Thom Yorke explains the song saying that he wrote it while studying at Exeter University. It 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 pull it off. Although he usually referred to the drunken student in the third person, with no little contempt, sometimes outright denying it was him, he sometimes admitted it was.
The song has been released in a few versions: the original contains the word “fucking (special)”; an instrumental radio edit, on which this is replaced by “very (special)”, appears on several compilations and is a bonus track on the American version of Pablo Honey. Allegedly Thom said that the band isn’t pleased about this edit, saying that the song had lost its anger as a result. Other versions of Creep release by Radiohead on B-sides include a performance from the Town & Country Club in London on 14 March 1993 (also on a Japanese reissue of Pablo Honey) and a version performed by Thom solo on acoustic guitar for KROQ in Los Angeles on 13 July 1993 with the clean version of the lyrics, which was also included on the EPs Itch and My Iron Lung in various territories.
The single is generally credited with catapulting the band to world-wide renown. In late March 1993 they flew to Israel for their first taste of fame following its success there as a result of heavy airplay on Galei Tzahal, and late in May they flew to the USA for more success– a San Francisco radio station had picked it up, and little by little “Creep” had permeated the nation’s airwaves. It was not a hit at home in the UK until it was reissued in September that year, almost a year after the first release, and by this time the song’s popularity had spread worldwide. Some attribute “Creep’s” success to its capture of the loser/slacker zeitgeist of the early 1990s (which had a similar effect on Beck’s Loser, and had previously catapulted Nirvana and the grunge idea into the mainstream.) If so, it was a double-edged success, quickly earning the band the reputation of ‘complaint rockers’ and leading to speculation that they were one-hit wonders.
The first Radiohead gigs were attended primarily for the performance of “Creep”; anything else, the crowd didn’t want to hear, and the band soon started to resent playing it. 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 didn’t 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. (Ironically on the live version available which predates the song’s success he can be heard bemoaning the fact that it wasn’t a hit.)
After mid 1998 they did not play the song live at all until the final encore of their hometown concert at South Park in Headington in Oxford in 2001, when they played it in a seemingly impromptu decision after an equipment failure on the keyboard near the start of Motion Picture Soundtrack. Since then they have played it 13 more times (Including their latest performance of the song as they headlined V Festival 2006). It is rare to attend a Radiohead concert and hear Creep played.
The song is similar to the 1974 song “The Air That I Breathe” by The Hollies. The songs have an almost identical bass line, and the verses have the same chord structure and a similar melody. As a result the publishing credits also include Albert Hammond and Mike Hazelwood in addition to the five Radiohead members.
In March 2005, Q magazine placed “Creep” at number 15 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.
You can watch the video clip of Creep here:
The annimated video below is the acoustic version of Creep:
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