I went to college in the '90s, which means two things: 1) I lost millions when the ska-punk bubble burst in 1997; and 2) I once spent an entire weekend in a suspiciously hazy off-campus apartment, watching The Wizard of Oz while listening to Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, to see if they somehow synced up. Which they totally did, of course—and all for pre-planned reasons that had nothing to do with coincidence or apple-bong logic or the fact that pretty much anything syncs to everything else if you stretch hard enough. So, with the recent news that some fans have been connecting the tunes on Dark Side with the imagery of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, here's a reminder of a few other well-known instances in which the filmmakers obviously worked insanely hard to match up their work with the 1973 landmark album—only to keep it a secret for months, years, or even decades!
When to press play: At the 2:47 mark, right when Alex (Michael J. Fox) tugs at his tie and lectures Mallory for trying to buy scalped Bruce Springsteen tickets.
Where it matches: You'll need to loop the 22-minute episode about 6 times to fully make it work, but check out the way the opening cha-ching of Floyd's "Money" plays just as Alex walks past a grumpy loan officer (Yaphet Kotto). Also: The infamous "Sit, Ubu, sit!" vanity card overlaps with the"Time" lyrics "So you run and you run to catch up with the sun/but it's sinking"—a couplet no doubt chosen because it represents an existential crisis to which any house-bound dog can relate.
When to press play: At the 4:17 mark, exactly as the trailer for Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle begins (VHS only).
Where it matches: During William's first game with St. Joseph High School, we hear David Gilmour sing the "Us and Them" lyric "Up and down/but in the end it's only round and round," an obviously intentional effort by director Steve James to illuminate Dark Side's numerous basketball-related subtexts. Additionally, the sax solo on "Money" begins just as we see a shot of a competing school's brass band. As Roger Ebert noted in his review of the 1994 film: "The genius of Hoop Dreams lies not in its patience, its attention to detail, nor its humanity. Instead, it lies in the way it accentuates the tasteful playing and prog-free spaciness found on side two of the best album released during Richard Wright-era Floyd."
When to press play: At the 00:11 mark, right after the "Yeah, baby, that's the smell!" line.
Where it matches up: Just as we see a bottle of Rap Musk being sprayed on a group of day-glo revelers, we hear a spoken-word snippet from "The Great Gig in the Sky," courtesy of Gerry O'Driscoll, an Irish doorman at Abbey Road, the studio where Pink Floyd recorded *Dark Side. "*I never said I was frightened of dying," he says. "I am not frightened of dying. Any time will do. I don't mind. Why should I be frightened of dying? There's no reason for it; you've got to go sometime." Here is a Facebook page dedicated to O'Driscoll. It currently has 8 "Likes." It is unknown whether he lived long enough to use Rap Musk.
When to press play: At the very beginning. Then let the clip run for 39 hours before checking in on it again.
Where it matches up: The song's big finale—"All that you eat/And everyone you meet/All that you slight/And everyone you fight/All that is now/All that is gone/All that's to come/and everything under the sun is in tune/but the sun is eclipsed by the moon"—can be heard during a shot of Caruso from 1988's Twins. Don't make us connect the dots for you, sheeple.
