Inspiration
"Heavyweight Champion Of The World" tells a story of not just under-achievers, but the majority who are trapped within repetitive lives, with the ironic hook "just be like everybody else". The song title is taken from a line of Barry Hines book 'A Kestrel For A Knave.' Like the song, the book's main character is an under-achieving young boy growing up in Yorkshire. The song has received rave reviews, and appeared as Zane Lowe's 'Hottest Record In The World Today', and is equally liked by Radio 1 DJs Nick Grimshaw and Greg James. The single is accredited to Jon McClure, Ed Cosens and Alan Smyth, acknowledging the work that Smyth did towards the demo of the song.
In addition to the reference to Barry Hines, the song's chorus includes another pugilistic reference, from the movie On the Waterfront. The line, "I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody" spoken by Marlon Brando in the movie is closely paraphrased in the song's lyrics as "I could've been a contender/Could've been a someone."
Read more about this topic: Heavyweight Champion Of The World
Famous quotes containing the word inspiration:
“As one knows the poet by his fine music, so one can recognise the liar by his rich rhythmic utterance, and in neither case will the casual inspiration of the moment suffice. Here, as elsewhere, practice must precede perfection.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“For a painter, the Mecca of the world, for study, for inspiration and for living is here on this star called Paris. Just look at it, no wonder so many artists have come here and called it home. Brother, if you can’t paint in Paris, you’d better give up and marry the boss’s daughter.”
—Alan Jay Lerner (1918–1986)
“What is called eloquence in the forum is commonly found to be rhetoric in the study. The orator yields to the inspiration of a transient occasion, and speaks to the mob before him, to those who can hear him; but the writer, whose more equable life is his occasion, and who would be distracted by the event and the crowd which inspire the orator, speaks to the intellect and heart of mankind, to all in any age who can understand him.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)