George Taylor Morris (May 10, 1947 – August 1, 2009) was an American
disc jockey
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...
and
radio personality
A radio personality (American English) or radio presenter (British English) is a person who has an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality who hosts a radio show is also known as a radio host, and in India and Pakistan as a rad ...
who grew up with and on the radio. Initially working on
AM radio, then switching to the
FM radio format, Morris' career evolved to where he became a "founding father of satellite radio at Sirius XM",
according to the station. After working at a number of radio stations, he received media attention in the late 1990s when he popularized the "
Dark Side of the Rainbow
Dark Side of the Rainbow – also known as Dark Side of Oz or The Wizard of Floyd – is the pairing of the 1973 Pink Floyd album ''The Dark Side of the Moon'' with the 1939 film '' The Wizard of Oz.'' This produces moments of apparent synchronici ...
" phenomenon, in which the 1973
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...
album ''
The Dark Side of the Moon'' is said to be synchronized with the images in the 1939 film ''
The Wizard of Oz
''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' or ''The Wizard of Oz'' most commonly refers to:
*'' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', a 1900 American novel by L. Frank Baum often reprinted as ''The Wizard of Oz''
** Wizard of Oz (character), from the Baum novel serie ...
''. Morris was the morning host of the
Deep Tracks classic rock
Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...
channel on
XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio (XM) was one of the three satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Holdings. It provided pay-for-service radio, analogous to subscription cable television. Its s ...
and was a host on its interview show XM Artist Confidential.
Biography
Born in
King City,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, Morris had his first job in radio at
KRKC while a high school sophomore, in 1963. He worked as a radio host in
Lake Tahoe, Nevada
Lake Tahoe (; was, Dáʔaw, meaning "the lake") is a freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States. Lying at , it straddles the state line between California and Nevada, west of Carson City. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake ...
and
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coas ...
after high school graduation. Morris moved to
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
's
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
, where he was news director at
WHLI
WHLI (1100 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Hempstead, New York, and serving Long Island. It is owned by Connoisseur Media and has an oldies radio format made up of hits from the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s.
The station's studios and o ...
and was an on-air personality at other area radio stations, including Top 40
WBLI and
WWDJ, and progressive
WLIR.
[Holley, Joe]
"George Taylor Morris, 62: Radio Host Played Classic Rock"
''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', August 3, 2009. Accessed August 10, 2009. He later worked at
WHCN Hartford and WCOZ (now
WJMN)
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
.
He worked at
The Source radio network, starting as a
news anchor
A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...
in 1979, covering major news events and eventually becoming the network's entertainment director in 1981. From 1984 to 1999 he produced and hosted ''Reelin' in the Years'', a syndicated
Album-oriented rock
Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the 1970s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock.
Album-oriente ...
show.
[ From 1999 to 2000 George worked as an internet DJ and program manager for the defunct Discjockey.com an internet radio station that was closely aligned to Broadcast.com, the forerunner to ]Yahoo
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds ma ...
radio.
While at classic rock station WZLX in Boston in 1996, Morris became aware of some uncanny similarities between Pink Floyd's album ''The Dark Side of the Moon'' and the movie ''The Wizard of Oz'', in which lyrics of the album's songs are related to events taking place on the screen when the movie and album are played at the same time. Some of the connections were said to include the song "Brain Damage
Neurotrauma, brain damage or brain injury (BI) is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain injuries occur due to a wide range of internal and external factors. In general, brain damage refers to significant, undiscriminating t ...
" appearing in time with the Scarecrow
A scarecrow is a decoy or mannequin, often in the shape of a human. Humanoid scarecrows are usually dressed in old clothes and placed in open fields to discourage birds from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops.Lesley B ...
singing "If I Only Had a Brain
"If I Only Had a Brain" (also "If I Only Had a Heart" and "If I Only Had the Nerve") is a song by Harold Arlen (music) and Yip Harburg (lyrics). The song is sung in the 1939 film '' The Wizard of Oz'' by the character Scarecrow, played by Ray Bolg ...
" and the heartbeat at the end of the song "Eclipse
An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ce ...
" coming at the same time that Dorothy
Dorothy may refer to:
*Dorothy (given name), a list of people with that name.
Arts and entertainment
Characters
*Dorothy Gale, protagonist of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' by L. Frank Baum
* Ace (''Doctor Who'') or Dorothy, a character playe ...
is listening to the Tin Man's chest. Morris played the two simultaneously and found the first few minutes "kind of interesting", but saw "an amazing series of cosmic coincidences" once Dorothy enters the house. After mentioning the synchronicity on his radio show, the phenomenon became a media sensation, reported in major newspapers, on NPR and other outlets in the United States, several other countries including Japan, and MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
.[Staff]
"The Pink Floyd/Wizard Of Oz Connection"
''MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
'', May 30, 1997. Accessed August 10, 2009.
In 2001 Morris was hired by XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio (XM) was one of the three satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Holdings. It provided pay-for-service radio, analogous to subscription cable television. Its s ...
as host of ''XM Artist Confidential'', where he interviewed artists including Tony Bennett, Amy Grant, Ludacris, Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
, Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American country musician. The critical success of the album ''Shotgun Willie'' (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of ''Red Headed Stranger'' (1975) and '' Stardust'' (197 ...
, Odetta and Pink
Pink is the color of a namesake flower that is a pale tint of red. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, politeness, ...
. Morris also served as program director and morning host of XM's classic rock channel Deep Tracks.[
Morris died at age 62 on August 1, 2009, at his home in Reston, ]Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
after struggling with throat cancer. He was survived by Gail Markens Morris, his second wife, and their son, Evan Markens Morris. His first marriage had ended in divorce.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, George Taylor
1947 births
2009 deaths
People from King City, California
American radio personalities
Deaths from cancer in Virginia
Deaths from esophageal cancer
People from Reston, Virginia