It’s one of the great debut singles by a guitar band – but it’s also caused a whole lot of trouble over the years.
Radiohead’s Creep was their first step on the road to worldwide fame, even if their sound today is largely unrecognisable from such comparably straightforward and humble beginnings.
The song had actually been written by singer/guitarist Thom Yorke before the group had even formed, while Yorke was studying at the University Of Exeter in the late 1980s.
A few years later, during the sessions for the band’s debut album Pablo Honey at Chipping Norton Recording Studios, it was co-producer Paul Q. Kolderie who suggested they run through a quick take of Creep – the band members unaware, according to drummer Philip Selway, that they were being recorded.
A piano part was later added by guitarist Jonny Greenwood, though thanks to a production oversight, it was only included towards the end of the song.
Upon learning that Yorke’s description of Creep as their “Scott Walker song” was in fact a joke, Kolderie then suggested they release it as the lead single in 1992.
It was initially unsuccessful at home in the UK, but heavy rotation on Israeli and American rock radio turned Creep into an international hit, with a similar self-deprecating ‘slacker’ feel to Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, released the year prior, and Beck’s Loser, which came in early 1993.
Controversy came when Radiohead were sued by songwriters Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood, who argued that Creep infringed on their own copyright, borrowing heavily from their 1972 song The Air That I Breathe, famously covered by the Hollies two years later.
As a result, Hammond and Hazlewood were later credited as co-writers.
But this bizarre story doesn’t end there.
In 2018, Radiohead launched their own court case against Lana Del Rey for similarities between Creep and her track Get Free, although no amendments were made to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
Del Rey later told an audience that the lawsuit was over, revealing: “I guess I can sing that song any time I want.”
Prince also sang his own version of Creep, surprising the audience at Coachella 2008 with a cover that included some of his own amendments, although his representatives ensured it was kept off streaming services after the performance.
Yorke found the situation “hilarious”, given that his bandmate Ed O'Brien had been blocked from seeing The Purple One unexpectedly pay tribute to the song that started it all for them.
In an interview with Billboard, Yorke referred to Prince, saying: “Tell him to unblock it. It’s our song.”
The Radiohead original – which still stands as one of their most guitar-centric offerings to date – is a fairly simple arrangement based around the chord progression G/B/C/Cmin, although there’s a little more to it if you look at the notes played during the verses and pre-choruses.
There are moments where the arpeggios alternate from standard major barre chords to sus4 shapes on the B and C chords.
By the time we get to the pre-choruses, the three higher strings are introduced to instil a sense of momentum and build.
But the real fireworks arrive just seconds before the chorus when Jonny Greenwood rakes three pairs of dead notes on his guitar with a herculean amount of gain compared to the tremolo-effected clean guitars that precede it.
The multi-instrumentalist Greenwood later confessed that he did this out of frustration at the song’s overall quietness, although the shimmering clean arpeggios of the verse sections are quickly replaced by the thunder of overdriven power chords during the chorus.
Co-guitarist Ed O'Brien went as far as admitting “that’s the sound of Jonny trying to fuck the song up” because “he really didn’t like it the first time we played it”. O’Brien added that Greenwood’s violent musical outbursts effectively “made the song”.
Yorke also reflected on how well Greenwood’s distorted contributions ended up complimenting the message behind the music, noting how it was “a real self-destruct song” that called for extremely intense dynamics through drops and lifts.
The biggest of those lifts arrives after the second chorus when Yorke sings “She’s runnin’ out the door” as Greenwood scratches his guitar into oblivion, using octave shapes to create a counter melody above the unassuming chord movement that runs through the entire four minutes.
For the final verse, it all simmers back down, ending with Yorke’s moody observation: “I don’t belong here."
There has been some debate over the meaning of the song’s lyrics over the years, with the band members stating it was in fact a happy song about recognising what you are, as well as the total opposite – realising you are not good enough for the person you are in love with.
Yorke stated that his lyrics were written during “a pretty strange period in my life”, when he was attending college and “really fucked up”.
He also confessed that he had “a real problem being a man in the ’90s”, reasoning: “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.”
He went on to explain: “It comes back to the music we write, which is not effeminate, but it’s not brutal in its arrogance”.
33 years on, Creep remains an anthem for disenfranchised youth – and while it is highly unlikely that the Radiohead of today would write a song of such minimalist fashion, it undoubtedly played a crucial part in their rise.
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