Were it not for the worldwide success of Creep, it is very possible that Radiohead might not have been given the green light to make a second record. The Oxford quintet’s debut album Pablo Honey, released in 1993, was the sort of middling success that major labels didn’t bother uncorking the champagne for, but its lead track was. Creep became a big hit around the globe, reaching number 34 in the US Billboard Hot 100 and going Top Ten in the UK charts. Their label wanted more of that. “Write and record another album,” they said. “Write and record another Creep,” they probably added.
But Radiohead had no such ambitions to repeat themselves. Instead, they embarked on a sort of music revolt that would help turn them into one of the best and most forward-thinking bands on the planet. At a point when everyone expected another Creep, Radiohead came up with the freaky, malevolent brilliance of My Iron Lung. The song, with its warped, psychedelic guitar line, falling-down-a-flight-of-stairs chorus and seething vocal, was a direct response to the fact that Creep had become a sort of tyrannical life support machine for the group, a declaration that Thom Yorke & co. were unwilling (to say the least) to keep the hamster wheel turning.
