Though both Pink Floyd’s “Have a Cigar” and Boston’s “Rock n’ Roll Band” employ tone as their main focus, they use it in vastly different ways. The tone of Pink Floyd’s song is cynical and bitter, while the tone of Boston’s musical piece is simply enthusiastic and nostalgic. Tone is a literary technique that indicates the opinion of the speaker or the songwriter in regards to the subject of the lyrics. A very important difference between the two types of tone is that while the tone of the speaker indicates the way the words are spoken, the tone of the songwriter emphasizes the actual lyrical content. Both of these musical pieces have similarities and differences among their factions of tone, which allows these pieces to be easily used to understand tone.
In Pink Floyd’s “Have a Cigar,” the tone of the speaker and the tone of the songwriter are vastly different. Initially, the tone of the speaker seems pleased, proud, and excited for the band. But if one were to look into the actual lyrics and point of view of the songwriter, one realizes that in fact the song means the exact opposite. The songwriter of this song doesn’t actually care about the band, only how much money they’ll earn him. This is evident by the line at the end of the first verse, “Oh by the way, which one’s Pink?” The owner of the band doesn’t realize that none of the band members go by the name Pink; it’s simply the name of the band. This lack of respect towards the basic facts of the band emphasizes the difference in tone between songwriter and speaker, because the speaker feels excited about their band being great, while the songwriter only cares about the money.
Boston’s “Rock n’ Roll Band” also utilizes tone in their musical piece, but in a dissimilar way. “Rock n’ Roll Band” is a very upbeat and excited song. The speaker and songwriter in this case happen to be the same, very different from Pink Floyd’s song. The tone of the speaker is one of jubilant success and fame, especially during the chorus where the singer goes into an ecstasy of “play” and “yeah”, indicating his excitement for playing rock and roll. However, the songwriter refers to all their successes in the past tense, but still with joy. If one could imagine the speaker and the songwriter standing side by side, the speaker would be the young rock star traveling the country, and the songwriter the old man reminiscing on those past glories. In a way, this song is a dichotomy of an old man singing with a young man’s voice, a combination that deepens the true meaning of the song.
Separately, both Pink Floyd’s and Boston’s musical pieces use tone in ways that exemplify the best usage of the device. However, when compared together and against each other, one starts to see their differences in procedure. For example, the opposition of excitement and cynicism of tone in “Have a Cigar” is worlds apart from “Rock n’ Roll Band” using a young speaker with an old mind. Both pieces stress the idea of making a musical piece with a disparity of the two main tones, yet they achieve this in vastly different ways. Pink Floyd’s two tones are nearly direct opposites in opinion, yet from the same time. Boston’s two tones are actually the same tone from two different periods of time, during and after success. Overall, the two tones of “Have a Cigar” and the two tones of “Rock n’ Roll Band” together create a picture that instructs the listener to understand the difference not only between the tone of the speaker and the tone of the songwriter, but also the difference of one of these types of tone across songs.
