Five to One


"Five to One" is a song by American rock band the Doors, from their 1968 album Waiting for the Sun.

Origin

The lyrics were written by Doors frontman Jim Morrison. Part of the song, was seemingly lifted from the 19th-century hymnal and bedtime rhyme "Now the Day Is Over" by Morrison. Similarly, Morrison quoted the "Christian child's prayer" in a live version of Soul Kitchen sung in 1969 and also altered the children's rhyme "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over The candlestick" to suit part of his poem An American Prayer .

Public performances

The song's most famous performance was at the 1969 Miami concert at the Dinner Key Auditorium. Towards the end of the performance, a drunken Morrison declared the audience "idiots" and "slaves". The concert would end with Morrison being accused of "attempting to incite a riot" among the concert goers, resulting in his arrest, and later conviction, for indecent exposure. This performance can be heard on Disc 1 of and is depicted in Oliver Stone's film The Doors.
During the reunion of the original lineup of the Doors sans Jim Morrison on VH1 Storytellers, Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots took up vocals. Before the performance Robby Krieger said Weiland was one of the few frontmen who could "fill Jim's leather pants". Scott said that "Five to One" was what inspired him to begin a career in rock music.

Legacy

The guitar solo on Pearl Jam's "Alive" was based on Ace Frehley's guitar solo on the Kiss song "She", which was in turn based on Robby Krieger's solo in "Five to One". Rapper Jay-Z sampled "Five to One" as the beat for his diss song of Nas and Mobb Deep called "Takeover".