Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” and its connection to “The Wizard of Oz”

This is old news and has been around for more than 20 years. It was first brought to the public’s attention by Charles Savage, who penned an article for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette on 1 Aug, 1995.
However when creating the Dark Side of the Moon album cover in LEGO, and seeing that I had just purchased the new 2019 LEGO movie minifigures — including the Wizard of Oz figures, I thought I’d do another mashup and showcase it with information about the connection.

How it works

In the movie when the MGM Lion finishes its THIRD roar you hit play on the album.

The Similarities (Highlights)

      • The album cover and the song “Somewhere over the rainbow”
      • Side 1 of the album (vinyl) is exactly as long as the black & white portion of the film.
      • 5:47 – If you are wearing headphones you will hear the sound moving from left to right and left again. Dorothy looks to the left, then follows the sound to the right, and left again.
      • 8:02 – The ticking clocks begin, and the alarm bell rings. We see Miss Gulch bicycling to the farm, suggesting “time’s up” for Toto.
      • 11:04 – Dorothy runs away from home during the line, “No one told you when to run,” in the song “Time”
      • 13:58 – David Gilmour sings “Home, home again” in the “Breathe” reprise as the fortune teller tells Dorothy to return home
      • 15:56 – The dynamic singing in “The Great Gig In The Sky” seems to work perfectly with the tornado whisking around Dorothy.
      • 17:20 – And Mellows when she is knocked out.
      • 19:30 – Dorothy opens up the door to the house to find the colourful Munchkinland — the start of the second act of the movie — as “Money,” the first song on the original LP’s second side, begins.
    • 21:11 – There’s the line “don’t give me that do goody goody bull—“ right when you see Glenda the Good Witch pop up in her little magical bubble ride.
    • 26-28 – Instrumental introduction; as the guitar solo leads in. Coroner provides a death certificate declaring the wicked witch to be “most sincerely dead.”
    • 27:36 –  “Us … Us… Us…” The ballerinas of The Lullabye League enter to welcome Dorothy to Munchkin Land.
    • 29:10 –  “Black and blue” The wicked witch, who is dressed in black arrives to the word “black.” and the camera pans back to Dorothy, who’s wearing a blue in time with the word “blue.”
    • 29:25 – Whenever The Good Witch and the Bad Witch are facing off, the lyric “…and who knows which is which” comes in.
    • 32:12 – “Down … Down… Down…” Dorothy looks down at the Yellow Brick Road. “Out … Out … Out …” Glenda disappears in her floaty ball of colored light.
    • 33.18 – The Munchkins dance. Dorothy dances her way down the Yellow Brick Road
    • 33:47 – “Any Colour You Like” Scene change.
    • 37:12 – “Brain Damage” starts at just about the same time as the Scarecrow sings “If I Only Had a Brain,” as he dances on the Yellow Brick Road while Roger Waters sings “Got to keep the loonies on the path.”
  • 41:46 – “All you create/all you destroy/all that you do/all that you say/all that you eat and everyone you meet.” Dorothy and Scarecrow oil up the rusted Tin Man, who finally can speak and “meet” Dorothy and Scarecrow.
  • 42:42 – And just as the album closes with a heartbeat, Dorothy puts her ear to the Tin Woodsman’s chest.

SECOND TIME THROUGH THE RECORD

    • 46:19 –  “Run rabbit run.” The witch throws a ball of fire at the Scarecrow to scare him; he catches fire and begins to frantically jump about; the Tin Man falls on the fire to smother it.
    • 53:08 – “Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day/you fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way/Waiting for something or someone to show you the way.” As the travelers head down the road, the wicked witch observes them through her crystal ball, announces she’ll poison a field of poppies nearby, which in turn will help her get the ruby slippers and achieve her destiny.
    • 55:33 –  “And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking/and racing around to come up behind you again/The sun is the same in the relative way, but you’re older/shorter of breath and one day closer to death.” With the Emerald City in sight, the travelers head through the field of poisoned poppies, unaware of the danger. Dorothy, Toto and Lion try to keep pace with the others but soon fall behind — then fall asleep — due to the poisoned poppies.
    • 1:10:37 – “Us … Us … Us …” Camera shows Dorothy and her traveling companions. “And Them … Them … Them… The camera pans to the flamey-looking Wizard of Oz. “And after all we’re only ordinary men.” Shows the Tin Man quaking before the Wizard. “Me … Me … Me …” Shows the Wizard. “And You … You … You … Shows the scarecrow, cowering in the Wizard’s presence.
    • 1:13:35 – The scarecrow has a gun! And the lyrics are “said the man with the gun”

THIRD TIME THROUGH THE RECORD

  • 1:39:19 – “Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.” We’re back to Dorothy’s bedroom, seeing the scene in sepia tone, as her family anxiously, desperately waits around her bedside, hoping she’ll regain consciousness.
  • 1:39:52 – “Home, home again/I like to be here when I can.” Dorothy wakes up after saying “There’s no place like home” to see her Auntie Em, Uncle Henry and the farmhands surrounding her.
Sourced the similarities from here. Many more to explore at this link.

Conclusion

“Some guy with too much time on his hands had this idea of combining Wizard of Oz with Dark Side of the Moon.” – David Gilmour

“It’s absolute nonsense. It has nothing to do with The Wizard of Oz. It was all based on ‘The Sound of Music.’” – Nick Mason

Members, past and present, of Pink Floyd deny any purposeful linking. Even the album’s engineer, Alan Parsons, denied any intentional connection.
Humans tend to see the hits more than the misses in cases like this. This is called apophenia.