How 'One of These Days' and 'Sister Ray' Both Use a Distorted Bass Drone as a Scaffold for Chaos

The most direct comparison between Pink Floyd’s “One of These Days” (1971) and the Velvet Underground’s “Sister Ray” (1968) isn’t in their lyrics or structure—it’s in how each song locks into a single, distorted bass drone and then lets everything else fall apart around it. In “Sister Ray,” John Cale’s organ holds an ominous two-finger drone while the guitar and drums erupt into a 17-minute noise jam. Pink Floyd essentially does the same thing with Roger Waters’ bass: a menacing, repeat-delayed two-note