Control Freak

Lyrics

Control Freak

A girl who can't shake off the smell

Of a man she met but didn't know well

She thinks she feels him in her skin

She thinks she sees his sideways grin

She sees him on the street by chance

Follows him as if entranced

Gets on a train that he gets on

A girl like this she is possessed

She sits two seats behind his own

Can hear him sigh, a little moan

She wonders what he's thinking of

As he removes his right hand glove

She notices his hand is strange

As if the bones were rearranged

She thinks of what she'll say to him

She hears it playing deep within

You're all I need to get high

The man jumps to his feet just then

Slips out the train and round a bend

She almost loses sight of him

Shuts her eyes, thinks of his skin

She catches up just as he goes

Into a bar and down below

To where cases of wine are stacked

There is no light, it's nearly black

You're all I need to get high

He turns around to face her then

His right hand seems to claw the air

She doesn't know why she came here

She doesn't know what possessed her

Sweat's running down her spine

But then he breaks into a smile

That lights up his whole face

And then he starts to laugh and laugh and laugh

And then he says "I've thought about you

Since that day we met but barely spoke"

They start to kiss

He rubs his hand inside her tight's inner band

She shivers up against him hard

She reaches inside of him far

But then she stops, she pulls away

She starts to go and he tells her "stay"

But she walks determined up the stairs

She sways a bit, she flaunts her wares

She's got him where she wants him now

She knows he'll follow hard

And how anything she says will go

Any yes she'll turn to no

He follows her outside and says

"Hey wait, don't go, stay here"

She turns around and sneers at him

And walks away for days

Songwriter: Alan Wilder/Maggie Estep
Publishing Information: ℗ 1997 Reprise Records

Quotes

Alan Wilder allegedly confirmed the title of Recoil song 'Control Freak' was chosen in jest as a response to Martin Gore's pointed comments that Wilder is a "control freak" in an interview following Wilder's 1995 departure from Depeche Mode:

Yes, but it doesn't refer to the lyrics, it's just the name of the song. I found it funny somehow. However, it doesn't have a deeper meaning [...] It's true that I am a bit of a control freak. I think that anyone who is deeply passionate about what they do will have that element about them.

— Alan Wilder

Dates where Control Freak was played

Control Freak has never been played live.