The secret weapon Pink Floyd used to throw a punch at the music industry
Following the sensation of The Dark Side of the Moon in 1973, Pink Floyd had become more successful than they had ever dreamed possible. The gravy train was running in fine fluid motion, and the coins were piling up to the tune of the album’s hit single, ‘Money’. Unlike superstar footballers, financial success doesn’t often sit comfortably on the shoulders of musical artists. Pink Floyd were no exception to this rule, with their discomfort fortified by a growing disillusionment with the record industry.
An established cog in the machine, Pink Floyd began recording their Dark Side of the Moon follow-up in January 1975 after a heavy touring schedule over the previous year. The new album would effectively put a middle finger up to the music industry in true Roger Waters style.
The bookending epic, ‘Shine on you Crazy Diamond’, came as a nine-phase ode to the band’s wayward founder, Syd Barrett, and his tragic mental decline over the late 1960s. Perhaps portraying Barrett’s story as yet another failing of the music industry, ‘Welcome to the Machine’ and ‘Have a Cigar’ hit home the band’s growing disillusionment. The former was a swirling, oppressively sci-fi-laden soundscape warning of the deceitful, money-grabbing industry.
In ‘Have a Cigar’, the narrative continues with a funky beat to frame the cheeky sardonic lyrics. In a perfect parody of the record company executive, the lyrics contain cliché remarks that give aspiring artists blind faith: “You’re gonna go far”, “I’ll tell you the name of the game”, and “You’re going to make it”. Elsewhere, the cracks start to show as the executive asks, “By the way, which one’s Pink?” This was a question the band faced on several occasions from those who ostensibly didn’t care enough to learn their names.
The album artwork carries this poignant theme into the visual realm, with a poor man on the cover bursting into flames as he shakes hands with another. Seemingly, the man being burned at the deal is an artist and the other a devilish executive. On the reverse side, the artwork shows a faceless salesman trying to flog Pink Floyd albums.
Uncharacteristically, Pink Floyd relied on external forces to get ‘Have a Cigar’ right. Despite initial intentions, British folk legend Roy Harper was brought in to provide vocals on the final recording of the track that appeared on Wish You Were Here.
Waters had apparently worn out his voice recording ‘Shine on You Crazy Diamond’, and David Gilmour wasn’t comfortable with his vocals for this particular track. Fortunately, their friend Harper was recording his own album just down the hallway at Abbey Road Studios.
“Roger had a go at singing it and one or two people were unkind about his singing,” Gilmour recalled in a 2011 conversation with Mojo. “One or two people then asked me to have a go at it. I did, but I wasn’t comfortable. I had nothing against the lyrics. Maybe the range and intensity wasn’t right for my voice. I can distinctly remember Roy leaning on the wall outside Abbey Road, while we were nattering away and [growling] ‘Go on, lemme have a go, lemme have a go.’ We all went, ‘Shut up Roy.’ But eventually, we said, ‘Go on then, Roy, have your bloody go.’ Most of us enjoyed his version, though I don’t think Roger ever liked it.”
Discussing his involvement in the classic 1975 hit in a 2020 conversation with Consequence, Harper revealed that he had to take an evening to prepare for his attempt at the vocals.
“It’s actually been a while since I’ve heard the song,” he pondered. “I should have actually listened to it last night to familiarise myself with it again [laughs]. I was recording my album, [HQ], in Studio 2 at Abbey Road. They were in Studio 3. They were having trouble with this song, and I was in and out of the studio. We were all friends. It was obvious they couldn’t sing this song because they were both vocally wrecked. They were talking about abandoning it, throwing it away, or coming back another day.”
Adding: “But they couldn’t quite admit yet that they were going to have to abandon it. And I said from the back of the room, and it was straight from brain to tongue really, and I don’t operate in any other way … I said, ‘I’ll do it, for a price’. And Roger said, ‘What’s the price?’ [impersonating Waters and laughs]. And I said, ‘A season ticket to the Lords [cricket ground] for life’.”
“But it wasn’t going to cost very much,” he asserted. “At that stage, it was going to cost about 50 quid or 100 quid a year. At that stage of my life, I wasn’t going to live for another 20 years anyway. So, the total cost of it to him [Waters and the band] would have been a couple thousand I think.”
“I was actually undervaluing myself,” he added. “I could have gone for 1000 quid or 2000 quid, but that would have been crass. That’s a move of someone who’s crass. I wanted a badge or something that I could wear for the rest of my life. A figurative badge on my lapel or my left breast, like being awarded a metaphorical medal or something. A memento. Another figurative badge on my career. But one that I could use whenever there was a game on.”
“Obviously, it was based on what they had done already,” Harper recalled of his first attempt. “I couldn’t do it there and then. I had to go and listen to the song at home for a night. I came back the following day and didn’t quite nail it because I just wasn’t quite ready. But then, on the following day — two days later — I did nail it. And they had a song. So that was it.”
Harper has led a highly revered career among peers – Led Zeppelin even wrote ‘Hats off to (Roy) Harper’ to honour him in 1970 – but he never quite broke into mainstream success on the level of his Abbey Studio neighbours. The Led Zeppelin nod and his vocal contribution to a Pink Floyd classic ensure that his good name transcends time.
‘Have a Cigar’ was covered by Queen guitarist Brian May and members of Foo Fighters in 2000 for the Mission: Impossible 2 soundtrack. Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl revealed at the time that they chose the song because “It’s the most punk rock thing Pink Floyd ever did.” Late drummer Taylor Hawkins took the lead vocals on the final recording while Grohl played the drums because the latter kept forgetting the lyrics during the session.
Listen to both versions of ‘Have a Cigar’ below.
