#123, "Creep," TLC (1994)

150 Favorite Songs: #123, “Creep,” TLC (1994)

Here's a weird thing: There were three hit singles in 1993-1994 called “Creep.” Two of them—Radiohead's and Stone Temple Pilots'—used the word as a noun, to describe a guy filled with self-loathing. We're not exactly sure what the narrator in either song has done to warrant the descriptor (not belonging here? Being half the man he used to be?), but if someone self-applies it, it's probably accurate. They're both pretty good songs.

TLC's “Creep,” meanwhile, is a verb, which is way more interesting. It's also more interesting because it's loaded with details. Her man is cheating on her—but he's not a creep. She's cheating on him, too—but she's not a creep, either. It's a thing they do, not who they are. “Creep” is such a vivid depiction of a failed relationship—”the 23rd of loneliness, and we don't talk like we used to do”—but it structures itself and uses language in a way that none of my other favorite songs about the subject do. (It also has this moment where T-Boz sings “If he knew the things I do / he couldn’t handle it” and one of the other two drops a “woo!” in there that is both haunting and hilarious.)

In the end, “Creep” is a failed relationship song that isn't a break-up song. It's about staying together for reasons that aren't really clear, and trying to hurt each other while pretending that you're not, and waiting for the other person to end it—all things that are at least as common as actually breaking up with someone, but things that most songwriters don't have the courage to actually write about. It’s all ugly enough that Left Eye didn’t even want to record the song, but was outvoted by the other members; she threatened to wear black tape over her mouth in protest when they shot the video. Ultimately, she just recorded a verse on the remix about how she didn’t like the song, didn’t think it was good advice, and encouraged women in the position of the song’s narrator to leave the relationship instead.

That’s better advice, but not every song can or should be about how to live the right way. Sometimes, it’s more meaningful to hear the ugliness represented in a way that feels real. It’s more interesting by far than hearing someone sing about being a weirdo who doesn't belong, or being half the man they used to be*. Those may be worthy sentiments to include in songs, but we've just heard them so many times by now. It’s so common that, again, there were literally two songs about that, with the same name, released in the same year! The kind of “Creep” that TLC sings about, though, is rare enough that I can’t name two just like it even in the thirty years since it was released.

*Incidentally, I wanted to look up the lyrics to the Stone Temple Pilots song, so I googled "I'm half the man I used to be," because that's the only line I (or anyone else) remember, and I found that even recognizing it as a Stone Temple Pilots song named "Creep" means I'm ahead of most of the Internet, which seems to believe it's a Nirvana song called "Half The Man I Used To Be." Yikes. Sorry to this man (Kurt Cobain).