What bands refuse to play certain songs?
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For the longest time, Radiohead would not play “Creep.” Why? Well, as you may know, “Creep” was the song that made them famous, and, until four years later (with the release of their album “OK Computer”) practically the only thing they were known for. Everyone wanted them to play it. But, the band members felt it was constricting and that they couldn’t branch out from its sound and try newer, more interesting things as they always had to please the populace and the record labels. Radiohead even wrote a song off of it on their subsequent album (The Bends) from that which “Creep” was based on (Pablo Honey) called My Iron Lung, comparing that song to one. For those who do not know, an iron lung is a device that kept polio patients alive, but that was it. People in an iron lung couldn’t move, could hardly breathe, and the only thing sticking out was the head. In other words, you could not live. Such was “Creep” to them. Yes, it gave them money and thus “kept them alive”, but it was constricting and they couldn’t move away from it.
An Iron Lung
However, as Mitchell Brown pointed out, an Iron Lung is a bit of a metaphorical stretch. But this was how the band chose to display what Creep was like to them.
Therefore, upon the release of OK Computer (which was a success), they stopped playing Creep regularly. They had moved on — Finally.
Recently, though, in 2016, Radiohead did play Creep live again, for the first time in eight years, stunning the crowd. Perhaps they realized that now, though popular, it doesn’t define them anymore and that they don’t have to care about it? Maybe Thom is getting a better appreciation for the sound? Who knows? Nonetheless, it was momentous when it happened.
Thom Yorke has stated before that Creep did not represent the bands sound, the lyrics weren’t applicable anymore, and it had become a song that they’d begun to despise so they did not play it often. Note : However, as someone mentioned before, they have done it a few times after OK Computer, mostly for very commercial concerts, such as the Reading Festival and Coachella, but never again since 2009 (until the recent example in 2016.)