"Creep" is a song by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Stone Temple Pilots Stone Temple Pilots (also known by the initialism STP) is an American rock band from San Diego, California, that originally consisted of Scott Weiland (lead vocals), brothers Dean (guitar) and Robert DeLeo (bass, backing vocals), and Eric Kretz ...

, appearing as the seventh track off the band's debut album, ''

Core Core or cores may refer to: Science and technology * Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages * Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding * Core (optical fiber), the signal-carrying portion of an optical fiber * Core, the central ...

'' and later released as a single. The song also appears on the band's greatest hits album, ''

Thank You "''Thank you''" (often expanded to ''thank you very much'' or ''thanks a lot'', or informally abbreviated to ''thanks'' or alternately as ''many thanks''Geoffrey Leech, ''The Pragmatics of Politeness'' (2014), p. 200.) is a common expression of ...

''. A live version featuring

Aaron Lewis Aaron Lewis (born April 13, 1972) is an American musician who is best known as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and founding member of the nu metal band Staind, with whom he released seven studio albums. Since 2010, he has pursued a solo ca ...

is included on

The Family Values 2001 Tour ''The Family Values Tour 2001'' is the third live album with various artists performing on stage during ''The Family Values Tour'' in fall 2001. It is released on May 7, 2002. The album includes various artists performing at the ''Family Values T ...

release.

Composition

In a November 2014 interview with ''Songfacts'',

Scott Weiland Scott Richard Weiland (; né Kline, October 27, 1967 – December 3, 2015) was an American singer and songwriter. During a career spanning three decades, Weiland was best known as the lead singer of the rock band Stone Temple Pilots from 1 ...

said, "That's just the idea of being a young person somewhere, caught between still being a kid and becoming a young man. It's that youth apathy, that second-guessing yourself, not feeling like you fit in." On file-sharing and lyric websites such as

Limewire LimeWire was a free software, free peer-to-peer file sharing client for Microsoft Windows, Windows, MacOS, Linux and Solaris OS, Solaris. Created by Mark Gorton in 2000, it was most prominently a tool used for the download and distribution of O ...

and Kazaa, "Creep" was often miscredited as "Half the Man I Used to Be" by

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

. The version of the song that was released in the 1993 promotional single contains different vocal takes in the verses than on the album version, most notably with an alternate melody and added percussion in the second verse which is the arrangement most often performed live.

Music video

There were two videos shot for "Creep". The video that aired was directed by Graeme Joyce after a version by director

Gus Van Sant Gus Green Van Sant Jr. (born July 24, 1952) is an American film director, producer, photographer, and musician. He has earned acclaim as both an independent and mainstream filmmaker. His films typically deal with themes of marginalized subcultur ...

was shelved due to its drug and sexual references.

Lyrical content

The song's lyrics were written by lead vocalist

and bassist

Robert DeLeo Robert Emile DeLeo (born February 2, 1966) is an American musician, songwriter and producer, best known as the bassist for rock band Stone Temple Pilots. He is part of Delta Deep and he has also played in Talk Show and Army of Anyone. He is th ...

. DeLeo also wrote the song's music. DeLeo stated the following about "Creep:"

Musically speaking I was thinking about a song along the lines of " Heart of Gold" by
Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...
, which is in the key of D-minor, the saddest key of all. Scott was thinking about the lyrics, and at that time in our lives we were struggling very much. What Scott was writing about was a real-life situation. Also about me, the thing about the gun. "Creep" is a very demeaning word. It was one of those instances where we looked at ourselves, looked in the mirror.

Track listing

# "Creep" ew Radio Version- 4:31 # "Crackerman" - 3:12 # "Where the River Goes" - 8:20

German track listing

# Creep # Dead and Bloated # Piece of Pie

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Creep (song) 1990s ballads 1992 songs 1993 singles Black-and-white music videos Song recordings produced by Brendan O'Brien (record producer) Songs written by Robert DeLeo Songs written by Scott Weiland Stone Temple Pilots songs Alternative rock ballads Atlantic Records singles