Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon, The Wizard Of Oz and other rock mysteries

4 June 2023, 12:00 | Updated: 15 March 2024, 14:40

Does the Wizard Of Oz perfectly sync up with Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon? Here are some of the great musical imponderables that we'll probably never know the answer to...

By Radio X

@RadioX

1. Does Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon REALLY sync with The Wizard Of Oz?

   

   According to stoned hippie legend, if you start playing the classic 1973 album as the MGM lion roars at the beginning of the equally classic 1939 film, certain scenes are reflected in the lyrics. For instance, when the band sing the line in Money: "I'm in the hi-fidelity first class travelling set", the good witch arrives in her bubble! It's true! Try it tonight!

   

   Dark Side of the Rainbow (HD) - Time + Great Gig in the Sky

2. Does Jack White really sing on Danger! High Voltage?

   

   Electric Six - "Danger! High Voltage" (Hi Res)

   Does Jack White sing backing vocals on this classic 2003 song? Singer Dick Valentine admitted in a 2010 interview that it was a mechanic named "John S. O'Leary" rather than the White Stripes man. However, drummer "M" also gone on record as saying: "My attorney has advised us to neither confirm nor deny the presence of Jack White."

3. What is the guy saying in Radiohead's Just video?

   

   Radiohead - Just

   The video for this 1995 single features a man lying on the pavement. People gather around him, thinking he's ill or injured. Finally he says: "I'll tell you why I'm lying here... but God forgive me... and God help us all... because you don't know what you ask of me." We don't hear (or see via subtitles) what he says, but the onlookers all lie down on the pavement too. What does he say? Is it the winning lottery numbers? Is it Thom Yorke's PIN number? Who can tell.

4. What's the deal with The Hives and "Randy Fitzsimmons"?

   

   Who is Randy Fitzsimmons? He is supposedly the manager and main songwriter of The Hives and brought the band together back at the turn of the Millennium in a fiendish scheme to bring no-nonsense garage rock to the masses. But is he a pseudonym for a member of the group? Is he an alter ego of singer "Howlin'" Pelle Almqvist? Or is he a genuine rock puppetmaster, content to hide in the shadows?

5. Did Keith Richards really get a blood transfusion to kick heroin?

   

   One of the many fabulous legends about Keith Richards is that at the height of his drug-fuelled crazy years in the 1970s, he travelled to Switzerland and had a blood transfusion to clean himself up. Keef later denied the tale, claiming it was just a story he threw at journalists when he was tired of being questioned about his addictions. OR WAS IT?

6. Did Ozzy Osbourne really bite the head off a bat while playing a show?

   

   One of the long-running myths about madman Ozzy Osbourne was that he was supposed to have bitten the head off a live bat during a show in the US. Well, horribly, this one is true. But he didn’t realise it until it was too late. During a show in Iowa in January 1982, Ozzy thought that the grisly item was a rubber toy and did the deed. He was later given a rabies injection, just in case.

7. Were Jack and Meg White brother and sister... or man and wife?

   

   This one was the source of much conjecture when the duo first broke into the mainstream. One of the band’s gimmicks (aside from their red-black-white stage outfits) was that they portrayed themselves as siblings. However, Jack Gillis married Meg White in September 1996 and ended up taking her name to become the Jack White we know and love today. They divorced in 2000.