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."
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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)
“Although this garrulity of advising is born with us, I confess that life is rather a subject of wonder, than of didactics. So much fate, so much irresistible dictation from temperament and unknown inspiration enter into it, that we doubt we can say anything out of our own experience whereby to help each other.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)