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For me
at least as a classic rock buff, I never actually
realized how utterly surreal and how absolutely
mind-blowing "The Wizard of Oz," celebrating its 71st
anniversary this year, is and has been since its 1939
release until I managed to stumble upon Snopes.com one
day and learn about the legendary Pink Floyd Dark Side
of the Moon phenomenon in which many music fans have
heard from a friend of a friend that they sync if you
place them on in just the right instances. For years I
didn't realize it but here in America, the cable
television network always, always played "The Great Gig
in the Sky" while playing the television ad for their
commemorative airing of "The Wizard of Oz" every year on
their station and I had always wondered what the song
was and why they played it. Years in to my life when my
uncle Freddy introduced me to classic rock and broke me
out of my hell that was modern hip hop, I bought the CD
of "Dark Side of the Moon" and lo and behold, not only
was the album one of the most amazing rock operas I'd
ever heard (which I play in full succession about once a
month), but there was "Great Gig in The Sky" one of the
most beautiful soulful cathartic experiences of all
time--and frankly my favorite tune of the whole epic
Floyd saga. And there was the song. |
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So after reading heavily about the Wizard of Oz/Dark
Side of the Moon parallels for a few hours I took that
ratty old VHS special edition my brother sister and I
watched about three hundred times when we were children
before the time of cable television and the world wide
web, and I tried it. To say it was a royal mind melting
experience is beyond any real words and would be an
understatement to say the least. I don't smoke weed, but
I imagine if I had, the event would have blew my head up
all over my room. So I sat and watched, and listened,
and it was incredible. The myth is true. Great Gig in
the Sky plays when the farm house is in the hurricane
funnel, "Money" begins playing when the film shifts to
full color, and "The Lunatic is on the Grass" plays
while the Scarecrow is dancing along the grass. Floyd
continues to deny they actually intended on this
happening and mocks fans for insisting they did it
purposely, but I guess we'll never know the truth.
Honestly I don't want to know the truth. Life should
have some mysteries to keep it interesting, don't you
think? And I love keeping the mystery of "Dark Side of
the Rainbow" as nothing but a treasure chest of the
unknown, a spark of fate and destiny that aligned the
stars one day giving lovers of rock, film, and urban
myths something to chew on for decades to come.
Here
are the steps for anyone with enough time and patience
to try it out for themselves: (1) Insert the "Wizard of
Oz" DVD into a DVD player. (2) Insert the "Dark Side of
the Moon" CD into a CD player. (3) Start the DVD and
stand-by to start the CD. (4) As soon as the "MGM Lion"
roars the SECOND time, start the CD. (5) Turn OFF the
volume on the TV set. (6) Crank up the volume on the CD
player.
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it three times and watching it all three
times in full length, I thought about it and
muttered aloud "Damn this movie is weird!" I
mean when we were kids we had only network
television and our own imaginations to fill
the days off from school when we weren't
outside playing with our friends, so often
there was a steady rotation of VHS tapes my
mom and dad played for us which could
include kids movies like "The Land Before
Time," or odd fare like "Michael Jackson's
Moonwalker" and occasionally "Grease," but
there was also "The Wizard of Oz" a 1939
landmark masterpiece of a fantasy film that
is about as far away a book adaptation as
you can get but still manages to be a film
for all ages. "The Wizard of Oz" has stuck
with me both as a movie lover and
appreciator of pop culture since I was a kid
and it's followed me around literally
everywhere. I love the film, don't get me
wrong, but... I'm not a hardcore fan of it
and I've never read the source material. I
know scant facts about the movie and the
books and I've seen about three films from
Judy Garland, but for some reason this film
has followed me everywhere from watching the
television airing of "Wicked" one afternoon
thanks to my mom, to going to see a Spanish
version of the musical at Madison Square
Garden with my family one night. |
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In
spite of what you may have heard I know zero Spanish. I
grew up in a Spanish speaking household but I made no
effort in learning, so the whole night was spent soaking
in the beautiful scenery and mocking the way Dorothy
said Toto which in her dialect and Spanish accent sounds
she was calling out for vagina the entire time. It's
also one of the few times my mom allowed us to say it in
a mocking tone, which still baffles me. Plus it made me
see Dorothy as an entirely different kind of young
woman. But that's the fun of "The Wizard of Oz," you can
look at it however you want. It's something of a
variation of "Alice in Wonderland," and it's filled with
a swell of stories and legends that many people never
stop talking about to this day. There's the munchkin
allegedly hanging himself during a filming of the movie,
the whole face paint debacle, all of which seemed to
have taken on a dual life of its own. But then that's
the norm whenever you make something that's been
embedded in to pop culture so easily, you tend to find
that it takes on a whole other life of its own. "The
Wizard of Oz" is a movie the studios are still trying to
tap money out of and will continue to try to top
Garland's own musical fantasy that many people insist is
not a faithful adaptation of the books.
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But tell that to
the thousands of movie-goers and fans who continue to
fall for this film. As I explained in the aforementioned
paragraphs, "The Wizard of Oz" was a staple of my youth.
True, we had very little to watch during our weekends
spent at home but the film was a constant time consumer,
a wonderful little adventure film that managed to tug at
my heartstrings quite often due to Dorothy's own love
for her dog Toto. That little sidekick who always knew
what to do in dangerous situations became a constant
source for tears whenever the mean old Miss Gulch and
her broom-like bicycle took away the poor little mutt as
Dorothy cried her eyes out hoping for it to return. And
return he did. It was almost like he was trained or just
had something of an emotional connection with Dorothy
whose unbiased relationship with him kept him at arm's
length. |
Part Two of "The
Long and Winding Yellow Brick Road" >>
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