Creep (Radiohead song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2008) |
| “Creep” | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||
| Single by Radiohead from the album Pablo Honey |
|||||
| Released | September 1992 (United Kingdom) April 13, 1993 (United States) September 28, 1993 (United Kingdom re-release) |
||||
| Format | Green 7", CD | ||||
| Recorded | ? | ||||
| Genre | Alternative rock | ||||
| Length | 3:59 | ||||
| Label | Parlophone EMI |
||||
| Writer(s) | Thom Yorke | ||||
| Producer | Sean Slade, Paul Q. Kolderie |
||||
| Radiohead singles chronology | |||||
|
|||||
"Creep" is the first single released by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, and is a track on their debut album, Pablo Honey (1993). It was written by the band's singer, Thom Yorke, and released in the United Kingdom initially in September 1992. When it was first given limited release, however, Radio 1 found it "too depressing",[1] and removed it from their playlist after airing it only twice. However, it subsequently became one of the band's biggest hits, and became their only Top 40 hit in the United States until 2008's "Nude", despite the success of their future albums in the country.
Contents |
[edit] Theme
Thom Yorke wrote the song while studying at Exeter University. According to him, 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 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."[2]
[edit] Reaction
The single is generally credited with catapulting the band to world-wide renown, but met with little success in the UK when it was first released in 1992. The band soon moved onto a second single, "Anyone Can Play Guitar", to promote the album Pablo Honey, and released a one-off single, "Pop Is Dead", as they began a world tour in 1993.
In late March 1993 they flew to Israel for their first taste of fame following "Creep"'s unexpected success there as a result of heavy airplay on Galei Tzahal. Late in May they flew to the USA and met with more success: a San Francisco radio station had picked up the song, and little by little "Creep" permeated the nation's airwaves. Thom Yorke described the situation:
- My first memory of getting to America was that we drove overnight from Paris, caught the ferry, drove to Heathrow, then flew to New York. So in 20 hours we covered Paris, New York and London, and then we drove straight out to Boston. I woke up on a coach, walked into this hotel in Boston at seven o'clock in the morning, switched on MTV, and there was "Creep"! It was like, 'Oh my God'.[1]
"Creep" was not a hit at home in the UK until it was reissued in September that year, making number 7 in the pop charts. This was 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 slacker zeitgeist of the early 1990s[citation needed] (which had a similar effect on Beck's "Loser", and had previously catapulted Nirvana and the grunge movement 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.
In March 2005, Q magazine placed "Creep" at number 15 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. In June 2008, almost 16 years after its initial release, "Creep" reentered the UK Singles Chart at No. 37 after its inclusion on Radiohead: The Best of," a greatest hits collection.
[edit] Melody
The melody for the song's bridge was taken and retooled from the verse of The Hollies song "The Air That I Breathe" written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazelwood in the 70s. After taking issue, Hammond and Hazelwood now share a small portion of the songwriting credits and royalties.
"Creep" is widely recognized for the three blasts of guitar noise that precede the chorus ("dead notes" played by releasing fret-hand pressure and picking the strings). During initial practice sessions for the song, guitarist Jonny Greenwood was apparently fed up with the song's slow pace and attempted to sabotage the song by inserting this noise; 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."[3]
When they were first demonstrating their songs for producers Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie, one of the band described "Creep" as "our Scott Walker song" and they misunderstood and initially dismissed it, thinking that it was a cover version.
[edit] Performances
The first Radiohead gigs were attended primarily for the performance of "Creep"; if they tried to play anything else, the crowd didn't want to hear it, 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.
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 keyboard near the start of "Motion Picture Soundtrack". Since then, the song has been played more frequently.
[edit] Tracklisting
UK original release
- "Creep" - 3:55
- "Lurgee" - 3:07
- "Inside My Head" - 3:12
- "Million Dollar Question" - 3:18
Japan release (EMI, 1999)
Japanese edition of the band's first hit single from 1993, backed with three non-album tracks: 'Yes I Am', 'Blow Out'(Remix) and a live version of 'Inside My Head' recorded at the Cabaret Metro in Chicago.
- "Creep" (Album Version)
- "Yes I Am"
- "Blow Out" (Remix)
- "Inside My Head" (Live)
[edit] References
[edit] External links
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
