Some Sync Over the Rainbow #1: Sgt. Pepper’s

So there’s a whole bunch of people who are convinced that Pink Floyd created Dark Side of the Moon so that it would sync up perfectly with The Wizard of Oz. And my thought was…why stop there? Why couldn’t other albums have been created along these same lines, and they’re just waiting for somebody to uncover the secret! Therefore, I’m going to watch The Wizard of Oz synced up with fifty albums and see what happens. Each album is synced using the normal instructions to sync with Dark Side: i.e., wait for the third roar and kick it off. I will watch the entire movie with the album on repeat and make notes on what, if anything, is brought to light.

Our first pick for this series of experiments is Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles. There are numerous reasons for this: first, it’s the #1 album of all time. Second, it’s my favorite album of all time. Third, between “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” and “Within You Without You,” I think there’s potential for…something. So I suggest you be familiar with both film and album, because I don’t really have a way of, you know, doing this legally while you watch as well.

So let’s see what happens:

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• Hitting play when the 3rd lion roars, I’m not getting a lot of sync between the opening overture-esque-ness of “Sgt. Pepper’s”
• “It’s wonderful to be here…” – syncs up perfectly with the “Young at Heart” dedication screen
• “Let me introduce to you…” – Dorothy runs on the screen
• “Lend me your ears…” – Dorothy trying to convince her aunt and uncle that Margaret Hamilton is going to eat her dog
• “Do you need anybody…” – Bert Lahr goes into the pig pen to save Dorothy, and the final “I get by” chorus coincides with Dorothy and the farmhands laughing about it.
• The first “A girl with kaleidoscope eyes” – Dorothy on screen alone, albeit with eyes in nothing like kaleidoscopic-ness. To be fair, this bit is in black and white. So.
• “look for the girl with the sun in her eyes” – Dorothy walking wistfully, staring upwards, starting to sing “Somewhere”
• As the final round of choruses begin, Dorothy looks up on the first “Lucy in the sky” and then is “answered” by the sun streaming in through the clouds on the scound “Lucy in the sky.”
• Okay, the arrival of the magnificent Margaret Hamilton is coinciding with “Getting Better.” Very dissonant.
• The only thing that even remotely syncs up is “Getting Better all the time” towards the end of the song when Toto returns home, although the fade off of the song syncs up perfectly with Dorothy and Toto walking away into the distance.
• The scene transition between that scene and the next, that introduces Professor Marvel, syncs perfectly with the beginning of “Fixing a Hole,” although apart from a wandering mind, I’m not sure what the scenes have in common yet.
• “And it really doesn’t matter if I’m wrong, I’m right…” is when Marvel is making terrible pseudo-psychic guesses about Dorothy
• “She’s Leaving Home” does start up when Marvel and Dorothy are well into the crystal ball routine, but Dorothy’s about to return home. Have I led off with the anti-Wizard of Oz sync album?
• “Our baby’s gone” – Aunt Em calling for Dorothy in front of the house
• If Dorothy had woken up in Oz on “she is far away” it would have been perfect. But she’s still looking in the house for her aunt and uncle. So.
• Although the last “She’s Leaving Home bye bye” does sync up with her unconscious as the house starts to take off. That was kinda nice.
• The carnival music at the end is too late to sync up with Dorothy first seeing Oz and the color kicking in. Shame.
• Again, if “Within You Without You” had started up just as we did the pan over Munchkinland, that would have been perfect. But it didn’t.
• “The people who hide themselves” – Dorothy is facing the foliage which we know to actually be camouflaged munchkins
• Can I just say how awesome it is that Glinda’s making her appearance with Dorothy backing away in fear and wonderment, while Toto, bored, just wanders off screen right.
• “Try to realize it’s all within yourself, no one else can makes you change” is happening at exactly the time in the movie where Glinda should have been telling Dorothy that so she could go directly home. But as we all know, Glenda brought Dorothy to Oz to put a hit out on the Wicked Witch.
• The laughter/sobbing/whatever at the end of “Within You” coincides with the onset of celebrations re: “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead.”
• “Who could ask for more?” when the coroner is explaining the Certificate of Death for the witch
• “With a sister or two” is when the Wicked Witch goes to inspect her dead sister’s remains
• God, Margaret Hamilton is just freaking fantastic.
• “You’re in the street” – Dorothy and Glinda and the munchkins are…in the street. Yeah, I know it’s reaching.
• The first loud bark at the end of “Good Morning” cuts back to Dorothy and especially Toto. Again, reaching.
• Aw, man, if the start of the “Sgt. Pepper’s” reprise had come about twenty seconds sooner, then Dorothy and the Munchkins would have been grooving to that opening riff and beat.
• “Sorry but it’s time to go” – Dorothy waving goodbye to the Munchkins.
• “And though the news was rather sad” – Dorothy learns the Scarecrow has no brain
• And we’re through the album one time. Not a lot of impressive syncs.

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