Quote:
Originally Posted by Azhiri
I love this thread. I don't know if I've ever said it here but Pink Floyd is my favorite band and The Wall is my favorite album; I first discovered them when I was nine, I remember hearing my great uncle playing his Dark Side of the Moon vinyl in the living room and thinking it was the most amazing music I'd ever heard. He went out and bought me the album, along with The Wall, and my first CD player so I could listen whenever I wanted. So many memories. 
Anyways, I also remember, when I was reading about the band on the internet, finding an article about the Dark Side of the Rainbow and trying it out. I always thought it was one of those rare, fantastic coincidences, but some moments make me think twice, like when The Great Gig in the Sky is perfectly coordinated to the tornado scene (on a sidenote, is it just me or does listening to the song with the movie make the music even more hard-hitting?).
The themes in The Dark Side of the Moon are dark; mental instability, time passing, etc. The themes of The Wizard of Oz are, at face value, more light-hearted and optimistic, like growing up and finding everything you really needed right in front of you, or even within yourself. One could find some more interesting underlying themes (some sexual, as in FanDeAlifee's case) in The Wizard of Oz. I once read an article somewhere that the story was meant to be an allegory to populism*, and I've heard people claim it to be about drugs, the gold standard, and mental illness. With this in mind I suppose it's in the eye of the beholder whether the match-up was intentional.
I also hadn't heard of the "Alice on The Wall" concept! I'll have to see about that sometime. Thanks for mentioning it. 
*Here is the article: http://www.amphigory.com/oz.htm |
Yes, I remember you did mention PF and/or The Wall in some thread a few months ago and I thought you could be one to possibly be interested by this topic.
The tornado scene on “The Great Gig in the Sky” is probably my favourite moment of T DSOO. There are plenty of very intense moments where the movie and the music are in perfect symbiosis:
- When Dorothy falls of the fence
- The entrance of Miss Gulch on her bicycle to the chimes of “Time”
- Dorothy’s reaction when she understands that Toto will be taken away
- Toto’s escape and return
- The tornado scene
- The entrance in the world of Oz on “Money”
(By the way, this is where you would have had to switch sides on the original vinyl!)
- The military march at the end of “Money”
- The little ballerinas on “Us and Them”
- The “Black” witch entrance on “Black, black, black...”
(“And who knows which is which” or maybe “which is witch”?)
- Dorothy starting her long journey at the beginning of the yellow brick road... to the lyrics “Out of the way, it’s a busy day”
- The whole encounter with the Scarecrow
(“Brain Damage” playing while he sings “If I Only Had a Brain”)
- The heartbeats as Dorothy listens to the Tin Man chest
As for TWOO itself (the work of L.F. Baum), I have also read about many of its possible meanings, but myself, I have mainly analysed the meaning of the TWOO movie in the context of mass manipulation and “mind control”; the connections there are more than convincing. I will get into that later on if people are interested.
Edit:
Quote:
Originally Posted by lefty12357
...
Looking into it further, the drummor of Pink Floyd, Nick Mason, has said that the album had nothing to do with TWOZ. The engineer on the project, Alan Parsons, said no one in the band ever mentioned TWOZ during the recording, and the rooms they worked in at Abby Road Studios lacked the facilities to watch or synch anything to film. Furthermore, the songs on the album were recorded out of order and during 2 separate sessions. Therefore, I have to conclude that this is all a very interesting coincidence.
...
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Well, I have studied this particular phenomenon for years and I must say that I am not convinced the least by what the people officially involved have said about it. Most telling, I think that Alan Parsons’ (audio engineer) best argument is basically a “straw man” argument (pun intended – ref: Scarecrow in TWOO
) when he refers to the impossibility of playing the movie at Abbey Road Studios. I, for one, do not claim that PF smoked a giant joint and started recording at Abbey Road Studios in one single session while watching TWOO. I believe there is a simpler way to accomplish such “synchronizations”. All one needs to do is watch the movie with a stopwatch and record the time at which key transitions moments are appearing. You then match the music to the key moments while at the studio. You can even use all kinds of sound bits and effects to help with the matching; it is easier to add or remove sound effects (rather then temper with the songs themselves) to adjust the timing to perfection. You can write new songs and you can even use songs that have been already written and modify the texture and feel so it fits the concept... Maybe it isn’t as simple as I describe, but to actually imply it would have been impossible because one could not play the movie at Abbey Road Studios or one did not have means to basically create a movie soundtrack in 1973 is just unconvincing to me.
Here are other reasons why I think it is likely that it was intentional:
- The matching works on many levels: emotions, rhythm, action, themes, songs titles... “The Great Gig In the Sky” during the tornado, “Brain Damage” while the Scarecrow sings “If I Only Had a Brain”.
- TDSOTM jacket (see the OP)
- The fact that other music by PF does match other movies to perfection. Beside what has been presented so far, “Echoes” (from the album Meddle) matches the last chapter of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey to such perfection that it would be hard to believe it was not done on purpose. And here, it is noteworthy that Roger Waters and Kubrick did have a few tumultuous collaborative issues through the years.
- For the most part, TDSOTM (just like The Wall) is a continuous “soundtrack” where a song ends where the next one starts. This is a quite an uncommon way to present popular music and it could indicate intent to make the content match some other content.
- Alan Parsons has built his career based on occult symbolism.
Here is 2001 with Echoes:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2d6_1303698770
And there are more “synchronicities”...
How about Eraserhead matched to The Wall?
<Content could be disturbing to some people>
Edit: Part 2 seems to now be missing.
(In this case the whole album is played, so, contrary to AIW, “Comfortably Numb” does appear.)
David Lynch, the director of Eraserhead, is known to be fond of Alice in Wonderland. So, The Wall matches with AIW and with Eraserhead, a movie from a director who happens to like reusing AIW symbolisms... And both these movies were released before the album. This is quite disturbing in itself.
Furthermore, you have mentioned in another thread that you like the Robert Zemeckis movie “Contact” (based on Carl Sagan’s book). What about a scene from “Contact” also matching with “Echoes” to perfection:
Ohhh no! I just realized that it has been removed from YouTube:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...&aqi=&aql=&oq=
This is sad because it was one of the best syncs I have seen.
Oh, well...
There also seems to be a thread going through all these “syncs”. In all cases, a protagonist seems to venture to unknown territories: alternate reality, dream-like worlds, the world of Oz, Wonderland, space exploration, alien encounters, the origin of the Human race, after death experience...
Edit:
Quote:
Originally Posted by pepelepew
Pink Floyd is one of my all time favorite bands. It is amazing all of the sinchronizing, but I have never heard any credible statements from anyone in production or members of Pink Floyd make any references to AIW or TWOOZ. I personnally would like to delve into this subject and if you have any more evidence than what you have presented Corsaire, I would like to see it. Very interesting subject.  |
pepe, if you are referring to what the vast majority of people would deem is “credible”, then only a confession from PF or someone else involved in the making of those albums, will do the trick. Myself, I laugh at “official” versions of events. I have lived through so many situations in my life that have been reported “officially” (some of them in the national media in Canada) and to say the “official” version is often a travesty of the reality is a euphemism. Given the right incentive, everyone can hide part of the truth ... doctors, politicians, artists, spouses, grandmas... Why would it be so strange that people involved with the making of those albums prefer not to divulge this information?
Myself, I try to analyse a phenomenon for what it is. I do not rely on “official” people to give me “official” versions of events.
@Chuck (... are you still reading this...)
Have you even attempted to watch just the first movie. 43 min long... That is not much time wasted. Better, just watch the first 20 some minutes of TDSOO (up to the point where Dorothy enters the world of Oz) and see how it feels.