The First

Watching Usher reenact Gene Kelly's every move in a Singing in the Rain "tribute" got me thinking about Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon played over the Wizard of Oz - aka Dark Side of the Rainbow. While there were obviously many collaborators in the Singing redo (it is quite remarkable), I wonder how many people it took to decide to play Dark Side over the Wizard of Oz. I'm not sure of the correlation between Dark Side of the Rainbow and Usher's Singing in the Rain - but it got me thinking.

Was it one lonely stoner sitting up at night who just happen to throw on the multi-diamond selling album (45 million) that stayed on Billboard's Top 200 chart longer than any other album in history (741 weeks or 14 years) while the Wizard was just beginning? Or was it a few music/movie geeks that experiment with splicing two different types of media that happen to come across this combo? A combo that just happens to be two of the most popular, best selling pieces of art this world has ever seen.

Of course Roger Waters and company have denied any connection between the two and are said to find rumors about the connection amusing, but it has to make you think. There are so many correlations between the two when they are synced properly that a connection, even if it is coincidental, cannot be denied.

At times it is simply scary - the alarm clocks in "Time" when we first see Miss Almira Gulch riding her bike down the dirt path, "Great Gig in the Sky" beginning just as the tornado is stirring, "Brain Damage" beginning during Scarecrow's "If I Only Had Brain" and of course the cash registers of "Money" clangining the second Dorothy opens the door in Oz and the screen turns to color. There are dozens of small details to look out for as well.

Here is the entire piece in 6 parts if you have 45 minutes or so to kill.














Pretty amazing.