Damn, it's now 50 years old! They supposedly finished recording it in Jan-1968.
And it still sounds as brilliant and fresh as when I first heard it around 72 or 73 when I started getting into Pink Floyd (at the age of 14 or so). It never fails to put me in that mellow trans-like introspective state of euphoria.
Nick Mason's drums set the tone for the entire song, then there's Richard White's spacey keyboards, Rodger Waters cosmic bass and vocals and the least heard are the guitars of Gilmour and Barrett! And is supposedly the only song that featured both David Gilmour and Syd Barrett. Not surprising that Mason said it was his favorite PF song.
A quote from wikipedia (below) shows that it was way too futuristic for even the forward-thinking minds of the day: "Jim Miller of Rolling Stone described "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", along with "Let There Be More Light", as "boring melodically, harmonically, and lyrically. Miller further described the production work as "not as glittery as the first album's, and the instrumental work is shoddy and routine. Miller also described the track as too long." (What an idiot..!)
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