Have a Cigar

When you dive into *Have a Cigar*, you encounter a piece that stands out from the rest of the album Wish You Were Here. It's one of those songs that starts abruptly, without preamble, with a guitar and bass riff that grabs you immediately. The instrumentation becomes richer with keyboards, electric pianos, and synthesizers, creating a distinctly marked rock texture. In the end, a guitar solo fades out abruptly, as if you were tuning into an AM radio and the signal was lost, until it finally goes silent. The lyrics, written by Roger Waters, are a critical look at the greed and cynicism that seemed to reign in the music industry of the time, a kind of continuation of the idea he explored in Money.

The recording of *Have a Cigar* had a particular detail. Roger Waters and David Gilmour were not entirely satisfied with their own attempts to sing the lead vocals. While Roy Harper, an English folk singer, was recording his album HQ at Abbey Road studios, Pink Floyd was working on Wish You Were Here. Harper accepted the invitation to provide the lead vocals as a way of returning a favor to Gilmour. The album's recording session took place between March and July of 1975 at Abbey Road, London. Although Waters felt that Harper's version was too parodic and would have preferred something more vulnerable, Gilmour was delighted with his performance. The song was released as a single in some markets, with *Welcome to the Machine* or *Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part I)* as the B-side, depending on the region.