No. 19: ‘Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun’

Our story begins in the 9th century, with the poetry of Li He, one of the famed Lis of China’s Tang Dynasty.

Li He was a counterculture man of his time, known for a sickly appearance, long fingernails and an awesome unibrow. He was known as a “demon talented” artist, a poet of ghosts.

Li He was given to writing lines of poetry on horseback, throwing the bits of paper to the winds while a servant ran behind and collected them. He passed away young, in the rock star dead zone of age 27.

Li He was big on the supernatural, the hallucinatory and the fantastic, meaning the stuff translates pretty well to modern times.  Mao Zedong was a big fan.

Another fan, apparently, was the rock bassist Roger Waters, a member of the psychedelic outfit Pink Floyd. The English band was in transition in late 1967 and early 1968, as its frontman and primary songwriter, Syd Barrett, faded from the scene, acid-fried and suffering from mental illness. The band needed material for its second album, and Waters stepped up.

Waters apparently latched on to the book “Poems of the late T’ang,” borrowing a few lines for one of his first recorded compositions. From Li He, he took its key line, “Witness the man who raves at the wall / Making the shape of his question to heaven.”

The slow and hypnotic song, “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun,” also employed snatches of the ancient poetry of Li Shangyin and Du Mu. Not that listeners of 1968 could much tell, as Waters recorded his lyrics in a mumble, a kind of wounded vocalese meant to be heard but not fully understood. He whispers throughout the track, as if he’s afraid of awakening the ancients.

Drummer Nick Mason also found inspiration for the number in an unlikely place: the magnificent performance of percussionist Chico Hamilton in the movie “Jazz on a Summer’s Day.” Hamilton used (padded) timpani sticks to create a mysterious instrumental that’s at the heart of the film, shot at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958.

The half-heard incantations and the muffled-mallet drumming of “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” evoke Stanley Kubrick’s extraterrestrial chill. It’s often cited as an early example of psychedelic space rock, although it’s hard to tell what’s going on even while reading the lyrics. Mostly it seems about plant life and the cycles of nature.

Waters, perhaps playing to his cool title, described the underlying narrative thusly: “An unknown person who, while piloting a mighty flying saucer, is overcome with solar suicidal tendencies and sets the controls for the heart of the sun.”

In any case, Waters’ spooky track went on to become one of Pink Floyd’s most-performed songs, included on set lists from 1967 to 1973. Expanded versions figured prominently in the live section of “Ummagumma” (1969) and in the concert film “Live at Pompeii” (1972).

While Waters went on to become a key songwriter and singer for Pink Floyd, “Heart of the Sun” was one of his few solo compositions used by the band in its early years. (“The wall” cited by Li He perhaps returned in one of Waters’ major works, the double concept album that Pink Floyd released in 1979.)

“Heart of the Sun” also figures in Pink Floyd history as the only track to feature contributions from all five band members, as Barrett and his replacement, David Gilmour, both played (barely audible) guitar parts. Barrett, who wrote the somewhat similar Pink Floyd tracks “Astronomy Domine” and “Interstellar Overdrive” from the debut album, did not otherwise contribute to Waters’ track and is not credited on the album.

Keyboardist Richard Wright did play a key role, taking over midsong, his sci-fi effects whirling up sonic solar winds. Live, Wright would add Middle Eastern touches. Waters’ bass stays on the drone, repeating the eight-note theme throughout. There is no chorus.

Rolling Stone was not impressed. The reviewer hated the second Pink Floyd album, “A Saucerful of Secrets,” singling out “Heart of the Sun” as “shoddy and routine” and an example of “unnecessary length in rock.” The original track runs 5 minutes and 27 seconds but would be doubled in length in performance.

Pink Floyd finally warehoused the song after the “Dark Side of the Moon” tour. The track remains in play, though, a fixture in Waters’ many solo tours. It is only one of two songs from “A Saucerful of Secrets” to appear on the millennial compilation “Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd .”

Liner notes: Pink Floyd used ancient Chinese poetry several times in its work, beginning with Syd Barrett’s quotation of the “I Ching (Chinese Book of Changes)” in “Chapter 24” (“Piper at the Gates of Dawn”). … The web site CJV Lang provides an interesting exploration of Pink Floyd’s use of classic Chinese poetry. … Notable covers of “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” came from Smashing Pumpkins (live), Nemesis, Psychic TV and Red Temple Spirits. … Roger Waters joined Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets band in New York for an April 2019 performance of the song, singing and playing the gong.