October 20th, 2003 09:10AM  
I think we've all undergone the feelings contained within 'Creep' at some point in our lives. It's one of the few easily interpreted Radiohead songs (many can't be interpreted at all). My personal experience relates however, no just to one girl, but to a whole group of people - I'm speaking about my first year at uni, where my semi-gothic alt-rocker ways were totally alien to the broadly middle-class, attached-at-the-waist couples I came across. I seriously thought 'What the hell am I doing here?' - and the line 'I don't care if it hurts - I wanna have control' speaks of the easy way out I ended up falling for - alcohol, and lots of it. I didn't think of radically changing my life, I just didn't feel up to it. And the 'I wish I was special' - I definetly felt unimportant, ignored by my cold-shouldered contemporaries. But what would I care? They can rot in hell, I've left 'em far behind now.

username June 20th, 2005 09:04PM  
I think, as many have said here, that we can all relate to this song. Even the people who appear to be "so fucking special". Like the popular girls we've tried to impress or the cute boys that have used us or seem to have it all. The popular people are really "creeps" too, like us. They may appear to have it all. Rich daddy, money, looks but it all rounds out to bullshit. They have no one and nothing but themselves as we do.

"I dont care if it hurts" to me has always symbolized a girl having sex for the first time with the "it" boy. she doesn't care if it hurts, she wants to have control. I've never been much for radio head but i always sing along wearily. especially when he says "I dont belong here..." maybe not just symbolizing life in general but being in the presense of the people that we admire and want to impress. Because none of us belong there and hopefully we can sing about that one day.

anonymous April 21st, 2006 08:19AM  
This song is so painful. I can relate to it entirely. I have a dark purple birthmark covering the one half of my face and sometimes I feel like the song was written for me. During my adolesence I "wanted to have control, a perfect body, a perfect soul". I had a huge crush on one of the boys in my class, I can remember not being able to stop thinking about him and wanting him to notice me. How could he though? I was a freak!

Luckily I don't feel like that any more and Ive grown up to be a very strong and confident person with a wonderful boyfriend.

I adore the song. Everyone feels like this at some point in their life.

Biopower May 31st, 2007 12:46PM  
This is taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creep_%28Radiohead%29

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 approach her. Although Yorke has generally referred to the drunken student in the third person and with contempt, sometimes outright denying it was him, he has recently admitted that it was him.[citation needed]

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's one of the things I'm always trying: To assert a sexual persona and on the other hand trying desperately to negate it."[2]

Wikipedia is your friend. That wasn't so hard, now, was it? ;)

anonymous June 10th, 2007 09:33AM  
Well,when I heard creep for the first time I paid attention to the words and I realised that this song is almost written for me,ya know?i was in a place that I wasn't sure if it's gonna be good for me to live(what the hell am I doing here...),i met a girl that I really like but she didn't pay any attention to me(I wish I was special, you're so fucking special...).Well about the "I don't care if it hurts,i wanna have control" part I connected that with the fact that I was far away from home and I really missed all my family/friends and my place but I wanted to make it by myself. You know, living away from home without my family's help,being away from friends and stop doing things that I was used to do.

anonymous January 31st, 2008 02:37PM  
This song is a fairly surfaced song, especially coming from Radiohead. A man sits at a bar, his focus suddenly shoots to a beautiful woman. He is too afraid to pursue her and it's driving him to utter madness. After the almost agonizing experience, she walks out and he is left alone yet again.

anonymous April 12th, 2008 11:29AM  
I think it's just about fulfillment, depression is taking over this persons life, he feels alone and a reject, he doesn't fit the 'perfect person' description and feels that he can't approach this girl, although he wants to go over and say hi, even just to be friends, he thinks about it and thinks 'what the hell am I doing here?'

He doesn't feel worthy enough for this girl that's 'just like an angel' so he thinks 'i don't belong here...'

Here, to me, meaning the world and how he sees it as he knows he is fine but is afraid of being rejected by everyone.

Love this song so much.

idioteque May 11th, 2008 01:58AM  
I can't believe some of the interpretations you guys have come up with. Most of you couldn't be more off. This song obviously has to do with depression, anxiety, paranoia etc. You people who think it is about a girl are just ridiculous and shouldn't really be listening to Radiohead. This song is about a person (maybe Thom himself) who is anti-social, wants to fit into society and be like everyone else and live a normal life but he can't. He wants to be friendly and try to meet new people but he can't look them in the eye, other people are judging him and think he is weird so they stay away.

anonymous August 15th, 2008 12:56AM  
Basically every interpretation presented for this touching song agrees on key aspects in the feeling of the words to this song that radiate to the listener. Simply stated this song can mean a under-confidenced boy/girl who goes day by day with feelings for another but he/she does not believe the other could ever love or take interest in what he/she considers ones self....... a outkast, a disgrace, a freak, a loser, a empty and waste of space, most importantly a creep. yet another interpretation could simply be hating what you are. Seeing all of your imperfections and hating what stares back at you in the mirror. either love or self hate can radiate from this song. Its up to the listener to decide what they feel the song conveys.

wellnoted October 20th, 2008 05:34PM  
As compared to the angel of a beauty that he is talking about, he rates himself as a creep that doesn't belong in this beautiful world she lives in..somewhat like a ugly looking guy wanting a damsel..for once a song not about drugs.///well maybe someone has put in a interpretation about drugs..:)

danniboi December 8th, 2008 06:08PM  
well, its quiet obviously about drugs :P nah seriously though this is the way i interpreted it...its what it means to me: its about wanting a girl and trying to change yourself to get her to like you but eventually realising that youll never be good enough for her.

knuskewl March 16th, 2009 01:43PM  
As a singer this song is a great opener if you deal with being confident performing for others. It is something in you that has to come out or you'll explode. Usually there is a fine line between tasteful and ridiculous. I think that even if Thome York didn't write this outright with the belief that he can sing his self conscious thoughts out loud as an anthem for all to join in then he can get past these feelings of inadequacy then it can be interpreted this way for others that would like to take the challenge of singing this song. It is a wonderful song to sing if have total belief in the lyrics. It has spoken to me for over 13 years and I now can contribute to spreading it to others.

anonymous June 18th, 2009 11:32AM  
When you were here before,
Couldn't look you in the eye
You're just like an angel,
Your skin makes me cry

(This verse explains the love he has for her passionate beauty. She appears so gorgeous to him, and he can't even stand it.)



You float like a feather
In a beautiful world
I wish I was special
You're so fuckin' special

(He compares the woman to something as graceful and beautiful as a feather, in a world that's completely admirable. He wishes he, himself could compare. He wants to be as glorious as her, because he wants her to be his.)



But I'm a creep,
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doin' here?
I don't belong here

(He's showing that he's not good enough for her in this verse, doubting himself, and wondering why he's even guessing the chance. He thinks he doesn't deserve her.)



I don't care if it hurts,
I wanna have control
I want a perfect body
I want a perfect soul

(I think that in this verse, the boy is trying to demonstrate how badly he wants the girl. He wants to do everything in his power to make her his. It could also symbolize sex, the first time: "I don't care if it hurts", and that he is fantasizing of the idea of them making love. "I want to have control". After making love, he thinks she would impact him so much as to he would feel as perfect as she is to him.)



I want you to notice
when I'm not around
You're so fuckin' special
I wish I was special

(The boy wants to be as special to the girl. He wants her to always think of him. Notice when he's not there, miss him when he's gone. And that no matter what, even if she leaves him, that she will always remember him. She's so much too good for him, and since he's got her, he wants to have her forever, in a presence, or just as a memory if that's what it comes down to.)




But I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doin' here?
I don't belong here, ohhhh, ohhhh

(He's showing that he's not good enough for her in this verse, doubting himself, and wondering why he's even guessing the chance. He thinks he doesn't deserve her. No matter what they've been through at this point. It can also demonstrate how he's begining to mess up all that they've had,shared, loved; up to this point.)




She's running out again
She's running out
She run run run run...
run... run...

(This verse demonstrates that the poor boy is back to the begining. He's got it as good as he did when he only admired her, and now that he has her, he's losing her. She's going to leave him. She's to glorious and beautiful to stay with him, a "creep", a "weirdo". She's broken his heart.)




Whatever makes you happy
Whatever you want
You're so fuckin' special
I wish I was special

(The boy is letting her go, because she wants to, he has no other choice than to let her leave, she doesn't love him anymore. He wants whatever is best for her, because his affection is so strong. He wishes he was a special to her as she was to him, because again, she's the one who's so strongly admired at this point in the relationship.)




But I'm a creep,
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doin' here?
I don't belong here

I don't belong here...

(Back to the begining, only to fail at the end. He's admired her, he stole her heart, and no she has left. The "I don't belong here" demonstrates the painful goodbye he had to go through, and alas, after all the time, all of the pain, memories, thoughts shared, she was too good for him, she was an angel, he was just a creep..)

anonymous July 28th, 2009 07:24AM  
I feel that it's simply about feeling invisible and outcast by the rest of "society"....i want you to notice when im not around...or take the line i dont belong here...i dunno i guess being an outcast i feel this song speaks volumes of what alot of people are feeling

mars August 9th, 2009 04:37AM  
I think this one of those songs where we can relate it to in many different way in our lives such as, wanthing to fit in, be pretty, skinny, all the things everyone wants, ect.

anonymous November 15th, 2009 12:34AM  
I think it's about a person possibly trapped in the wrong body, feeling like they don't belong there, that they are a strange person in a different body--therefore they are unhappy w/ their current gender...so they wish they had a perfect body, a perfect soul...they want their mind to fit their gender, and since it doesn't they feel like a creep...maybe they are still coming to terms w/ it, so they can't look themselves in the eyes, ......so I think the song is about gender identity problems..