinces her that someone at home needs her desperately. Dorothy decides to go back to the farm. The album is playing the first line of “Breathe (Reprise):” “Home, home again.”

“The Dark Side of the Moon” is dotted with seemingly random sound effects and recorded sound bites. But maybe they aren’t quite so random:

As Auntie Em bolts from the farmhouse hollering for Dorothy and racing for cover from the tornado, a sound bite on the record intones: “Why should I be afraid of dying? Any time is good, we’ve all got to go sometime.”

Then listen to Clare Torry’s wailing on track four, “The Great Gig in the Sky,” and note how it swells and recedes in time with the powerful tornado. Dig that appropriate song title, and how the song begins and ends in near-perfect synchronicity with the storm.

When Dorothy’s home crash-lands into Oz and she opens the door, the movie switches from sepia tone to vibrant color. At that exact moment, the “ka-ching” cash register sound effects begin “Money”: Dorothy has entered a land of riches.

“Money” seems to take a shot at Glinda, the Good Witch of the North as the bubble carrying her descends and she first appears.

The Munchkins dance in lockstep choreography to “Us and Them.” Note the graceful opening tempo as the ballerinas gently twirl.

As the Wicked Witch of the West appears in a puff of smoke and asks the Good Witch just who landed a house on her sister, “Us and Them” wonders, “Black and blue/And who knows which is which and who is who”?

“Brain Damage” starts soon before the Scarecrow launches into his big number, “If I Only Had a Brain.”

And also in that song, Waters sings, “The lunatic is on the grass” about the same time the Scarecrow begins dancing near a lawn.

Downright spooky: The album ends with the beat of a heart. Before you can say, “The Tin Man needs a heart!” look at what’s happening on the screen: Dorothy and the Scarecrow have just met the Tin Man. As Dorothy pounds the Tin Man’s hollow chest and briefly listens for a heartbeat, Pink Floyd goes “Thump-thump-thump.” Wow, man.