"
Creep" is a song by the English
alternative rock band
Radiohead, written by vocalist
Thom Yorke. Radiohead released "Creep" as their debut single in 1992, and it later appeared on their first album,
Pablo Honey (1993). During its initial release, "Creep" was not a chart success. However, upon re-release in 1993, it became a worldwide hit. The band began to dislike the song, as fans attended their early gigs primarily for the performance of "Creep". During the mid-to-late 1990s, "Creep" was played less frequently at gigs and in 1998, the band dropped the song from setlists altogether. It would not be played live again until 2001, and has since appeared sporadically in the band's live sets. However in 2009, during the Spring tour of South America and Mexico, the song was played at almost every gig. It also opened their set in the 2009
Reading Festival. "Creep" is one of Radiohead's biggest hits, and has been used in various media as well as having been covered by a number of musical artists.
Background and recording
Thom Yorke wrote "Creep" while studying at
Exeter University in the late 1980s.
[Marzorati, Gerald. "". The New York Times. 1 October 2000. Retrieved on 28 July 2008.] Guitarist
Jonny Greenwood said the song was inspired by a girl that Yorke had followed around who showed up unexpectedly during a show by the band.
[Kempf, Christi. "The Radiohead Vision Creeps Onto Airwaves ". Chicago Sun-Times. 7 June 1993.]Though original, the song borrows heavily from the melody and chords of
The Hollies' "
The Air That I Breathe", and writers
Hammond and
Hazlewood were given songwriting credit in the liner notes for Pablo Honey. In particular, the
ostinato of "Creep" is taken from the first four chords of the verse of "The Air That I Breathe". The melody of that verse is also echoed in "Creep"'s middle eight ("She's running out again...").
In 1992 during rehearsal sessions with producers Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie, Radiohead spontaneously performed "Creep". Yorke described "Creep" to the producers "our
Scott Walker song"; Slade and Kolderie misheard the singer's remark and mistakenly believed the song was a
cover. Tension arose due to unsatisfactory attempts at recording other songs, so to improve morale Slade and Kolderie requested the band play "Creep" again. The band recorded the song in a single take; after the performance everyone in the room burst into applause. Once the band assured Kolderie that "Creep" was an original song, he called EMI to tell them to consider the song as the band's next single. While the recording had minimal overdubs and the band did not intend to release it, the producers were impressed with the song.
Composition and lyrics
Ostinato from Radiohead's "Creep" features
modal mixture,
common tones between adjacent triads (B between G & B, C and G between C+ & C-), and an emphasis on
subdominant harmony (IV = C in G major).
[Guy Capuzzo (Autumn, 2004). "Neo-Riemannian Theory and the Analysis of Pop-Rock Music", p.186-87, Music Theory Spectrum, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 177-199.] The G-B-C-Cm chord progression is repeated through the whole song, just alternating between arpeggiated chords in the verses and last chorus and loud power chords during the first two choruses. In G major, these may be interpreted as I-III#-IV-iv.
According to Guy Capuzzo, the ostinato musically portrays "the song's obsessive
lyrics, which depict the "'self-lacerating rage of an unsuccessful crush.'" For example, the "highest pitches of the ostinato form a prominent
chromatic line that 'creeps' up, then down, involving
scale degrees
–
–
–
....[while] ascend[ing], the lyrics strain towards optimism...descend[ing], the subject sinks back into the throes of self-pity...The guitarist's fretting hand mirrors this contour".
When the song shifts from the verse to the chorus, Jonny Greenwood plays three blasts of guitar noise ("dead notes" played by releasing fret-hand pressure and picking the strings). Greenwood said he did this because he did not like how quiet the song was; he explained, "So I hit the guitar hard - really hard".
Ed O'Brien said, "That's the sound of Jonny trying to fuck the song up. He really didn't like it the first time we played it, so he tried spoiling it. And it made the song." During the song's outro, Jonny Greenwood plays a piano figure. Kolderie forgot to add the piano part during the final mix until the end of the song, but the band approved of the final result.
According to Yorke, "Creep" tells the tale of an inebriated man who tries to get the attention of a woman he is attracted to by following her around. In the end, he lacks the self-confidence to face her and feels he subconsciously is her. When asked about "Creep" in 1993, Yorke said, "I have a real problem being a man in the '90s... Any man with any sensitivity or conscience toward the opposite sex would have a problem. To actually assert yourself in a masculine way without looking like you're in a hard-rock band is a very difficult thing to do... It comes back to the music we write, which is not effeminate, but it's not brutal in its arrogance. It is one of the things I'm always trying: To assert a sexual persona and on the other hand trying desperately to negate it." Jonny Greenwood said the song was in fact a happy song about "recognizing what you are".
The version issued for US radio play replaced the line "So fucking special" with "So very special". The group was worried that issuing a censored version would be a "bit of a sellout" according to Jonny Greenwood, but they decided it was acceptable since
Sonic Youth, their idols, had done the same thing. Nonetheless, Greenwood noted the British press "weren't impressed" by the action.
During the recording session for the censored lyrics, Kolderie convinced Yorke to rewrite the first verse, telling him he thought the singer could do better.
Success and reaction
Despite initial reluctance, staff at EMI ultimately grew enthused by "Creep", and the label decided to issue it as a single. "Creep" met with little success in the UK when it was first released in September 1992.
Radio 1 found the song "too depressing" and refrained from playing the song.
[Jennings, Dave. "Creepshow". Melody Maker. 25 September 1993.] "Creep" reached number 78 on the
UK Singles Chart, selling only 6,000 copies. The band soon moved onto a second single, "
Anyone Can Play Guitar", to promote the album
Pablo Honey, and released a non-album single, "
Pop Is Dead".
Towards the end of 1992, acclaimed
DJ Yoav Kutner played "Creep" incessantly on the
Israeli radio. He had been introduced to the song by a local representative of
EMI. The song soon became a national hit. Radiohead quickly set up tour dates in the country to capitalise on the success. "Creep" had similar success in
New Zealand,
Spain, and
Scandinavian countries. Around the same time, the
San Francisco,
California radio station
KITS added the song to its playlist; and soon other radio stations along the American west coast followed suit. A censored version of the song was made available to radio stations, and by the second half of 1993, the song had become a hit nationwide and peaked at number thirty-four in the
Billboard Hot 100 and number two in the
Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks.
By the time Radiohead came to the United States, they were surprised by the success of the song. Yorke told
Melody Maker in 1993 that many journalists misunderstood the song, asking him if it was a "joke".
Radiohead initially did not want to reissue "Creep" in the United Kingdom, but eventually relented. Bassist
Colin Greenwood said that "after doing so well in America, there was this tremendous pressure from radio people, the press, the record company, even our fans, to put it out". The 1993 reissue reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart. The release was bolstered by a September 1993
Top of the Pops performance, which drew criticism from the music press and fellow artists:
Oasis guitarist
Noel Gallagher opined that Radiohead were willing to appear on the show and alter the lyrics to reflect the clean edit of the song "because it made them more money."
In June 2008, "Creep" reentered the UK Singles Chart at number 37 after its inclusion on the compilation album
Radiohead: The Best Of.
[. 15 June 2008.]Performances
This led to the band's creation of "My Iron Lung", which featured as the title song of their next release,
My Iron Lung EP (1994), and as track 8 on their second album
The Bends (1995). This track deals with how "Creep" was the song they relied on, how it was their "life-support, [their]
iron lung". Thom explained in an interview that they did not want to stop playing it as that would be making a big deal about it; however, he often made comments before the song on stage which suggested he had little respect for anyone who wanted to hear it.
After mid 1998, Radiohead did not play the song live at all until the final encore of a 2001 hometown concert at
South Park, Oxford, when they played it in a seemingly impromptu decision after an equipment failure on the organ just after the start of "
Motion Picture Soundtrack". Thom Yorke commented that they would be playing a "slightly older song... I think." This is probably because "Creep" and "Motion Picture Soundtrack" were written on the same day, but "Creep" was released in 1992 while "Motion Picture Soundtrack" was finally released eight years later. To date, the last major performance of the song was at
Reading Festival 2009, where it opened their set.
Covers and other versions
- In April 2008, Prince covered "Creep" at Coachella. This version was captured on a video from a concert-goer's mobile phone, and uploaded to YouTube. However, it was quickly taken down at Prince's request. After finding out about the blocking, Thom Yorke was quoted as saying, "Well, tell him to unblock it. It's our song."
- Dustin Kensrue lead singer of Thrice has performed "Creep" acoustic, numerous amount of times on his solo tours.
- Oklahoma-based band, Axium, which features American Idol Season 7 winner David Cook, covered the song in a concert live in Tulsa, Oklahoma and featured in the live album, Alive in Tulsa.
- Frank Bennett recorded a jazz rendition of the song for his album Five O'Clock Shadow.
- Moby performed the cover of the song live on a few concerts.
- Bill Bailey performed a Hindi version of the song at Wembley Arena as part of his 2008 Tinselworm tour, with the Bollywood Pandits, which he described as "Hindi Indie."
- Allison Crowe regularly performed the song in concert sets of her rock bands in the '90s and up until 2003 (when she went solo).
- Nell have also performed a cover of it live.
- British Rock outfit InMe also covered the song on live television in 2003.
- A cover by Echostream can be found on their Identity album.
Track listing
UK original release
- "Million Dollar Question" – 3:18
(Cassette)
- "Faithless, the Wonder Boy
UK 1993 re-release (CD)
- "Creep" (album version) – 3:58
- "Inside My Head" (live) – 3:07
UK 1993 re-release (12" vinyl)
- "Creep" (acoustic) – 4:19
- "Vegetable" (live) - 3:07
- "Killer Cars" (live in Japan) - 2:17
