The three Pink Floyd songs the band will always regret
Introduce anyone to Pink Floyd for the first time, and they’d be forgiven for thinking The Dark Side of the Moon was the band’s first and last shot at glory. While undeniably one of the greatest albums of all time, rock music’s most celebrated discographies can create the illusion that any band behind a seminal record is invincible—but Pink Floyd certainly wasn’t. After years of artistic differences and internal bickering, the game was finally up by the early 1980s, leaving the legacy of the world’s biggest prog-rock band in disarray.
Indeed, at many points over their tenure, the dynamic between the band’s members was far from peachy. Whether it was financial legalities or certain solo efforts trying to leave the rest for dust, it’s fair to say that many of Pink Floyd’s recording periods were fractious and boding with a sense of competition and one-upmanship that ultimately none of the outfits would emerge the victor from.
In this sense, Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright each had very different ideas when it came to their most successful commercial heyday – notwithstanding the tensions Syd Barrett also ripped through the band during his stint in the early days. Subsequently, it’s hardly a surprise that there’s a slew of songs that they struggled to see eye to eye on, some ranging from simple artistic tastes down to very personal and bruising brawls.
Of the selection of tunes Pink Floyd seem to regret, one of the most prominent is ‘Have a Cigar’ taken from the follow-up effort to Dark Side of the Moon, 1975’s Wish You Were Here. At this point, the now blazing feud between Gilmour and Waters was only in its burgeoning stages by comparison, but it was still enough to create a chasmic artistic split when it came to the sentiment of this tune.
Waters had written ‘Have a Cigar’ as a critique on the music industry, but refusing to stand alongside his bandmate in the cause, Gilmour wouldn’t sing it, forcing folk contemporary Roy Harper to step in. According to Waters, this lost much of the tune’s intention, as he said: “[Harper] was singing a sort of parody, which I don’t like. I never liked it, I regret it. I think if I have persevered with it I would have done it better. I think if I’d have sung it, it would have been more vulnerable and less cynical than the way he did it.”
But this hadn’t been the only sticking point in the band’s career so far. Back as far as 1969 and their notorious album Ummagumma, Gilmour was desperate to prove himself and set about writing tunes that transpired into no real substance, such as ‘The Narrow Way’. Reflecting back on the fruitless song, the guitarist claimed: “It was just desperation, really, trying to think of something to do, to write by myself. I’d never written anything before, I just went into a studio and started waffling about, tacking bits and pieces together. I haven’t heard it in years. I’ve no idea what it’s like.”
However, lastly comes perhaps Pink Floyd’s most obvious point of fiery contention, in the form of Waters’ 1982 magnum opus, The Wall. From this, the eponymous track raised more than a few eyebrows – and tempers – among the rest of the band, who didn’t view it as half as much reverence as its creator. Bleeding into the process for the album as a whole, Gilmour later took a swipe by recalling: “He [Waters] gave us all a cassette of the whole thing, and I couldn’t listen to it. It was too depressing and too boring in lots of places.”
With the Pink Floyd dynasty firmly left in ruins, it’s most likely safe to assume that the original lineup won’t be getting swayed by the allure of another reunion tour anytime soon. Despite it all, and even though some of their recording efforts were pretty disastrous, the band will forever be considered pioneers of the genre – which is really just as well, as they probably wouldn’t have lasted any other way.
