First listen to Pink Floyd - Have a Cigar (REACTION) 

Way back in 1978 I was in 11th grade . At high school we were allowed to smoke outside at lunch. Somehow I convinced the school to bring in my stereo system including large speakers (I still have the Technics turntable btw and it works) and blast music outside at lunch. I recall blasting this song and Wish You Were Here. When the song transitioned (the radio dial) my friend looked at me like "dude somethings wrong with your speakers." Lol. What memories.

Wish you were here is one of my favorite albums of all time, and have a cigar is a favorite... enjoy!

Thank you for being the first person to comment on the Pink line, my favorite line in this song. Enjoy

Roy Harper is a prolific progressive folk rock guitarist and singer from the UK who seemed to have a fair amount of influence among other musicians, including Led Zeppelin. Back in the '90's, when I lived in Madison, WI, I saw him perform in a small cafe a few blocks from my house. Though he was alone on stage, he "dueted" with tape loops of his guitar that he recorded on the spot using a foot pedal--the first time I'd ever seen that done--and it made him sound like a whole band or orchestra. Hearing "Have a Cigar" again brought that memory back... Zeppelin's song "Hats Off To Roy Harper" is in honor of him.

‘Which one’s Pink?’ Cynicism seems to be a trait of a lot of Floyd’s Music - most of it justified probably!

Fricking...frick😂 a remarkable riff , iconic song great reaction and analysis

The guitar solo starting at 4:25 is one of the tastiest outros in prog...

As I said in my previous comment the industry was always looking for the next big "monster" album so they could rake in the cash. When they give a band an advance, usually part of their contract and it has to be paid back, it's an investment. The band pays to record the music which the company then owns and the band is expect to tour relentlessly until it's time to make another album. It's an INDUSTRY, even more so these days when any Disney star can be made into a 'singer' using auto-tuning.

FYI: Led Zeppelin III has a song titled "Hats Off To (Roy) Harper".

The lead singer of Franz Ferdinand said in an interview that they used to show up to gigs and there would be two dressing rooms: one for Franz Ferdinand; the other for the band.

...and i love drums too. And also the drummer. Nick Mason 😍😎

PF is just SOOOOOOOO Damn Good !! Damn what Talent !

I'm loving your reactions and analysis of this album. Great job, as always.

I know Roger's cynicism was directed at the music industry, but as years go by you realize that it applies equally to people with power or money who want to use whatever assets you bring to the game, What field you're in is irrelevant. At some level, it's the same everywhere.

:) Great reaction, Daniel! I especially liked the very descriptive image of the businessman/record exec with a cigar & his feet on the desk! :) Thank you, Daniel. :)

Great review. And I also noticed that correlation between this song and "Money".and their placement in their respective albums.

Roy Harper on Vocals for this one... He was hanging out in their studio and nailed it... they used it over Roger and Daves vocals. Roger would later say he didn't really like Roy's more cynical vocal interpretation of the song. Check it out ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0fyBfQ6XXT8.html

Pink Floyd. Wish you were Here. The lyrics, the melodies, the vocals, the instrumentation. This album ticked every box alright! A masterpiece which followed another masterpiece, Dark Side of the Moon.

Watching this makes me feel 40 years younger.

Great stuff. Roy Harper is well worth a listen in his own right.

I love playing the guitar solo in this song.It absolutely kills.

The music composition. Is on point. That guitar. Roy Harper's vocals just magical. So smooth. Tells the story so perfectly. 🎶🎶😎🎸

Will be a miracle if anyone else can confirm this reference to this song. In 1995, a race horse by the name of Cigar was underperforming while racing on grass courses (which his breeding suggested he should prefer) so his owners decided to try him on dirt. In the Daily Racing Form that day, the handicapper quoted this song and said if Cigar doesn't race well today on dirt, the owners may just have to give up on this extremely well bred thoroughbred. Cigar won that day and went on to win his next 15 starts, all on dirt, becoming one of the all time great thoroughbreds.

Awesome, you doing pink floyd. You should keep going, down the rabbit hole. Pink floyd has tons of amazing songs. Oh btw your page going to flooded with request now. Get ready. Million's of us devoted PF fans out there.

"Have a Cigar" is another song on my permanent play list. Fun reaction, Daniel! Glad you caught the "... which one's Pink?" lyric. I think I caught those words the first time I heard the song and made it perfectly clear that these execs had no personal knowledge of the band, nor any desire to learn more. PF was just an object to make money with.

So happy to hear that you picked up on the similarity of the tracks Money and Have a Cigar. A mid-reverie reset button. "when I snap my fingers, you will become fully awake..." Now let us proceed in this new direction.

Wish I could have taken this musical journey like you are, Daniel. Many of us, volume up, stuck in traffic, with plastic wrap from the just opened cassette in the passenger seat.

Every generation has musicians that are transcendent and innovative. They bring a change to a genre of music With excellent catchy groove with superior artist play their instruments to perfection.....with The White Average Band as their ancestors or god.....Down To The Bone...change the face of Jazz and makes Groove and Funky......oozing with toe tapping "Groove." Take a Listen their song "Zodiac."

One of my all time favorite songs!!!!!

This song applies to so many people out there who are not in the music industry that anyone can relate to it.

David Gilmour appeared on several tracks on Roy Harper's 1980 album The Unknown Soldier, well worth checking some out. The Game (part II) also features Kate Bush on vocals as well as Mr Gilmour on guitar.

This happens to be my favorite album my parents listen to it when I was a little kid I’m still listening to it today

if you didn't know The name is derived from the given names of two blues musicians whose Piedmont blues records Barrett had in his collection, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council well I posted this before you read it

Roy Harper on vocals: an artist in hiw own right, admired by and who collaborated with Led Zeppelin, Ian Anderson, Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel....

That person who interprets the lyrics as "whining and self pity" doesn't know what they're talking about. Just because PF had made it big doesn't make their experiences with executives and their critique of the industry any less true. It's like saying a rich, successful artist can't sing a song based on their poor or rough childhood. And if they think "if record executives were as superficial as Floyd suggests, they would not allow themselves to be spoofed," they are missing the point. It's because they're so superficial that they wouldn't care what the song said as long as the song made money.

Fame and fortune were EXACTLY what Roger Waters wanted all along as he actively courted just the kind of attention from record execs that is portrayed here. (And which Syd Barrett actually did reject before Waters dumped him from the group.) Playing the role of the tortured artist who shuns such things while extravagantly indulging in them is just one of the ways in which the otherwise talented Waters is so utterly, pretentiously full of it.

I love the way the music on this track has been crafted to sound like a steam train aka 'gravy train' motoring on. Quite clever by the Floyd.

Dicon Reactions come in here have a cigar your going to go far you do the work I'll ride the gravy train .

While listening to your reactions , i start to realize how many great LPs i have

Your picture of the Executive was so spot on it made me feel like you had been there when they came up with the concept! Great reaction, as usual, Daniel!

The namPink Floyd was the names of 2 blues performers they liked -- Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.

Just an FYI, Led Zeppelin gives Roy a "shout out" on their III album. "Hat's Off To Roy Harper"

"It's a trap!" Love that. Also Gravy Train is the name of a brand of dog food which I just thought I'd mention that has nothing to do with anything.🐶

Haha.... yeah you missed that line “Which one’s Pink?” on the play, but good reaction on the reading of the lyrics 😺

PINK FLOYD, "HAVE A CIGAR"... THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS ALBUM WAS NOT THE LYRICS WHICH CAME TO ME LATER. BUT THE MUSIC...IT'S WHAT TIES IT ALL TOGETHER. PROBABLY LOOKED AT ALL THE MUSIC FROM THIS POINT OF VIEW..AS IN THE 60'S AND 70'S RADIO, AND LP'S, TAPES, CONCERTS WERE WHAT WE FOCUSED ON DAILY...VIDEOS CAME IN THE 80'S , AND 90'S... AND THEIR POPULARITY FADED TO TODAY'S REACTIONS LOOKING BACK AT THE MAGICAL MUSIC SIGHTS AND SOUNDS...

there´s two songs in the floyd catalogue that weren´t sung by themselves. "the great gig in the sky" sung by clare torry and this one, "have a cigar", sung by roy harper.

A lot of musicians from that era had at least one song showing their discontent and anger at the commercialism of the industry. This is one of the greatest. Speaking of anti-industry songs, I'd like to hear you react to Guns and Roses "Welcome to the Jungle."

One of my neighbors has a bumper sticker on his car. It says simply "Oh, by the way, which one is Pink?" I always smile when I see his car parked. And I wonder how many people know what that bumper sticker means. This is one of the songs that always fascinated me, because it so brilliantly evokes a visual of the greedy, ignorant, money making music industry executives. They don't care what a song says, or who the musicians are, as long as they know it's a massive money making package. Nothing has changed from the ways of the 70s. In fact, the music industry is a growing monster, a money making monster only interested in more money, not real art. Good for you for listening and researching these great master pieces.

Remember, ANY band you can name, no matter how big they got, ALL started off at the bottom!

Hey, late to this, but to add, the phrase 'I mean that most sincerely' was a catchphrase of the host of a popular UK talent show of the time: Hughie Green on Opportunity Knocks

Reminds me of film producer Michael Moore, who has made millions of dollars making anti-Capitalism documentaries.

Always took the "Which ones Pink", line to have a kinda subtext that fits the tone of the music. The exec is already calculating which ones got most money earning potential should they break up. And would it be profitable to do expedite that. In the sense of, "which one have I got to butter up (to paraphrase Frank Zappa, keep it greasy so it'll go down easy) manipulate and shaft (and here comes that screaming sound again) in order to gain control (sic.).

Having heard Roy Harper sing for Pink Floyd, you have to check out his own work. Strongly recommend ‘Same old Rock’ from his 1971 Stormcock album which is brilliant in its entirety but that song in particular is amazing ( and also includes an acoustic solo by Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin.)

We must not forget that at that time, (mid-70s), it was the era of disco, with its short songs. Record companies were looking for songs that conformed to the broadcast format, between 3 and 5 minutes maximum per song. So, a format that doesn't really fit with the long musical pieces of Pink Floyd. Broadcasting being the best way to promote music, long Pink Floyd songs were hardly ever aired, which hurt sales according to record labels.

Our stoner music at Ole Miss in the late 70s.

This is my favourite Pink Floyd album. Or is it Animals? Or is it The Wall? Or is it DSOTM? I don't know!!!

Yeah, I figured you must have missed the "which one is Pink" line. I was eagerly awaiting your reaction to it, and then nothing. waa waa! 😒 haha! But honestly, when I heard the name for the first time I figured it was the lead singers name or something.

Which ones' Pink? PINK Anderson and FLOYD Council were the two men that Syd Barrett named the band after. Both were Blues musicians from North Carolina.

"Oh and by the way, which one's Pink?" 😺

Glad I stayed up late for this one. Oh by the way, which one's Pink?

Roy Harper on vocals for this one, you would probably like some of Roys albums in particular his song Forever is beautiful

If you played one of their albums backwards it said " pink's gone to the funny farm".

Shocker, always thought Waters sang this - similar. Nice voice impression of 40's James Cagney gangsta.

Besides the acid humor in the phrase "Oh, by the way which one's Pink?" as a critic to music industry and its executives, Pink was a real guy!!!! Syd Barret proposed "Pink Floyd" using the names of two american bluesman of early 1930's, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council,

If i met this guy, this guy would be like... my favourite guy

I think PF wrote the song to reflect what it was like in the beginning. I'm pretty sure they were not millionaires in the beginning.

you have to remember when this was written the band had just come off the huge success of "the dark side of the moon". that's when the industry scumbags starting taking notice of a group that had been around for several years. once the pink floyd gravy train started rolling everyone wanted to jump on. this song is about roger's observations of the cigar chomping,back slapping execs who were suddenly in their lives once they made the greatest rock album ever.

We were buying lps for 99 cents at t records,,,,,but our souls were in concerts,,they drove many of these fantastic musicians like cattle,,,we did not really understand this until artists began to rebel against the beast,,,ps years later and you have boston ,,smokin big cigars,,drivin caddilac cars ,,,boys i think this bands outasight,,,,,,,woooo signin record company contracts ,,you boys have got great expectations'',,,,lala (which one is pink) xo kid

This is another great Floyd song. It refers to sleazy music execs who do not even know the names of the band members or anything about the band putting on the pressure to get something new out. There was a long gap between DSOTM March 73 to WYWH Sept 75 of over two years. In those days nearly all top bands put one album out a year. So the pressure on Pink Floyd to deliver after the massive success of DSOTM must have been enormous. The sell-out refers to selling out of DSOTM album LP stock because was so popular. Another great reaction and analysis. I really like what you are doing and for your reactions you are really enjoying the journey of discovery.

"By the way, which one's Pink" ? - A classic line & that mistake you made as a kid - I did that with Jethro Tull. Lol ....Incidentally - the Pink Floyd movie "The Wall" the lead band member character played by Bob Geldof was called "Pink".

I don't know how much they get around, but there's a pretty good Floyd tribute band called Which One's Pink? that tours quite extensively out here in California.

You need to do Clockwork Angles album by Rush next....warning you will need to have album or CD for story and Lyrics booklet

That person who said that about execs "not being that bad" is probably a record exec. I have never heard this song as anyone "whining" or who was undeserving to say something about the greed of the industry. I have always heard it as a cautionary tale, a warning to others who may not be as onto the slimy way of doing business. Kind of like a "don't say we didn't warn you". I think having the guest singer on this one was also specifically done to avoid any criticism of the band being ungrateful for the success. And Daniel, I think you are right about the two songs (this and Money) not only are they the most different on each album, but I think it's almost a way of the band saying "Yeah, we get to do what we want for the most part, but here's one to pay the bills and quiet the A&R men". There are a few artists who do manage to only do what they want, but I think there is less monetary reward and more personal autonomy as the value for them. It's very few bands who do both without giving up too much of either.

You can probably find the clip, but I believe it's from the "Classic Albums" series The Making of the Dark Side of the Moon where to paraphrase Gilmour, when talking about the the insane success that album generated so quickly for the band, they were thrust into a greedy money pit of luxury and excess that led as he says to the next album which was, "Wish You Were Here which we weren't".

I like thinking of the record execs listening to PF recording this song and just having to take this diss. I mean, the album before this was Dark Side of the Moon. They couldn't say anything to PF about anything at this point.

The which one's pink lyric actually occurred to Rodger Waters when he was meeting with a record exec! Thus the cynicism for the song and that's part of the reason for these lyrics!! I always thought that was so funny or actually very disgusting how the exec or whoever it was had such a deep respect but didn't even know any of the names of the band members.

Critique of the "suits" in corporate music that they had to deal with...don't even know the band members' names

I’ve always thought “oh by the way which one’s Pink?” is my favorite PF line. Similar theme has been explored by Heart’s Barracuda and Kevin Gilbert’s bizzare R rated “Suite Fugue” from the Shaming of the True album.

The best part about this track is the 16th note wurly/rhodes bass that comes in on the second verse.

FWIW First?

This is the introduction of Roger Waters cynicism and young fame from this position he grows more and more distant with animals and then the wall. It’s quite cool.

See, if you were more Familiar with Led Zeppelin catalog you would recognize Roy Harper's name.

Roy Harper sang the vocals on this song. First (and only) song where a member of PF wasn’t the lead vocalist. I think Roger Waters sang it in concert. Not sure. But Roy Harper didn’t tour with them.

On the theme of songs about the music industry, Daniel, you might try Joni Mitchell's "Free Man in Paris "" lyrics. She had worked both sides of the business as artist and producer, and knew the downsides of the money side well. It's also just a great song to listen to! Here's the lyrics: www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/jonimitchell/freemaninparis.html

Cool fact. When it came out the album was wrapped in black cellophane, so you could not see the cover until after you bought it. I was about a year younger than you when it came out 😳

Harper was recording at Abbey Road in London while the rock supergroup worked on the album in a nearby studio and when Waters and bandmate Dave Gilmour were struggling to find the right voice for the anti-music industry song, they agreed to let their folk singer pal give it a go. Gilmour loved Harper's version and persuaded his bandmates to use it on their classic 1975 album - but 30-plus years later, Waters still thinks he would have done a better job with a little time. In a candid new interview, which features on upcoming Dvd Pink Floyd: The Story of Wish You Were Here, Waters reveals, "He was singing a sort of parody... which I don't like. I never liked it... I regret it. "I think if I'd 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 former bandmate Gilmour disagrees, adding, "He (Harper) went off and did it and did a great job... (but) I don't think Roger liked his version very much." And Harper himself has regrets about putting his voice on a Pink Floyd hit. He explains, "It was played millions of times around the world... (and) it was a number-one selling single. Everyone thought it was Roger (singing). I was a bit peed off about that. "The worst of it is sometimes when I'm doing a gig, some wag will shout, 'Have a cigar!'"

We're in a sleazy part of town now folks.

It's about the record Company/Industry at the time

Led Zeppelin has a song called Hats off to Roy Harper

"But we're still on the payroll." Radiohead, Karma Police. The only ones that didn't, don't play the game (whilst hating through their sleeves) were, tHe SEx PIsToLS. No rules with the story of The Pistols. The boys pissed on them.

Roy Harper is the lead vocalist, imitating Roger

Best song on the album. The god Roy Harper.

I know a lot of up and coming bands that have lived thru embezzlement of their managers. A and M comes to mind. They record them then throw them away, even though they had a successful tour by opening for major acts. They never recovered from their lost money. Recording is a ruthless bussiness. Hate it. That's why there is a breakthrough in independent studios.

Can't wait for "The Wall Live in Berlin -1990". Do it the same as you're doing with this album.

I think it might be appropriate as an ending to react to See Emily Play, one of Syds singles with the band that doesn’t appear on an album. After all this album is about him. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qmOs9ZJ1Vxc.html

You should definitely do one on “echoes “ Pompeii version!

It’s fairly well known that the band members invested heavily in one of their acquaintance’s ‘investment schemes’, and pretty much lost the lot because of very bad investment advice. They lost millions apparently and had to start all over again as far as saving their well earned ‘stack’.

Although the band is named for two bluesmen, the image that comes to mind when I hear "Pink Floyd" is a reference to Freudian psych. Whether intended or not, their tendency towards hypnotic music and psychedelia in their early years fits perfectly. Given their interest in word play, I tend to think it was not entirely accidental.

tHIS MUsic iS sO gOOd SToNed!!

This is a great album, but my favorite from PF is Animals. I love every part of that record, and I don't say that about too many albums I ever heard. You should do Genesis "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway", from the Peter Gabriel days. That's another one that is one amazing track after another, a concept album like Pink Floyd's "The Wall", the entire album tells a story of sorts.