Radiohead, Creep - A Classical Musician’s First Listen and Reaction

[Music] hi everyone tonight I'm going to I keep saying tonight why should I be saying tonight it doesn't make sense because well it's night isn't it it is night when we're recording but that doesn't mean it's going to go up tonight does doesn't mean they'll be viewing it tonight let me try again hi everyone this time I'm going to be listening to yet another band which I have never heard before at least to my knowledge and that is radio head well that's a band that many of you have recommended over the course of this past year on my channel I'm finally getting around to it now and I'm curious to to see how it is I understand that this is well Vlad has just told me that this is from the '90s this song and I just finished listening to Crying by Aerosmith which was from was it 93 I think 92 93 so I guess I'm going to be kind of in the same era before I start reading the information about it let me remind you you can always check out my coffee and patreon Pages if you want to support my journey and you can always find early access to the videos that are up there as well as exclusive access to content which I cannot put on YouTube because of copyright issues so let's see what song I'm going to be listening to and what there is to know about the band radio head are an English rock band formed in Abington Oxfordshire in 1985 another English band okay radio head's experimental approach is credited with advancing the sound of alternative rock radio head signed to Emi in 1991 and released their debut album Pablo Honey Pablo honey okay in 1993 their debut single creep was a worldwide hit by 2011 radio head had sold more than 30 million albums worldwide their Awards include six Grammy Awards and four Evo nollo Awards and they hold five Mercury prize nominations the most of any act Mercury prize does that have anything to do with Freddy Mercury Seven radio head singles have reached the top 10 Rolling Stone named radio head one of the 100 greatest artists of all time and rolling stone readers voted them the second best artist of the 2000s five radio head albums have been included in Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Albums of all time that's a pretty significant percentage I would say radio head were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019 radio head's musical style has been described as art rock alternative rock Electronica experimental Rock progressive rock Brit pop grunge Art Pop and electronic rock radio head are cited as one of the foremost rock bands of the 21st century so apparently they're still going on creep creep is the song I'm listening to tonight creep is the debut single released on the 21st of September 1992 radio head had not planned to release creep but cery who's cery must be somebody in the band maybe convinced radio heads record label Emi to release creep as a single it was not initially a success but achieved radio play in Israel and became popular on American alternative rock radio it was reissued in 1993 and became a world worldwide hit likened to alt Rock slacker anthems such as Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana I have heard that one and you can find it on my channel you can check the link here if you want to watch my first listen to that and Loser by Beck haven't heard that one yet in June 2008 creep re-entered the UK singles chart at number 37 after its inclusion on radio head the best of as of April 2019 in the UK it was the most stream song released in 1992 with 10.1 million streams it remains radiohead's most successful single well it's a big one I suppose so let's see what it's all [Music] about [Music] when you were before couldn't look you in the eye you're just like an angel skin makes me [Music] cry you float like a further in a beautiful world I wish I was special you're so [Music] special but I'm [Music] a I'm a [Applause] little what the hell here I don't belong here care I want to have control I want a perfect body I want a perfect soul I want you to notice what I'm not around so special I wish [Music] was I was listening maybe longer than I do sometimes because there were several things that struck me right away from this opening of this song one was the very spare instrumentation there's a heavy um strong drum presence along with a very light sometimes almost hard to pick out the individual notes of the guitar and it's such an interesting contrast to have those two Sonic qualities layered together like that and then the voice I was trying to decide do I like this voice do I not like this voice it's very smooth um it's been well obviously by the '90s these things were happening but but I can hear that it's been somewhat modified with its micing recording but there's something very gentle and pleasant about the voice but it's kind of and then and then the lyrics here as well everything is kind of a little bit weird a little bit off balance a little bit should we say creepy um and I picked up on that from the very first few notes and that's why I was trying to listen and think okay H how is this really feeling to me how is this how is this affecting me and how do I perceive this music and I guess I haven't heard a piece of rock music with this kind of balance and this kind of um combination of Sonic qualities harmonically it's it's incredibly repetitive I mean it seems like it's basically four chords one after the other repeated over and over and I'll get to that in a few minutes but I'm just trying to absorb this interesting balance which is as I say it's a bit creepy but at the same time it's not what I would say unsettling it's not unsettling to me I don't feel like it's creepy in a scary way it's not it's not a dangerous kind of creepiness it's just a little bit weird odd out of balance a bit well let me just uh back up a little bit maybe to the beginning of this verse and and then we'll go through the chorus I'm sure I have more things that I will want to say but let me finish listening first I want to have control I want a perfect body I want a perfect soul I want you to know this when I'm not around so special I wish I was special but I'm a creep I'm a [Music] Winer what the hell am I my turn here I don't belong [Applause] [Music] here run run run [Music] whatever makes you happy whatever you want you're so special I wish I was special but I'm a queen I'm a wi what the hell am I doing [Music] here I don't belong here I don't belong here what an interesting expression of a state of being a a state of mind a state of emotion it's I don't know if I like it or not but at the same time I have to say it's incredibly incredibly eloquent with such sparing use of material and I was marking along the way things that I want to go back and talk about and I guess we'll start from the beginning and work our way through this because there's a surprising amount to talk about considering the minimal amount of musical material that is actually utilized in this piece of music so back to the beginning [Music] so let's use this moment to talk about the chord sequence because here's a great opening of just those four chords and they come back over and over and over this piece now I'm going to refer back to cryan by Aerosmith because in cryan I talked about another chord sequence which was the pattern which we find in Pell's Cannon and a whole lot of other music and would you believe it it's also present in crying now here we have a similarly repetitive um simple chord sequence only only four chords there are a few little tweaks made to them from time to time suspension or or seven or something like that but for the most part it's simply four chords and it is not the pattern from pooc Bell's Cannon it is a different pattern and kind of interesting the way it is set up so what we have is a simple arpeggiated arpeggiation of each chord and I'll play the first bar or so on the harp but I will tell you that this arpeggiation for me to play it exactly as written I would have to sit and scroll and read through every detail and that would be tricky since I really don't know the piece yet so I'm just going to play the first couple bars that I see on the page here and then we'll write out the chords and I'll kind of improv something based on those chords to finish the demo it starts with a g major well we're starting in the key of G so G major GB D that's our starting chord and it simply goes something like [Music] this just walking around the G [Music] chord simple easy now let's count up the chords and write them out where we could see them all on one page so we have G we have B we have C and then we have C minor I'm skipping over the C sus and the B sus because they're just modifications of those basic chords so let's write them here on this clear spot here g b c C minor and if we were to go through the entire score and count up every single chord sequence I think pretty much all of it as I was going through the first time I noticed it was the same thing repeating over and over and over so G is one we have G then we have a b which means we have to add a D sharp to our sound World g b d sh F [Music] sharp then we go to a c and then a C minor is the same C root but with a minor and this strikes me interestingly in this song because it seems like this The Narrative of the lyrics is whoever this person is they're kind of down about something and it's interesting to have a major chord and then it becomes minor immediately after kind of bringing us down it it came across as kind of bringing us down into a bit of Despair a bit of um depression sadness about some unachievable or what one perceives as unattainable desire and so we have this C followed by C minor major one following the other interesting way of using just some simple simple chord progressions in a manner that really conveys the emotional content of the music purely in its harmonic base and so I found that interesting well I could ariate them something like [Music] um [Music] and then the sequence would repeat over and over throughout the song Now what does this do connected with the other elements as I said we have a pretty prominent drum part and the base kind of Blends in with that and then we have these really gentle arpeggiations on the guitar and then the voice enters and when the voice enters it's so warm and smooth and comfortable there's something a little bit groundless about it I might say um ambitionless let's listen as the voice enters here [Music] when ambitionless is not the word you in the just like an angel more hopeless skin makes me [Music] cry you float like a expressive here you float like a feather and you you hear the feather floating I wish was so fuing this is all I wish I was special in the the major and then it moves to but I'm a creep and as we're preparing for that we're on the seam Miner I wish I were special is the hopeful sea but I'm a creep is the minor and this kind of like a engine trying to start uh frustration and an internal sort of can't I just and it's that sort of clenched fist frustration internally we don't see it manifested on the outside I imagine this person just sitting there looking all calm cool relaxed you know not appearing to have any ambition or desire this is all internal and the the gentle guitar arpeggiation kind of is what gives me that perception along with the lyrics and then oh [Music] man The Voice stays the [Music] [Applause] same that was the major belong here and here's the minor you hear that I don't belong here in that depressed minor interval I don't belong here so [Applause] [Music] expressive I want to have control a pretty much the same thing second verse really musically different the chord sequence is continuing P are continuing you hear the Bas which is very warm like the voice like the Bas is the lower range of the voice they make a nice outline so speci I wish I was special but a oh yes I marked these here those are the guitar and these markings here are what I had been um making note of that I wanted to make sure I mentioned but I already mentioned so here you can see them but I'm a creep I'm a [Music] wi what the hell I turn I again that minor I don't be and this is so she's running out again kind of reflecting the the floating like a feather as well as the Hopeless almost crying I could cry she's leaving she's walking out again she's running out again I'm not with her I'm not this is something unattainable for me I can't even dream of achieving this I only wish for it but I can't picture myself I can't envision myself actually getting what I want what I wish for C [Music] major ascending ascending intensifying and then fall down this was interesting and I marked it you can see my markings here but this this building up she's running out she's run run run run run out and the pitches rise and and the music intensifies and it's as if we're aching to follow and we almost dare to hope there's there's this desire that is that could be turned into action could be turned into hope but then instead it sinks back down to this no I'm a loser I I can't I don't do those things I I'm incapable it this is all of its [Applause] [Music] power this was [Music] interesting kind of extending this idea of coming down off of this intense desire to oh it's hopeless oh it's hopeless oh let me just sink back down here on the sofa I I'm incapable and this transition here was such a wonderful continuation of what the voice was expressing it as it [Music] descended the thought is unfinished the guitar [Music] finishes whatever you want same state as when we special even sounding I wish wish I was special the way his voice cracks here I wish I was it's strengthless it is not even able to cry not even not even passionate enough to to pursue anything to even pursue hopelessness it is it is a very passive conclusion inactive special the way the voice cracks but I'm a creep I mean it's as I said it's so eloquent in the ex expression of the state of mind and and emotion and the entire being but [Music] I'm the piano comes in here turns it into a sort of a ballad style The Ballad of hopelessness and [Music] strengthless and that's the conclusion well at least we ended on G rather than inconclusive depressed C minor okay so we're in the '90s black son smells like teen Spirits now creep I mean it all starts to fit together a bit what a miserable musical attitude I mean okay I understand I understand a bit of why there was this direction taken but it's really depressingly miserable and as I'm thinking about the lyrics I mean the music as I said was incredibly eloquent and expressive of what is being stated in the words themselves and I have to say the title is incredibly appropriate I mean at first we might think it reads like a a love story a love song unrequited love um she doesn't love me back I love her but as we go through both the words and the music we realize that there's really no passion for this person there's no desire to get up and do something anything to there's not the drive that love brings to a person that love puts within a person and as we reading through even things like his use of the f word you're so special I wish I was special I wish I was special I mean that's such a loser attitude and then to use the f word when talking about the person that you think you desire after it's so crude it's so it's so nasty n y and it devalues the entire relationship or desire for relationship when desires basically there's no desire for a relationship anywhere in this song as I'm looking through the lyrics is there any desire for a relationship your skin makes me cry you Flo like a feather and okay so from a distance I get this response within myself but then it's I wish I was special I want to have control I want a perfect body I want a perfect soul I want I want I want to be perfect somehow my imagination that I'm going to be perfect will somehow make things work between us I mean I can't find any desire even for things to work out between us here it's it's just this mindset in which everything about me is no good and I want Perfection as if that's going to solve all my problems I wish I was special but since I'm not perfect since I don't have a perfect body since I don't have a perfect Soul since you don't notice me at least you don't notice when I'm not around then I'm a creep I'm a weirdo what am I doing here I don't belong here there is no no substance to this desire it is all about the self self selfish and that is the whole point of this song I mean this person is messed up they are deranged I mean it starts out so smoothly as if we see the outward appearance of this person calm smooth easygoing relaxed until the refrain comes in and the guitar and suddenly we are thrown into the inner world of this person and we realize that things are really not so smooth here as we might think and the Music Works incredibly well it expresses this so well we feel it just by listening to the music and as much as I dislike this kind of message as much as I dislike this this attit ude um I don't think that it's an attitude that is healthy at the same time I have to admire the art of this song the ability to express this state which is an actual state that people experience and and it doesn't have to be taken as promoting this attitude it is simply expressing and revealing and in fact by revealing all this about it it lets us know without saying so that this is a problem and it's not desirable it's really not it doesn't have to say that at all it just we come to understand it and so I think that music like this is actually a really power powerful tool for education for development of one's awareness and um personal Direction and social the the development of the social fabric of society we have to have these things put in front of our eyes we have to be made aware of them in order to remedy them if they're a problem and for that I admire this song it's not one that I'll find myself returning to probably maybe once or twice if ever but it is incredibly good at what it does and there we have radio heads creep I'll see you next time

Channel: Virgin Rock

Views: 88,430

Keywords: rock, rock music, music review, rock music review, creep, radiohead

Id: HsXcv7_csJU

Length: 36min 51sec (2211 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 06 2023