Which one's Pink?

October 21, 2024 6:41 PM

Have A Cigar as performed by the most excellent LA funk band The Main Squeeze.

Lots more covers and originals on the Main Squeeze YT channel.

posted by swift (13 comments total)

About time that band got its own FPP. Thanks, swift!

I'll Take Another
posted by flabdablet at 7:37 PM on October 21

To Be Determined: LIVE
posted by flabdablet at 7:51 PM on October 21

Comfortably Numb
posted by vverse23 at 8:36 PM on October 21

This is an excellent cover, thanks!
posted by zardoz at 9:04 PM on October 21 [1 favorite]

Their covers of Layla & My Guitar Gently Weeps are in my you tube favourites tab
posted by Narrative_Historian at 10:19 PM on October 21

They're very nice covers but I was hoping, based on the band description in the post, for more funk.
posted by Nerd of the North at 12:31 AM on October 22 [3 favorites]

I'm not generally one for Pink Floyd covers, but holy shit can that man sing.
posted by wierdo at 2:23 AM on October 22

Someone sign those boys up!

Seriously, that was great. Thanks. Where have all the guitar gods gone? I guess they're buried under piles of crap on YouTube.
posted by SoberHighland at 5:54 AM on October 22

I was afraid the Comfortably Numb link might lead to this.
posted by TedW at 6:30 AM on October 22 [1 favorite]

Sounds good, but the vocals are like too good. I feel like Roy Harper's vocals original really captures the disdain of records execs a lot better.
posted by tkinvt at 6:45 AM on October 22

They're very nice covers but I was hoping, based on the band description in the post, for more funk.

How about disco?
posted by swift at 6:59 AM on October 22 [2 favorites]

I was an obsessive Pink Floyd fan in high school, back in the early 90s. I used to love Shine On You Crazy Diamond, but would race to skip the next two tracks. Welcome To The Machine was grinding and dissonant and irritating, and then Have A Cigar was just "Here's an asshole. He really sucks, doesn't he?" The vocals and solos on this rendition make it listenable and compelling, which I think defeats the goal of the original (which was to mock record execs and to make people like me skip straight to Wish You Were Here goddammit).

It's forgivable, in that this album was autobiographical largely as a means of dealing with the decline of Syd Barrett. I have a friend who used to complain that musicians with a large repertoire seem to finish by only writing songs about travelling: when they were young they wrote about love and heartbreak and rebellion and injustice, but now that they're touring most of the year, the only wellspring they draw from is lonely rootlessness. This track (and the one finishing the A side) both fall into that "creative people creating works about their craft or industry" trap, but they serve to tell the story of a band that misses their friend and the system that failed all of them.

I detest Have A Cigar, but I absolutely love this performance. Thank you so much!
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 1:41 AM on October 23

Oh, incidentally, the original song always made me think of Rip Torn's character in One Trick Pony, where he keeps ignoring everything Paul Simon is saying and congratulating himself for producing "a commercial record!"

I thought of that film every time the electronic drums took over from the South African opening beat in the first track on Graceland.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:17 AM on October 23