"Have a Cigar" | ||||
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Artwork for Belgian vinyl release
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Single by Pink Floyd featuring Roy Harper | ||||
from the album Wish You Were Here | ||||
B-side | "Welcome to the Machine" (US single) "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part I)" (Italian and French singles) |
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Released | 15 November 1975 | |||
Format | 7" | |||
Recorded | January–July 1975 at Abbey Road Studios, London | |||
Studio | Pink Floyd Music Publishers Ltd | |||
Genre | Progressive rock, psychedelic rock, blues rock | |||
Length | 5:08 4:24 (Edit) |
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Label |
Harvest (UK) Columbia/CBS (US) |
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Writer(s) | Roger Waters | |||
Producer(s) | Pink Floyd | |||
Pink Floyd singles chronology | ||||
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"Have a Cigar" is the third track on Pink Floyd's 1975 album Wish You Were Here. It follows "Welcome to the Machine" and on the original LP opened side two. In some markets, the song was issued as a single.
English folk singer Roy Harper provided lead vocals on the song. It was one of only two Pink Floyd recordings to feature guest lead vocals, the other being "The Great Gig in the Sky" with Clare Torry, though the latter piece featured no lyrics.
The song's music and lyrics were written by Roger Waters in critique of hypocrisy and greed within the music business. The music is more straightforwardly rock-oriented than the rest of the album, beginning with a churning riff played on electric guitar and bass. The track is filled out with additional guitar, electric piano and synthesizer parts to create a rock texture.
"Have a Cigar" concludes with a guitar solo, which is interrupted by a synthesizer filter-sweep sound effect as the music reduces in volume to tinny, AM radio-like levels. Finally, the song ends with the sound of a radio being dialled off-station; this effect is used as a transition to the title track, "Wish You Were Here".
The song's lead vocals are performed by Roy Harper. Both Waters and David Gilmour had each attempted to sing the song on separate takes, as well as on a duet version (available on the 2011 Experience and Immersion editions of Wish You Were Here), but they were unhappy with the results. Harper was recording his album HQ in Studio 2 of Abbey Road at the same time as Pink Floyd were working in Studio 3, and Roy Harper offered to sing the part as Gilmour has already provided some guitar licks for Roy ("...for a price"). The song is one of only two songs by the band which is not sung by one of their permanent members, the other being "The Great Gig in the Sky".