Why Radiohead Hated Creep

[Music] so we all know Radiohead write arguably one of the most groundbreaking influential and critically acclaimed bands of modern era yeah it's been talked about over and over again but what about Radiohead slowest points I mean surely even the greatest bands of all time I made some mistakes along the way right and if you ask the band members radio have themselves about their slip-ups I think the song creep most likely would come to mind hardcore fans do enjoy it but find it to be a bit misleading in terms of what the band really has to offer and the band members used to say the exact same thing too they knew they had more to offer but were glorified as a one-hit wonder because of the songs popularity a reputation that took its toll on the band members and especially the vocalist Thom Yorke let's take a closer look [Music] although most hardcore fans radiohead think of creep as a hint of what the band would later become the casual listener will always remember Radiohead through creep you have to understand that it was a huge song at the time becoming a milestone in the short-lived grunge era and basically jump-starting Radiohead's career it's a self loathing song about an insecure man who tries to get attention from a girl by following her around this man was of course the vocalist himself Thom Yorke the story is from the time when he went to Exeter University in the late 80s before the band even informed York had an eye for this beautiful angel-like girl the sad part is that he would never actually get to know her though as he never dared to go up to her and talk to her properly instead he would continuously look at her and follow her around like you guessed it a creep it lasted about eight months and his obsession ended up being detrimental to his own self-esteem at one point he got himself drunk to feel confident enough to go up to her but ended up frightening her in the process as fate may have it she unexpectedly attended when a radio has live performances and according to guitarist Jonny Greenwood Tom was mortified because he's never spoken to her or anything and here she was he was very shaken up after that the song opens with Yorke clearly explaining the atmosphere and the feelings he has for the girl he's attracted but intimidated by her looks [Music] no cure in the pre-chorus York goes on to distance himself even more from the girl he seems fully convinced that he'll never have a chance with his girl in the chorus he puts the final nail in the coffin by sharing his very dark and grim self-image [Music] [Applause] now while later working in the studio to record their first EP creep was almost an afterthought but was eventually added to the tracklist after a cheerful response among the producers at first creep suffered from poor sales and critical reception with radio DJs excluding them from playing their playlists calling their music too depressing and while such a pessimistic and melancholic song would sound unlikely to be a hit thanks to ear play in the United States during the rebellious grunge era creep eventually became a massive success for Radiohead eventually reaching number 7 on the UK Singles Charts and number 34 in the Billboard Top 100 helping their debut album Pablo honey sell 2 million copies worldwide despite a song putting Radiohead on the map the band eventually started to dislike the song after relentless pressure to come up with another hit single and they're exhausting 2-year touring schedule the recording of their follow-up album bends became a hectic nightmare with each member going through bouts of self-doubt and depression after the critical success of their 3rd album Ok Computer Radiohead outgrew the raw simplistic sound of creep in favor of more ambitious and abstract art rock becoming separate - the breakthrough success and critical acclaim of their work since about KREEP guitarist Johnny said Tom just doesn't like playing it it's his words he can do what he wants with it he's like he's not in that emotional space anymore so it doesn't like playing it and one of the things that's so good about him is that he's a performer with emotional convictions what I think Queen would meant by describing your Gazza musician with emotional convictions is that he has to perform songs that feel true to him if they don't there's no reason trying to before since they will come off as dishonest and meaningless creep was a song that the band themselves didn't have much faith in to begin with so it's easy to see why it must have felt strange and frustrating to be associated with something that you're convinced isn't your best work to rebel against the fan-favorite they made my iron London a song featured on their third EP by the same name the name refers to a mechanical respirator in patients that suffer from paralyzed lungs essentially helping them stay alive although it sounds great the person using it has to live inside it making it impossible to go anywhere the iron lung was therefore a very smart metaphor for creep it was a song that financially kept the band alive but he brought them creative restrictions since fans now expected them to create similar material in the future as a result Radiohead stopped performing creep towards the end of the okay computer world tour despite of a few sporadic instances between 2001 and 9 Radiohead rarely ever added creep to their life setlist it seemed like creep would never have another chance in their live shows but on May 21st 2016 at a show in Amsterdam during their a moon shaped pool tour something special happened so the funny guy saying creep in the back [Music] [Applause] [Applause] although it might seem like a bit of a tease this moment essentially planted the seeds for Radiohead to embrace creep once again I kind of wound him up by starting to play it tom says which was a bad idea as it was like lighting a fire and the fire surely began to light up as two days off to the Amsterdam show creep made it onto the second and core at a concert in lisanna --the paris making it the beginning of the songs return to the spotlight on stage while thomas apprehensive continuing playing the song live guitarist ed o'brien has added that it's a good song it's nice to play for the right reasons people like it and want to hear it we do err towards not playing it because you don't want it to feel like show business but we started throwing it in last year the band tests sentence continued to play the song life so is there anything special about creep well release during the middle of the grunge era with york's blonde messy here is that pan voice with themes of alienation confusion and self-pity many people called the song a ripoff of Nirvana or even The Hollies although they like so many other bands hated being labeled brunch and hated the genre in general they eventually unfolded as one of the quintessential bands thanks to the game-changing albums such as the bends and Ok Computer so I think in many people's eyes creep was just a humble beginning of what was to come it certainly doesn't have the surreal melancholia of fake plastic trees [Music] the progressive song structure or paranoid Android [Music] or the abstracts experimentation of the national anthem [Music] but like many successful alternative rock songs of the 90s it's a strong melodic hook painfully sincere lyricism and raw energy that sells the song the most and makes it resonate still to this day [Music] thank you so much for watching make sure you click here to subscribe for more videos

Channel: Lie Likes Music

Views: 2,870,931

Keywords: Radiohead Music, Radiohead Documentary 2018, Creep Live Reading, Creep Live stp, Creep Live Radiohead, Radiohead Creep Story, Radiohead Creep Riff, Radiohead Creep Live 2018, Radiohead Creep Acoustic, Radiohead Creep Song, Im A Creep Radiohead, Creep Music Video, Radiohead Creep Video, Early Radiohead Documentary, creep radiohead story

Id: r8ePG94dydY

Length: 9min 45sec (585 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 17 2018