Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
"Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" is a song by British rock band Pink Floyd and is featured on their second album A Saucerful of Secrets (1968).[1] It was written by Roger Waters[1] and features a drum part by Nick Mason played with timpani mallets. The song was regularly performed between 1967 and 1973[1] and can be heard on the live record of the 1969 album Ummagumma[1] and seen in the 1972 movie Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii.[1] It also appears on the compilation album Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd which was released in 2001.
According to an interview with David Gilmour on the 2006 documentary Which One's Pink?, the song features minor guitar work both from Gilmour and Syd Barrett, making "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" the only Pink Floyd song that features all five band members, though many listeners couldn't really discern the guitar tracks as Richard Wright's keyboards and organs were overlapping the guitars.
The song's recording commenced in August 1967, with overdubs recorded in October of that year and in January 1968. In an article reprinted in the book Pink Floyd – through the eyes of... by Bruno McDonald, Roger Waters admitted to "borrowing" the lyrics from a book of Chinese poetry from the Tang Dynasty period (which was later identified as the book Poems of the late T'ang, translated by A.C. Graham).[2]
Some of the borrowed lines were written by Li He, whose poem "Don't Go Out of the Door" contains the line "Witness the man who raved at the wall as he wrote his questions to Heaven",[3] and Li Shangyin, whose poetry contained the lines, "watch little by little the night turn around", "countless the twigs which tremble in dawn" and "one inch of love is an inch of ashes."
The song has been a staple in Roger Waters' solo tours. Beginning with the 1984–1985 tours, "Set the Controls..." has been presented in a radically rearranged rendition - with female backing vocals, saxophone solos and a guitar solo (and even a shakuhachi solo in 1985). A truncated version (just the three verses) of the song featuring a simple acoustic guitar part was performed on a handful of occasions during the Radio K.A.O.S tour of 1987. The song was included in the set list for Waters' 2006-2008 tour, and previously his In the Flesh tour, featuring stills from the videos of "Arnold Layne" and "Scarecrow" projected on large screens. In June 2002, audiences enjoyed a surprise when the two nights at London's Wembley Arena saw the appearance, as guest drummer for the performance of the track, of Waters' former Pink Floyd bandmate Nick Mason, the first indication of a reconciliation following the acrimonious split of the mid-1980s.
Personnel
Alternative and live versions
- Pink Floyd performed the song from 1967–1973. The last ever performance with Waters, took place on 13 October 1973 at the Stadthalle, Vienna. In 1984/1985 and from 1999–present, Roger Waters has performed the song.
- On both the live Ummagumma disc and the Live at Pompeii, the song is significantly extended with a wide range of dynamics. For instance the drums stop in the quiet middle section.
- A version of the song, containing a saxophone solo, features on Waters' In the Flesh: Live DVD, as well as Disc 1 of the 2002 album of the same name.
Cover versions
References