Five to One
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| "Five to One" | |
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"Five To One" is a song by The Doors, from their 1968 album Waiting for the Sun. "Five to one" is rumored to be the approximate ratio of whites to blacks, young to old, or non-pot smokers to pot smokers in the US in 1967, depending on whom you ask. A further urban legend has it as the ratio of Viet Cong to American troops in Vietnam. [1] Jim Morrison said the lyrics were not political. He was so drunk when he recorded this song, he needed help from the studio staff on when to begin singing. If you listen closely, you can hear someone in the background say "One more time" before Jim starts his first verse. The opening part ("Yeah, c'mon - I love my girl. She lookin' good...") is some of Jim's nonsensical drunk rambling. Morrison got the idea for this while waiting in the audience before performing a concert in 1967. On bootlegs of live recordings, Morrison included the phrase "fucked up" in the spoken word section at the end. He frequently swore at live shows, but the studio albums were originally either curse-free or censored.
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 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 The Doors: Box Set and is depicted in Oliver Stone's film 'The Doors'.
Trivia
- Robbie Krieger recorded a version of this song with Marilyn Manson for the 2000 Doors tribute album Stoned Immaculate: The Music of the Doors. It did not end up on the album, but was featured on both Manson's singles: 'Disposable Teens' and 'The Fight Song' as a b-side.
- In 2000, the surviving members of the Doors taped a VH1 Storytellers episode with guest vocalists filling in for Morrison. Scott Weiland from Velvet Revolver (ex-Stone Temple Pilots) sang on this recording.
- If the lyric "Five to one" is taken to be the mathematical odds against "getting out of here alive," then the next line, "One in five" is incorrect. Five-to-one odds against success represents a one-in-six chance. "Four to one" would correspond to "One in five."
- Jay-Z sampled "Five to One" on his 2001 diss track "Takeover". The track was produced by Kanye West, a well known producer whose production often uses old rock or R&B songs in hip-hop records.
- On the line "they we got the guns , but we got the numbers." 'the numbers' is slang for a marijuana joint.
