Jarvis, a boy who succeded?

In one of my recent conversations with my Muse, we've been talking about the certainty of determining our life path at an early age. Then I read a nice blog entry that praised the strength of will in men and thought there is a perfect living example that represents these two qualities. Meet Jarvis Cocker, an unlikely hero who envisioned his life plan in his teenage years and had the strength of will to succeed.
For those of you who are not familiar with Jarvis or the "Pulp" band, Jarvis was the group's frontman, composer, and lyrics author. "Pulp" gained popularity in the early 90s, becoming one of the most prominent Britpop bands. Their singles stood strong in the UK Top Billboard charts, and the band received multiple BRIT awards in the 90s. Much of Pulp's songs were related to ordinary things and sex but expressed in a passionate yet innocent way. If you are into sophisticated pop and still not acquainted with "Pulp", you should listen, you won't be disappointed.
The article has "A boy who succeeded" in its title which is a clear allusion to Harry Potter, a beloved English character who succeeded in his life pathway. Jarvis also reminds me of another English hero, Adrian Mole, a boy who looked much like Jarvis and could not achieve success by definition. However, Jarvis did, despite all adversities.
In one of his many interviews, Jarvis says that he has always wanted to be in a band since about the age of seven. He was at the age of seven when his father left their family and moved to Australia. In the same interview, he presents a school notebook with a pen sketch he accidentally discovered in the attic with a master plan of a band called "Pulp" that covers every detail starting with the dressing style up to "dominating the world music industry" by establishing a recording label and multiple radio channels. That master plan he made at the age of fifteen, about the same time he started his first "Pulp" band. He was looking for people who were not into sports, the same kind of misfits he was. I suppose the band has always been Jarvis'es extended family. In his own words: "For a long time it was my kind of thing to hold on to some times quite chaotic existence... " [1]. That is why watching guys leaving the city for college was hard for him. His mindset was to stay in Sheffield and become a pop star. In one of the other interviews, he admitted that some days he just lay in bed listening to music. Some of you may perceive that as a weakness, but I see a great strength in it because he never stopped dreaming big. Instead of giving up on his plans and submitting to circumstances, he followed his ideals. That's why the title has a question mark at the end of the sentence. Success isn't the most important part of the story. Jarvis was a boy who wasn't afraid to dream big. He was persistent as fuck and never gave up. This is what astonishes me in a physically weak teenage boy who was considerably choosing his outfits to look fashionable yet not too defiant to avoid getting beaten up on the street. [2] Every time I feel down, I imagine Jarvis Cocker in his "Adrian Mole" like teenage years, lying in bed and dreaming of a bright future. Then I watch his countless videos and acknowledge again that all the charm he expresses in front of the camera was dreamt long before and rehearsed being alone in bed, recalling his bandmates leaving for a better life.
I often thought of the sources of that persistence. Once a teenage girl told me that having a boyfriend makes her feel normal. Maybe Jarvis was looking for it too? In every interview, he keeps saying that the most significant stimulus behind becoming a pop star was imagining girls throwing themselves at him. Jarvis usually supplements that later he would stay away from this kind of woman.
That leads us to the theme of sex and ordinary things in his songs. In the "Life, Death and Supermarkets" [4] film pre-release interview, Jarvis reflects on a turning point in his career, the falling out of window episode. [3] "I think I'd always been thinking that inspiration was gonna come from some cloudy ethereal place, you know up in the heavens or something like that. And then kind of literally, I fell to earth, and kind of realized, ooh, actually what I should be doing is looking right here, you know, on the very ground I'm walking on".
So he did, with a very complete and exhibitionistic honesty that looked very sweet because he never tried to hide his vulnerabilities. All the sex desires in the lyrics arrive from his teenage past when he worked in a supermarket fish department on weekends, and his hands smelled of fish, which was not helping on a dancing evening. "Once I tried to put my hands in bleach. It was horrible because now my hands smelled of fish and the bleach". I first heard "Pulp" in the middle of the 90s and it was shockingly captivating to listen to a man admitting his sexual desires, weaknesses, and failures. That was something very new, something I had never heard before. I fell in love with "Pulp" and I still love it. Yes, it carries a lot of nostalgic value, but there is more to that. Jarvis was able to turn the ordinary into transcendental. It's very clearly manifested in "Sheffield: Sex City". Listen to it, and you will get the idea. The song is not about sex in a biological or social meaning, but more like a pursuit of ideal in a mystical reality. He manages to sing about lust and voyeurism with brutal honesty while not being vulgar and uncovering beauty in banalities. "Live Bed Show", "I spy", "Hardcore", and "Underware" blew my mind, they were very unique at that time, and they still are.
Jarvis succeeded, but that's not the end of the story. Jarvis supporting socialists, Jarvis mooning Michael Jackson [5], Jarvis in "Pulp: Life, Death and Supermarkets" [4], Jarvis publishes "Good Pop, Bad Pop" [6]. Each of these stories deserves a separate article, but that's not necessary. Open up a YouTube and search. You will find a video where Jarvis Cocker tells about these events in his inherently honest interviews with an inane expression on his face.
If this blog post made you interested, find "Pulp: Life, Death and Supermarkets" on YouTube.

I'm not a native English speaker. Please don't hesitate to correct me.

List of references:
[1]
https://youtu.be/-E9iGRaBeYk?si=G9PtZBgvTO7G-wUK
3:45 For a long time it was my kind of thing to hold on to some times quite chaotic existence...

[2]
https://youtu.be/0Vlp37IoAuk?si=pNZIRo9vj0OQJvgZ
Interview with Jarvis Cocker / Pulp (Deadeye, 1995)
"When I get back to the Sheffield I still get abused. Cause this is the thing like.. Sometimes people think that you dress in a certain way for ... a laugh, but in Sheffield it was a bit more grim than that because people are actually smack you and beat you up"

[3]
https://youtu.be/9J4ns1wxDhM?si=n35YYQfJJj1wVGHd
5:10 Jarvis Cocker on falling out of a window

[4]
IMDB Pulp: a Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets
https://www.imdb.com/video/vi4006787097/?playlistId=tt3265262&ref_=tt_ov_pr_ov_vi

[5]
Jarvis Cocker - TFI Friday Interview RE: Michael Jackson/Brit Awards incident (23.02.1996)
https://youtu.be/M9UrQOYOnWo?si=9QDVn-BTXe5XGUby

https://youtu.be/ymCQyq-9APw?si=AZjhsRKgr5W8Luwg
Jarvis Cocker - 1996 Brit Awards Michael Jackson - BBC South East news reports

[6]
"Good Pop, Bad Pop" book by Jarvis Cocker
https://www.amazon.com/Good-Pop-Bad-Sunday-bestselling/dp/1787330567