The Hard Way" is Pink Floyd's sarcastic take on the music industry.

It’s a short comedy sketch from the sessions for The Wall, originally intended as a b-side but ending up on that weird compilation A Collection of Great Dance Songs.

The piece follows a guy named Jimmy who goes to a record company to pitch his song. The execs are bored, condescending, and eventually just tell him to go away. It’s all sound effects and deadpan delivery — Waters doing his cynical thing. The “hard way” is learning that nobody in the industry cares about your art.

The compilation is a strange beast anyway (it includes a re-recorded “Money” because of rights issues), so throwing in a leftover comedy track makes some kind of sense.