According to Thom Yorke, “Creep” tells the tale of an inebriated man who tries to get the attention of a woman to whom he is attracted by following her around. In the end, he lacks the self-confidence to face her and feels he subconsciously is her.

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 is one of the things I’m always trying: To assert a sexual persona and on the other hand trying desperately to negate it.

Jonny Greenwood said the song was in fact a happy song about “recognizing what you are”.

Notable covers include those by The Pretenders, Carrie Manolakos, Macy Gray, Lea Michele and Dean Geyer, as part of Glee, Vega Choir, Prince, The Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps, and most recently, Kimberly Nichole, who performed a very strong cover of this song on the 2015 season of The Voice.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the popularity of the song, Radiohead grew to hate “Creep” and have rarely played it live since the OK Computer tour. “My Iron Lung”, written in 1994 and later released on The Bends, is about the song.