Creep

## Description

What can be said about Creep that hasn't already been said? Radiohead's first and biggest single, Creep is a radio-ready alternative rock song that has emerged as one of the definitive songs of the 90s. Featuring those legendary guitar stabs and one of the most famous screams in popular music history, this song has come to define the band for many people - even despite their later successes. This is something that the band has famously come to resent. While never outright hating it, Radiohead has held a deep-seated disdain for Creep that has never quite shifted.

## Live history

Creep has perhaps the most famously complicated live history of any Radiohead song. The band has repeatedly stated that boredom with the song has meant that they rarely play it anymore, if at all. Seeing as it was easily their most notable song in the band's early days, Radiohead played Creep at almost every show between 1992 and 1995. From then, however, appearances have been far more uncommon. Played sporadically on the OK Computer tour, it was then dropped entirely for the Kid A tour and played just once on the Amnesiac tour. Between 2002 and 2009, it was played infrequently, only to be completely dropped again for The King of Limbs tour. Finally, after a seven year gap, Creep was brought back for sporadic appearances on the A Moon Shaped Pool tour.

Creep is also notable for receiving performances that vary hugely in quality, sincerity and interest. Particularly following The Bends tour, Thom would often sing this song with little to no investment or effort, often treating it as a joke and performing it as such. Thus, the performances of Creep from its mammoth live history that you'll want will vary. If you want comparatively sincere, faithfully performed renditions of the classic song, you'll generally want an early performance. If you want takes with more variety and humour, you'll want a later performance. It's all up to your individual desires here.

### 1992

Seeing as this year featured a tour dedicated entirely to the song, Creep was performed at every (recorded) 1992 show but one. In terms of pure sincerity, '92 shows are about as genuine as Creep performances would ever get - they're clearly still excited about the song and are even relishing its increasing popularity. Regardless, its best performances will not generally be found here. Notable and/or recommended performances include:

* 1992-06-13 BBC Radio 1 'Evening Session' - a BBC recording notable for featuring some early lyrics.
* 1992-11-09, Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton, England - a personal favourite from this year, with an elevated tempo, early drum work and an absolutely incredible Jonny moment before the second chorus.

### 1993

1993 was the Year of the Creep for the band. It was performed at every non-acoustic show and featured in a huge number of TV appearances. As the year progresses, the crowd reactions just get bigger and bigger; what starts off at the beginning of the year as some knowing cheers and respectful applause after the song is announced turns into a total mania by the end of the year. Crowds would sing along and many would go to their shows just to hear the song, which also means you can start to hear the first signs of resentment from the band towards the song at the end of the year. Listening to the shows in consecutive order is an interesting experience for that reason.

Song-wise, Creep changes in some subtle and not-so-subtle ways over the course of the year. At some early shows, Jonny would 'ghost' the pre-chorus stabs in the outro, which is a nice little touch that was dropped soon after. The length of Thom's scream at the end would also gradually increase over the course of the year, leading to some amazing displays of vocal heroics where it seems like he's screaming til his voice gives out under him. '93 features some great performances of this song, and there are many of them. Notable and/or recommended performances include:

* 1993-02-18, Joiner's Arms, Southampton, England - notable if only for one of the best Thom introductions for this song ever: 'This is called Creep and it wasn't a hit.' In hindsight, the irony is delicious.
* 1993-03-14, Town and Country Club, London, England - five-star sound quality of a strong performance. You may know it from the Pop Is Dead single.
* 1993-04-02, Roxanne, Tel Aviv, Israel - featuring not one but *two* performances of the song: the first genuine and brilliant, the second a total pastiche.
* 1993-07-11, Justin Herman Plaza, San Francisco, CA, USA - one of the two absolutely stunning acoustic renditions of this song, in great sound quality.
* 1993-07-13 KROQ session - another solo acoustic Creep from Thom, this time the more famous one.
* 1993-09-03, Barrowlands, Glasgow, Scotland - very nice soundboard recording and an early example of the extra-long scream Thom would do at later shows.
* 1993-09-14 Late Night with Conan O'Brien broadcast - yep, Radiohead were on Conan. Here it is.
* 1993-10-15, Riviera Theatre, Chicago, IL, USA - a *gorgeous* take. Thom really gets into this one, and another good example of a very long scream.
* 1993-11-22, Transbordeur, Lyon, France - a soundboard recording and an ideal example of pantomime Thom on this song. He sings in all sorts of strange accents and with bizarre inflections.

### 1994

Naturally, Creep remained a setlist staple throughout the entirety of 1994, being present at every full-band performance (and at a couple Thom and Jonny ones as well.) The resentment towards this song that was cultivated towards the end of 1993 is even more evident here, with Thom frequently introducing the song as the band's 'karaoke number' and choosing not to do the extra-long scream as frequently. This means that there are fewer incredible performances of Creep from 1994, but the recommended ones are *really* recommended. In fact, this song at its best in 1994 could probably beat any Creep performance from any point in the band's history. Notable and/or recommended performances include:

* 1994-05-27, The Astoria, London, UK - because it's their most famous song from one of their most famous performances. Can't not include this, especially in the video and audio quality that it's in!
* 1994-06-26, Glastonbury Festival, Pilton, England - if you called this your favourite performance of Creep, I wouldn't blame you. It's cathartic, devastated, furious and *dear Lord* that scream at the end. Only thing that stops me from calling it my personal favourite is the fact that 'fuck' is censored.
* 1994-10-06, Exeter University, Exeter, England - Thom wrote Creep on the grounds of this university many years prior; here, he finally returns, and well and truly does the song justice.