I always found this piece very interesting, but I never really understood it!
However, it sounds very mysterious and space-ish which makes it really interesting. So, I was wondering if anyone knew what it meant. If so, could someone care to explain it, please =D? And also, is it true that David, Sydd, Roger, Nick and Rick were all playing on this one?

According to my handy dandy Wikipedia page, yes, all five of them did play on this song together.

I've never quite understood the song either and to be honest, I've always found it quite overrated. It's not a bad song, by any means. I just don't think it's a great song.

I don't think you can rate it until you understand it. I mean, yes, of course the music and the sound of it matter. But what would it be without meaning?

Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun is sooo awesome!
when Im hear it, I feel like Im in a trip... Personally I love this music style, and this period Pink Floyd...

I don't think there's anything to understand, quite frankly.
It's just a very good song, IMO.

(12-14-2010 10:09 AM)Joe Wrote:  I always found this piece very interesting, but I never really understood it!
However, it sounds very mysterious and space-ish which makes it really interesting. So, I was wondering if anyone knew what it meant. If so, could someone care to explain it, please =D? And also, is it true that David, Sydd, Roger, Nick and Rick were all playing on this one?

To answer your second question, yes all five band members played on that track.

To answer your first question, the lyrics Roger wrote were inspired by a book of Chinese poetry he was reading at the time called "Poems of the late T'ang". In this respect, the song is similar to an earlier Floyd song, Chapter 24, in which its lyrics (written by Syd Barrett) were inspired by the I Ching.

I don't think the song has any specific meaning beyond that, honestly.

Yes, but what does Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun mean? What controls? Why? What the sh1t?

It has no meaning. Not everything they did had this deep, philosophical, intense reasoning behind it. Sometimes they just did it or named it something because it sounded good and for no other particular reason.

Don't look to deep into it........

I think it probably just sounded cool.

(12-16-2010 07:54 AM)Joe Wrote:  Yes, but what does Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun mean? What controls? Why? What the sh1t?

You can not understand what was going in Roger's brain in the same second he chose this name.
I think that the name derived from drugs.