Five to One

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

"Five to One"
Song by the Doors
from the album Waiting for the Sun
ReleasedJuly 3, 1968
RecordedFebruary–May 1968
Genre
Length4:24
LabelElektra
Songwriter(s)The Doors
Producer(s)Paul A. Rothchild

Origin

Part of the song ("Your ballroom days are over, baby/Night is drawing near/Shadows of the evening/crawl across the years"), was seemingly lifted from the 19th-century hymnal and bedtime rhyme "Now the Day Is Over" ("Now the day is over/Night is drawing nigh/Shadows of the evening/Steal across the sky") by Doors frontman Jim Morrison.[1] Similarly, Morrison quoted the "Christian child's prayer" in a live version of Soul Kitchen sung in 1969[2] 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 ("Words dissemble/Words be quick/Words resemble walking sticks").[3]

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.[4]

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".[5]

References
  1. "Now the Day is Over". Encyclopedia-titanica.org. 2005-10-12. Retrieved 2013-07-05.
  2. Archived July 7, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  3. "An American Prayer (Ii) Lyrics - The Doors". Actionext.com. Retrieved 2013-07-05.
  4. Weidman, Rich (October 2011). The Doors FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Kings of Acid Rock. Backbeat Books. ISBN 978-1617131103.
  5. Gilbert, Jeff (May 1995). "Prime Cuts: Mike McCready - The Best of Pearl Jam!". Guitar School.
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