One of My Turns
original song written and composed by Roger Waters; recorded and released in 1979 by Pink Floyd
"One of My Turns" is a song by the English rock band Pink Floyd, appearing on their eleventh studio album The Wall (1979). The song was also released as a B-side on the single of "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2".
Composition
The song is split into distinct segments: a groupie (Trudy Young) performs a monologue ("Oh my God, what a fabulous room!") while a television plays, under which a synthesizer makes atonal sounds, which eventually resolve into a quiet song in C major in 34 time ("Day after day / Love turns grey / Like the skin of a dying man."). Finally, the song abruptly leaps into a hard rock song in B-flat major in 44 time. The song features some of Waters' most strenuous recorded vocal workouts, with him ending at a relatively high A above middle C. The composition's instrumental introduction makes use of the Phrygian mode, a musical mode rarely used in pop and rock music.
Plot
The Wall is the story of Pink, an embittered and alienated rock star, whose sanity is failing as he isolates himself behind a psychological barrier. "One of My Turns" finds Pink inviting a groupie into his room after learning of his wife's affair. While the groupie tries to get his attention, he ignores her, and muses on his failed relationship with his wife. A TV can be heard in the background, the dialogue mixed in with the groupie's attempts at conversation.
While the hapless groupie continues trying to get his attention, Pink feels "Cold as a razor blade / Tight as a tourniquet / Dry as a funeral drum," before exploding into a fit of violence, destroying his room, and frightening the young woman away.
The public source identifies “One of My Turns” as original song written and composed by Roger Waters; recorded and released in 1979 by Pink Floyd. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Turns, original and song.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q521378. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1979.
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This entry incorporates text from “One of My Turns” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.