Ginevra Casartelli 5CLL
Hello everybody,
In this article I'm going to talk about music. Analysing the lyrics of a song is almost the same as studying a text taken from our literature textbook. There are several deep meanings that lie beneath the simple sound of a song. I chose to write about ‘Creep’ by Radiohead, a song that was released in September 1992 and, even nowadays, is the biggest hit in the British band's discography.
When you were here before
Couldn't look you in the eye
You're just like an angel
Your skin makes me cry
You float like a feather
In a beautiful world
And I wish I was special
You're so fuckin' special
But I'm a creep, I'm a weirdo.
What the hell am I doing here?
I don't belong here.
I don't care if it hurts
I want to have control
I want a perfect body
I want a perfect soul
I want you to notice
When I'm not around
You're so fuckin' special
I wish I was special
But I'm a creep, I'm a weirdo.
What the hell am I doing here?
I don't belong here.
She's running out the door,
She's running out
She's run run run run...
Whatever makes you happy
Whatever you want
You're so fuckin' special
I wish I was special...
But I'm a creep, I'm a weirdo,
What the hell am I doing here?
I don't belong here.
I don't belong here.
This song expresses the idea of not feeling worthy and good enough to live a normal life in society. The author looks at his lover and he starts idealising her "you're just like an angel, your skin makes me cry" but he realizes that he couldn't have her because "he's a creep, he's a weirdo", he doesn't feel accepted by a superior creature like her.
In fact, Thom Yorke, the author of these melancholic and desperate lyrics, said: "I have 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 is one of the things I'm always trying: to assert a sexual persona and, on the other hand, trying desperately to negate it.”
Yorke's identification with this song didn’t last, as he then affirmed he started to hate it and sometimes he refused to perform it live. This song belonged to his youth and addresses all the people who feel the same distress. It is considered one of the rock music manifestos of the early nineties for the apathetic and disillusioned state of mind typical of those years among young people.