Grammy Trail Off #1: Katy Perry’s ‘Firework’

Chart-topping divorcee Katy Perry has stake in one of the four most prestigious Grammy categories–Record of the Year–for her empowering anthem “Firework“. We looked into the song and then got sucked into an internet vortex of information and well, here are some facts for you:

• Katy said the song was inspired by a passage of Jack Kerouac‘s On The Road:

“But then they danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I’ve been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!'”

• Jack Keroauc inspired The Smiths song “Pretty Girls Make Graves“–the line comes straight from his 1958 novel The Dharma Bums.
• Pretty Girls Makes Graves was the name of a Seattle band that was active from 2001-2007. They played the Coachella in 2004.
• Radiohead was one of the headliners for 2004 Coachella.
• Katy Perry references Radiohead in “The One That Got Away“.

BAM. Full circle. Thank you and goodnight.

Oh and hey–were you wondering what the difference is between “record of the year” and “song of the year”? Record of the year awards the performance and production of the song, where as song of the year is awarding the songwriter. In some cases, this may be the same person. More info here.