One of These Days (instrumental)

Music

The predominant element of the piece is that of a bass guitar played through a delay (echo) unit, set to produce repeats in quarter-note triplets. The result of this setting is, if the player plays simple quarter notes, the added echoes will produce a pattern of quarter note – eighth note, quarter note – eighth note. Pink Floyd would again use this technique on the bass line for "Sheep".

The piece is in B minor, occasionally alternating with an A major chord.

The distinctive keyboard accents on this track are composed of three components: A Hammond organ forms the 'fade in', followed by a "Stab" composed of a second Hammond organ with percussion stop, overdubbed with an acoustic piano fed through a Leslie speaker, as was also used on "Echoes". For live versions, the 'fade in' part was played on a Farfisa organ.

The threatening lyric, a rare vocal contribution by Nick Mason, was recorded through a ring modulator and slowed down to create an eerie effect. It was aimed at Sir Jimmy Young, the then BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2 DJ whom the band supposedly disliked because of his tendency to babble. During early 1970s concerts, they sometimes played a sound collage of clips from Young's radio show that was edited to sound completely nonsensical, thus figuratively "cutting him into little pieces". The bootleg compilation A Treeful of Secrets contains a demo version of "One of These Days" in which the Jimmy Young collage loops in the background during the performance. However, the authenticity of this demo has not been confirmed.

Possibly the most interesting thing about "One of These Days" is that it actually stars myself as vocalist, for the first time on any of our records that actually got to the public. It's a rather startling performance involving the use of a high voice and slowed down tape.

According to John Peel, Waters has described "One of These Days" as a "poignant appraisal of the contemporary social situation". Gilmour has stated that he considers it the most collaborative piece ever produced by the group.

A film, French Windows, was made by Ian Emes, set to the piece and featuring people and gibbons dancing against various backgrounds. After being seen on television by the band, it was back-projected by Pink Floyd during live performances and Emes was commissioned to make further films for the band. It has since been released as an "extra" on the band's Pulse DVD, and is to be included in the 27-disc The Early Years 1965–1972 box set.

The tune also quotes Delia Derbyshire's realisation of Ron Grainer's theme from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.

Track listing

1. "One of These Days"
2. "Fearless"

1. "One of These Days"
2. "Seamus"

Live performances

The song was a concert staple on the band's 1971–1973 and 1987–1994 tours. The Live at Pompeii version was retitled as "One of These Days I'm Going to Cut You into Little Pieces", the full spoken threat.

It was resurrected for the group's 1987–1989 A Momentary Lapse of Reason & Another Lapse tours and 1994's The Division Bell Tour, performed by David Gilmour on lap steel guitar, Tim Renwick on rhythm guitar, Guy Pratt on bass, Richard Wright and Jon Carin on keyboards, with Nick Mason and Gary Wallis on drums and percussion. It was included on the Delicate Sound of Thunder video (1989), CD, LP, and cassette (1988) and Pulse album (1995) (cassette & LP only) & video & DVD (1995/2006 respectively). It is absent from the iTunes version of the Pulse album. A live version was also included on the B-side of the "High Hopes/Keep Talking" double A-side single (1994). On 25 June 2016 David Gilmour and his solo band performed the song during their set at the Plac Wolności in Wrocław, Poland, the first time Gilmour had played it live in more than 20 years and the first time he’d ever made it part of a solo set list.

Studio version

Delicate Sound of Thunder and Pulse

Additional musicians:

1989 promo video

A promo video was used to promote Delicate Sound of Thunder and got brief airing on MTV in 1989. It showed the band performing the track on stage at Nassau Coliseum and shots of the inflatable pig that flew over the audience during the song in the show. The end of the clip blacks out instead of segueing into "Time" as on the Delicate Sound of Thunder video.

Cover versions

In popular culture

"One of These Days" has been used in various sporting contexts. It is the entrance music of Abdullah the Butcher (Larry Shreve), a professional wrestler best known from WCW in the early 1990s. Hungarian figure skater Krisztina Czakó used "One of These Days" (along with "Shine On You Crazy Diamond") as the music for her long program at the 1992 Winter Olympics, one of the few times that a classic rock song has ever been featured in an elite-level ice skating competition. Additionally, Frank Zane used the song as his posing music at the 1983 Mr. Olympia competition. For many years, the Italian sports show Dribbling also used the song as its opening theme.

The song can also be found in other media. In the webcomic Sluggy Freelance story arc "Fire and Rain", the only arc to feature a "soundtrack" of sorts, Oasis makes a reference to the song, stating that she is "gonna cut [Zoe] into little pieces." Under the dialogue is a caption reading "'One of These Days' by Pink Floyd." The song is played during the ending credits of The Sopranos episode "The Fleshy Part of the Thigh" and is used in the Cosmos: A Personal Voyage episode "The Lives of Stars". A 1973 Bruce Lee documentary entitled The Man and the Legend used the song, as well as the BBC drama Life on Mars.

In another instance, a 1991 computer virus called "Little Pieces" cleared the victim's screen and displayed the message "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces", referring to the sole lyric of the song.

In the 2011 Japanese Light Novel "The Astonishment of Haruhi Suzumiya", Kyon sarcastically remarks to Haruhi that she use the song as her introduction music when she arrives late to the clubroom to impress the hopeful SOS Brigade Members. Haruhi replies that Kyon "comes up with a few good ideas on occasion".

"One of These Days" was sampled in the song Johnny Ryall on the Beastie Boys album Paul's Boutique.