Creep

Yup. I think you're right; It's a self-loathing song filled with insecurity.
We just feel like creeps when we love someone we know we could never reach.

Think this is why Thom never plays it anymore, and dislikes it; this song isn't worthy of his pure awesomeness! It's too insecure! Or maybe it's all a lie and it's just a tad too personal for him...

The ladies, man. The ladies.
The pretty, nice, amazing ones can get whoever they want.

There' no girl 'he could never reach' that's purely metaphorical. It's about the stick Thom got all through school for the way he looked [beautiful in my opinion]. He was also with his long term partner Rachel at this point, who he met at uni, so it's very unlikely it's about unrequited love.

@katyana later we wonder what the hell we were thinking about the person? Emotions, what a ride! Thoughts are not the same as feelings

@katyana
I can certainly appreciate your generalization and I think the song can be seen that way. I'd like to think that most people could take it that way, but without any personal research into what Radiohead said about the song, I can't help taking it in a somewhat darker sense. To me, these lyrics are haunting in how they seem to poignantly suggest two sides of the same coin: while the self-proclaimed "creep" admires people of higher social circles, there is an understated, sarcastic tone to it that suggests he/she laments more the society that places some advantaged folks above him/her than his unjust position within that context.

In fact, the narrator never denigrates himself specifically beyond the label of "creep" and "I don't belong here." Meanwhile, there is consistently a tone of exaggeration in the descriptions of those deemed of higher status: 1) "you're just like an angel; 2) your skin makes me cry; 3) you float like a feather (in a beautiful world, no less!)

But despite wanting "a perfect body" and "perfect soul," the narrator has no out because those are things only attributed to people of certain social status so all that is left is questioning such a society with statements like "you're so fucking special" (accusatory) and "I wish I was special" (sarcastic, because the problem is in the society, not the narrator.

@wootlers I remember someone I used to think as creepy. I remember his eyes undressing me when he came to discuss his wedding cake with his wife to be there too. I remember being really depressed and sad one day about having been unfaithful to my ex husband with the mans best friend.

I remember going out with my work colleagues and dancing with the man who I thought was creepy. I said I am really sorry but I am trying to make my relationship work, I cannot be with you. I saw him years later and didn’t recognise him and was unaware that he had been hurt. It really upsets me to think about it. I tried blocking the pain out and was blamed by many people and held responsible which really really upsets me as I would never hurt a fly. I have tried sending healing thoughts to him and his family- I just hope that they have received the reiki healing

100%

This is EXACTLY how I feel about it... I'm in this situation where it's reaching the end of a 3 1/2 year relationship. It's sucks, but I'm tired. It's come to that point where I can no longer sit here and take the same shit over and over. Our good times are soo good, but our bad are just really bad. And I can't keep trying to make this work because I love his company. There's a lot missing from both parts of this situation and it really comes down to who we are as as individuals. We've grown apart and want different things. But it's just so hard for me to end it because that's my best friend I'm walking away from. That's who I'd call after anything happens during my day. There's gonna be a huge hole left in my heart where he use to be. But I just can't keep trying to make the wrong key fit the keyhole.

Damn, I can't help but suspect if I wrote this myself and just don't remember. Amazing how similar people's experiences can be.

I know this might be outdated and you might not ever read this but WOW!!! Very well said in how you interpret this song. I can relate to this in someway but my situation is a quite different. I was involved with another woman that i shouldn't have never been with because I was married. This woman decided to end our fling or relationship with me. However, we remained friends and still communicated but to me things never change in how I cared about her. Until this day and after a year she called it off, I still care alot about her but she doesn't care about me like she used too. That is the part that really tares me up because we worked for the same company and I still see her in some way. Like you said it just becomes sad to watch and its very sad to be in this kind of situation. At this point I fell like the creep, the weirdo because I shoulnt be here. So i am trying to stop caring for her and move on.

This is my current story...living this right now. never felt so low...this song is all i have.

@ME68 I feel really sad that my ex husband refused for me to be near to my family. He also had an affairs with many women including my best friend and family. It saddens me to think that they thought I didn’t care or wanted to be close to them. I have many regrets about not leaving my relationship earlier and going back to the people that mattered most to me.

@ME68 ~ again this song has come into my life and it's subtle mystical power draws me into it like a black hole consumes all. And so I thought I feed the demand it's gravity commands by trying to learn more about it, which brings me here and now......
*** FIRST I'd like to say great job on the various iterations of interpretation. The explanation of the songs meaning posted here is interesting, well said, and has a lot of merit
which very well captures the overall mood and is a likely explanation of lyric meaning. ALTHOUGH, I have to share an interpretation that came to me one dark evening that was an "Ah - Ha" moment, where I thought I nailed the song meaning and yet couldn't believe I never saw it so plainly before. SO NOW I WANT Share this to see what y'all think what I thought the lyrics could mean.......

In short, I thought the song was about the final thoughts one might have after having deciding to commit me suicide, but sort of glamorizing a fantasy this person has of it's hoped for, and intended reason and impact this suicide will have on the world left behind....!
This notion of the lyrics mean dawned on me one day while listening to it. I was shocked that I never recognized it before, nor ever heard any other suggestion about what was now obvious and simple about a song that had captured me long ago yet took 20 years to feel like I actually know what the song is truly about. Which is dark for how popular it is , yet still no certainty of it's true origin or meaning.

The part in the song that brought about this epiphany was the second, 2nd verse.

I don't care if it hurts - * if dying hurts - already in pain

I wanna have control - I get to choose how death comes to me - how it happens

I want a perfect body - concerning the choice method of suicide in order to look good in the coffin during the important funeral processionals. *Suicide provides the opportunity to have control over maintaining a perfect body (fit for show) as in choosing to hang yourself, take excess pills, or hose from car exhaust ~VERSES~ a shotgun blast to the face, or a car wreck, cutting your veins and bleeding out.....for example. Further, if you want a perfect body, then you must take into account that dying by hanging might hurt tremendously and doesn't offer the seemingly more instantaneous no pain method a self inflicted gun shot to the head might bring.....

"don't care if it hurts" - not as important as the impact felt by funeral attendance with an open casket.

"I want a perfect soul" - any raised with religion says you go the hell for committing suicide, yet public out cry of pitty and grief for the poor victim's who's shamed weak soul that should get a pass from hell bc of no other choice


I want you to notice
When I'm not around - again the fantasy that there will be a huge void in life of the person he desires attention of.

You're so fuckin' special" - viewed as an untouchable goddess as part of a deep obsession for an unattainable fantasy projection.

I wish I was special. -. If I was special, then I wouldn't be this weirdo creep about to take extreme measures to hopefully get noticed.

ANYWAY, that's what hit me one day listening to and thinking about this song I've heard and loved for so long, yet really don't know the true meaning behind the lyrics.
Haha - here I am searching for and reading the popular explanations trying to get an answer, and found no other suggest my same relaxation. Ouch! Yet, love what I am reading.

Just curious now how you all feel about my perceived alternative suggestion.

Thanks for the ideas and consideration!

Cheers

@thebirdie I had to make an account just to say that this is exactly what I get from the song, because that is how I feel exactly. Whenever I listen to the song, I feel like every single word is the way I feel, and I realize that while it sounds like longing for someone that is out of their league, it is really just how they feel about everybody. The feeling of shame and disgust at ones self for not being as good as a regular human being. The feeling that they are in a world of angels, and that they are nothing.

@thebirdie
This was a deep analytical interpretation, and I can totally see it as you've laid it out.
See, sometimes I get stumped, and I thought it was about someone who died and is in heaven and doesn't think he belongs there because he's autistic or has some impairment where people have shunned him his whole life. Silly me

@thebirdie
I agree with most of your statements; however, I would guess (maybe even bet $$) that Radiohead intended a more broad exposure of "the society" in which such "creeps" might be created than to tell the (somewhat more mundane) story of how a person of lower status in such a society would respond. To me, the suggestion of sadness inherent in the narrator's apparent self-loathing is less important than the consistently exaggerated (and likely sarcastically portrayed) heights of high level members of the narrator's society. There is nothing specifically making a romantic connection, so I think it's valid to suggest that the problem being stated is that the "society" involved has ostracized and alienated the narrator. Why? Apparently, the narrator believes, "I don't belong here." But is that because the narrator really is self-denigrating? Or because the society leading to his/her situation is actually the accused? Personally, I think it's the latter. The "creep" is just stuck because he/she lives in a stupid world that fails to value things properly, causing inappropriately dramatic social barriers that confound natural human responses (like love and appreciation of beauty), and may even sometimes twist them into ugly anti-social responses.

thats why its such a a good song cause a large portion of societ can relate to the what this song is about,
including me :(

i don't mean to be offend the people who enjoy this song, but this really isn't their best song. and i also don't see a reason why there's so much discussion going on about it. it's plain and simple. although i understand that lots of people can relate to it in a way.
radiohead is my favourite band, and thinking about OK Computer as an example, they have songs with better lyrics, which are more suitlable to discuss about.

@gurkha - no way do i believe this song to be their best, although i can say with some certainty that it is probably their greatest single based upon its impact and popularity...if Radiohead had not dont a 180 and made The Bends this song might have been their only hit and would have relegated them to one hit wonder status...it is an important song in their canon and i still enjoy as much as i used to when i first heard it nearly 20 years ago

@OwnPersonalDemon Are you the male or the special female?

@edenselite Does it matter?

Thank you for your very interesting interpretation.

Jen I think you are beautiful the way you think and believe, I would marry you in a heartbeat

@Jin91 beautiful interpretation

@Jin91 Love your post! Absolutely right!

I feel you, bro. Literally, the exact same thing happened to me. The meeting, the becoming friends, the dating the best friend. I was amazingly lucky in that she had had a crush on me, too, and we kinda dated for a few weeks. I want her back so badly, but I respect her enough to give her the room she needs.

If, and only if, she breaks up with your friend, go for it. ask to be more than friends. if you can manage to be a hundredth of the man you know she deserves, you'll be a hundred times better than any other man could be to her.

"To feel so passionate about someone, who looks at you like an object, just one out of a million others." How could you be passionate about anyone who looks at people like objects? Isn't it possible she either does or could look at you and see the standout you are in so many ways. When you look at a person, do you always see his/her flaws? Or do you see the entire package. We are our own worst critics. The song is excellent. The band is excellent. That's a good combination.

@gurr57 Hey, I'm just saying that you seem like a nice guy. And it sort of annoyed me. (Not you). The fact that most girls are searching for someone like you! You're passionate, kind, respectful and intelligent. From the way you talk about this girl being perfect to you and how you idolize her is absolutely touching. And from a girls point of view (invade you didn't catch that I was a girl from that sentence, I'm a girl.) I think that you deserve a hell of a lot better than what you're going through. Also, I when the through something similar. Up Intill 10th grade I thought that all boys had cooties. No exceptions. Whatsoever. That stopped when I realized that I was slowly crushing on a guy. He was really quiet but he was really smart and he was kinda awkward but I was too and one day I went up up to him and since then we've been best friends. And I'm pretty sure that this is the friend zone. Girls get it too. And let me tell you I know that it's the worst hell out there. So yeah, if you're mystery girl can't see how freaking amazingly kind you are then maybe she isn't worth it (no offense to her I'm sure she's a nice person). You're awesome man. You're Clark Kent. But you dont realize that you're also superman. (I'm so giving myself props for that BC I just came up with that) You're not super man BC you save little girls cats (as far as I know...?) or you have lazer eyes. You're superman BC you're strong. I don't have a clue what you look like, but I don't mean physically strong. I meant mentally. And your super power is your kindness, passion and sensitivity. Holy shit I just realized how long this was but whatever. I basically wanted to tell you that you're awesome sauce, amaze balls, fergalicious, cool beans, or whatever else there is. So yeh I wish you luck with that girl and I hope that this helps you realize how awesome you are. Peace.

@gurr57
I feel for you and hope you get through it with a strong sense of self like I did many years ago when I was in a comparable situation. And I hope you keep loving this song. But I don't think the poetry here is quite what you suggest. Instead, I think it's telling people to consider how the social world you live in can create seemingly enormous barriers of status that are not appropriate. Why can't you end up (despite your melancholy back then) happy and successful (to your own standards)? Why do overt things like nice skin, popularity, good hair, family connections, money, etc. lead to such considerable social gaps? What about things like honesty, work-ethic, and general acceptance of others? This song very clearly exaggerates the things that lead to admiration and high social status ("skin makes me cry", "float like a feather (in a beautiful world)") yet also suggests those exaggerations are presented sarcastically ("you're so fucking special") to show how (poorly managed) societies might belittle people into thinking are a "creep." But it's the society of alienation that is the problem; nobody should have to silently sit on the outskirts and be dismissed, if they are earnest. Why does anyone need to feel like a "creep" because "I want you to notice when I'm not around"? -- that's just an honest sentiment: everyone wants that sort of thing from their friends and/or lovers!

you are so awesomely dead on,I made an account just so that i could show some love,I'm going through what this song is about.....so yea man!

@alikhan84 Best answer on this thread. Alikhan84 I think you nailed it. Your theory makes perfect sense. "She's running off again" and the next stripper comes out.

@alikhan84 you are absolutely right! Most ppl that go to strip clubs are creeps & weirdos that think these (home wrecking pigs) are these untouchable beings. Poor guy. Dude ain’t missing a thing but a case of a raging STD