4 Songs David Gilmour Co-Wrote for Pink Floyd’s “Have a Cigar” Singer Roy Harper, Including One Featuring Kate Bush

When Pink Floyd were recording Wish You Were Here at Abbey Road Studios, Roger Waters strained his vocals while recording “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” and couldn’t sing on the next track, “Have a Cigar,” up to par. Waters tried singing it as a duet with David Gilmour, but it still didn’t work.

Since Gilmour didn’t want to sing lead, the band called on their friend, who was coincidentally a studio neighbor at the time, British folk singer-songwriter Roy Harper.

“A lot of people think I can’t sing, including me a bit,” Waters said in the Wish You Were Here songbook by Nick Sedgewick. “I’m very unclear about what singing is. I know I find it hard to pitch, and I know the sound of my voice isn’t very good in purely aesthetic terms, and Roy Harper was recording his own album in another EMI studio at the time; he’s a mate, and we thought he could probably do a job on it.”

At the time, Harper was recording his album, HQ, in an adjacent studio and took Pink Floyd up on their offer. “Have a Cigar” is only one of three songs by Pink Floyd, outside of Clare Torry on “The Great Gig in the Sky” in 1973, and the 2022 release “Hey Hey Rise Up,” with Ukrainian singer Andriy Khlyvnyuk, featuring an outside vocalist. 

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Harper’s work with Gilmour wasn’t one-sided. Gilmour plays guitar on Harper’s “The Game,” from HQ, alongside Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. Harper also provided backing vocals on Gilmour’s second release, About Face, in 1984. And a year later, Gilmour co-wrote (with Harper), “Hope,” from Harper and Jimmy Page’s collaborative album Whatever Happened to Jugula? He also plays guitar on Harper’s 1990 album, Once.

Shortly after working on “Have a Cigar,” Harper also co-wrote “Short and Sweet” with Gilmour for Gilmour’s self-titled solo debut in 1978, before recording the song himself on his 1980 album The Unknown Soldier. Along with “Short and Sweet,” The Unknown Soldier features four additional songs he co-wrote with Gilmour, who also plays guitar on the album.

[RELATED: The 12-Plus-Minute Pink Floyd Song David Gilmour Regretted Writing]

“Playing Games”

Written by David Gilmour and Roy Harper

The opening, “Playing Games,” circles around the complexities of human interactions and love. The more pop-driven track also brushes on themes of finding one’s personal freedom.

It kinda feels like everything’s passing so fast
Keepin’ myself straight as this track
You spend the lifetime worryin’ that it won’t last
Makin’ me run ’til I come runin’ back

Playin’ games you don’t believe
Tellin’ me you want to leave
What you tryin’ to achieve
With so little up your sleeve?

“You” (The Game Part II), Featuring Kate Bush

Written by David Gilmour and Roy Harper

Gilmour lends his atmospheric guitars to the moodier “You,” a story of unresolved feelings from a past love. The song features shared vocals by Harper and then-newcomer Kate Bush.

You, my daring time traveller
You, love dwelling discoverer
You, you open the doors for me
And let me in
I come

You, my deep secret accomplices
You, who endure my injustices
You, you reward me kind likenesses
Bearing gifts
Of home

During the early 1970s, Gilmour discovered the teenage singer after producing some of Bush’s earlier demos, including “The Man With The Child In His Eyes,” which helped her land a contract at EMI. Harper later contributed backing vocals on “Breathing,” the closing track of Kate Bush’s 1980 album Never for Ever.

“Old Faces”

Written by David Gilmour and Roy Harper

On the wistful “Old Faces,” Harper relives times with old friends and acquaintances, and memories (good ghosts).

Old faces acquaintances
Re-appearing disguised as is
Blue rivers of smoky rooms climb
Relieving good ghosts of those times

And where were you, where was I?
Sitting, counting the colours by
Giant red rizlas to go we’ve been
Was it ever to paradise green

But I love you, my own true friend
You, who thought you could rearrange the end
How does it feel to be terribly near?
Verging long voyages onward from here

“True Story”

Written by David Gilmour and Roy Harper

The closing “True Story” tells the story of Scottish knight William Wallace and his brutal death, fighting for the independence of Scotland, . The more psychedelic track ends alludes to an eerier reflection of the state of the environment—The swelling forces of our nature Changing the surfaces of the planet’s / Chemical nomenclature / Blows cool gases as continents slide.

A band of thieves rode from the south
On horses shod in shining plate
And foaming at the mouth
Ten million ants a day had died
Under a clanking column of old checkmates
Fears glorified

A band of cut-throats in the north
Heard rumours of this hoard of steel
And quickly sallied forth
With swords and families at their side
And no T.V. escape from poor
Wallace’s ordeal
Wounds still gaping so wide

Photo: Michael Putland/Getty Images